As I begin to see more and more Nader ’08 stickers popping up on vehicles around Portland, I begin to ask a few questions in my head. ‘Who are these people?’, and then invariably, ‘what are they thinking?!’.
I understand the desire to break up the two-party structure in this country, and I am all for it. I don’t believe we have a true Democracy if all we have is two choices every four years. Especially when those two choices become increasingly corrupt and ineffective. After the 2004 election, I found myself ready to withdraw from politics altogether. At the very least, I pledged to myself that I wouldn’t vote Democrat again. In my mind, a vote for a ‘lesser of two evils’ wasn’t a vote at all.
However, I am not ready to take the leap of faith in offering up a symbolic vote in such a crucial election. The 2008 election is a lot closer than it probably should be. If logic played any role in Presidential elections, Obama would be destroying McCain in the polls. In reality though, we have a race that could be as close as what we saw in 2000, the year of Nader’s most historic run for the presidency. Personally, I am not comfortable voting for anyone other than Obama. Sure I’d like him to be a bit more progressive on some of the issues, but I’m onboard with most of what he stands behind. In my mind, there’s no way America can survive another 4 or 8 years of failed policies, and that is what McCain is offering.
Now granted, here in Maine the election results will most likely be far from close. This state is securely in Obama’s bracket. A vote for Nader or Bob Barr or any other candidate with no chance of winning becomes a safe symbolic gesture. However, if you’re going to offer up a symbolic vote, why not vote for someone besides Ralph Nader. To be honest I’ve never seen the appeal of Nader. Granted he is a Washington outsider, and fairly liberal on most issues, but is he worthy of the Presidency? To me, Nader would fit into a cabinet position much better than being the chief executive.
If Americans want to make an honest push to break up the gridlock of the two-party system then they need to realize that it’s not going to come from the top down. Independents and third-party candidates need to begin to break in through local and state government positions. As that movement builds, eventually we will see a Presidential election where a candidate without a (D) or (R) next to their name has a valid chance of winning.
Unfortunately that is not this year. I’d hope any American progressive who is thinking of casting their ballot this year for Nader, or even Bob Barr, would reassess the stakes of this election. Nader’s own campaign made the statement in 2000 that ‘a vote for Gore is a vote for Bush’. I’d wonder if any of his supporters still feel that same way after witnessing the last eight years?