Looking back at Nader and Stein

In 2000, starry-eyed Nader supporters rejected ardent environmentalist Al Gore and helped elect George W Bush, the worst (or second worst) president in American history. The Nader supporters thought Gore was the “lesser-of-two-evils.” Similarly, in 2016 starry-eyed Stein supporters refused to vote for centrist Democrat Hillary Clinton. Yes, she was a neocon. But Hillary was excellent on some issues (e.g., women’s rights) and decent on most others. Voting for Nader and Stein accomplished nothing useful at all. Refusing to vote for the left-of-center liberal (Gore) or centrist (Hillary) Dem didn’t “send a message” to the Democrats, in the swing states anyway, other than “We Nader and Stein supporters are fools. Ignore us.” Now we have Trump and a GOP Congress and will have to deal with a far right Supreme Court for a generation.

Of course there are dozens of reasons why Hillary lost — e.g., she had the hubris to forgo campaigning in the swing states.

Added on Nov 8: Ruth Nader Ginsburg (85) fell and broke her ribs. It looks like Trump will get to appoint a THIRD Supreme Court Justice. With the GOP gaining one or more seats in the Senate, it will be impossible to stop him.

You can thank the radical Hillary-bashers, Gore-bashers, and Dem-bashers who refused to vote for centrist Dems — e.g., for ardent environmentalist Al Gore in 2000. It wasn’t just their votes that made a difference. It was also their relentless propaganda (“lesser-of-two-evils”, “no better than the Republicans”, etc).