Nader: Another Crowd of 12,000 Protest Debates
Annie Birdsong
Portland, Oregon: 10,572
Minneapolis, Minnesota: 12,000
Seattle, Washington: 10,000
Boston, Massachusetts: 12,000
Yet the debate commission says he has no reasonable chance of winning. Do
you believe this? He's drawing crowds far far larger than the other
candiates.
Ross Perot was showing 7 percent in the polls before the debates and shot
up to 40 something percent after the debates. But during the next
presidential race he wasn't allowed to participate-I guess he doesn't toe
the line of the authoritarians.
Nader will be at the debates tomorrow at the University of Massachusetts
campus in Boston, though he won't be allowed to participate. He'll get
lots of media attention and be amidst a huge crowd demanding
democratization of the debates.
You come too!--for your country.
Ikwbfy
could have pulled in. I feel the time has come to tell ralph that Mr. Al Gore
is the man who represents the interest and needs of a green movement in
America. Mr. Gore has been the true green politician, and one of very few in a
government dominated by fools. I don't feel it is in the interest of the
country for someone like ralph nader to try to sabotage the election process
that should elevate Mr. Gore to the position he so richly deserves. Please
ralph before you make a complete fool of yourself, please give up this need for
recognition and give Mr. Gore your followers. Only he can use them to thier
full potential.
Steve Krulick
>
> These are very small numbers compared to what a candidate like Mr. Gore
> could have pulled in.
Gore has had every opportunity to hold similar events. Even his
FREE events have been running at less than 1/4 the numbers that
Nader's been pulling for his PAY events in the same venues. Even
with all his threats and clout and patronage power, people just
aren't INTERESTED in coming to see the Log perform.
> I feel the time has come to tell ralph that Mr. Al Gore
> is the man who represents the interest and needs of a green movement in
> America.
The only "green" Gore represents is the green cash of his
corporate paymasters. Gore is a political hack who feels it's
his manifest destiny to perpetuate a dynasty of political hacks.
He has no knowledge of or empathy with any Green platform for
social & economic justice, grassroots democracy, ecological
wisdom, or nonviolence. His actions and inactions as legislator
and VP have trashed all claims to any "fighting for the people
rather than the powerful."
> Mr. Gore has been the true green politician, and one of very few in a
> government dominated by fools.
Nonsense. Why have over 100 leading enviros (includes those
who've joined since the 61 founders in July) who are not in the
thrall of the Damnocrat Party come out to form
"Environmentalists Against Gore"?:
Environmental Leaders Announce The Formation of
Environmentalists Against Gore
WASHINGTON - July 21 - Sixty-one environmental leaders from 18
states announced today the formation of ENVIRONMENTALISTS
AGAINST GORE, and urged people who care about protecting
America's environment to listen to their conscience and vote for
anyone but Democratic candidate Al Gore.
"Gore is getting the endorsement of some national environmental
groups only because they are so afraid of George Bush, and so
intimidated by the Gore campaign's where-else-can-you-go
attitude," said Tim Hermach, one of the organizers of
Environmentalists Against Gore.
"Vice President Gore has a long record of making campaign
promises about protecting America's natural heritage and then
breaking his promise every time one of his political supporters
wants to do something that would damage or destroy our forests,
rivers, and streams, oceans, even our National Parks," Hermach
added.
"If George W. Bush wins the election, then at least we could
expect the national environmental community to really fight for
tougher pollution enforcement and genuine protection of our
living life-support system,"
said David Brower, another founder of Environmentalists Against
Gore.
"From Alaska to the Everglades, New Jersey to California, the
Vice President talks about being an environmentalist, but he's
sold out American citizens, workers, taxpayers and the
environment more times than we can count. He sides with
clear-cutting timber barons, big sugar, big oil and real estate
speculators over forests and watersheds, parks and wildlife. And
we lose those fights because when Al Gore sells out, national
environmental groups come to his aide, claiming the problem lies
somewhere else, with Congress or federal agencies. But we all
know the buck stops at the White House."
All the environmental leaders supporting the organization
released this statement:
"Many of our members support Ralph Nader, and others believe
that even having George W. Bush in the White House, under the
eye of an energized environmental community, will lead to better
protection for nature and wildlife than we can expect from Al
Gore. We've seen Gore turn his back on the people of Appalachia
while mountains and streams are illegally destroyed by strip
miners. We've seen Gore talk about the importance of preserving
our forest heritage while refusing to stop cutting it down.
He is increasing the logging of what's left of our publicly
owned native and old-growth national forests and monuments as we
speak. Al Gore talks about the catastrophic threat of global
warming, yet shows very little leadership to stop it. We've seen
him talk about fighting sprawl while he's promoting sleazy real
estate deals that would move industrial jobs away from urban
Miami onto farmland between two National Parks. We've heard him
lecture the world about preserving nature in the tropics when he
is encouraging the big sugar plantations to continue polluting
our own Everglades. We've read candidate Gore's press releases
about protecting our beaches from offshore drilling, and then
watched Vice President Gore say it is none of his business if
his own Administration promotes offshore drilling in Florida,
California, and Alaska. We've watched Gore pretend not to know
about it when his own White House staff and the federal agencies
turn the Endangered Species Act into a tool for extinction. And
just this week we watched Al Gore refuse to advocate breaching
of four Snake River dams rejecting the recommendations of
scientists and federal agencies. We believe that people, nature
and wildlife, in the United States and in the world, will be
better protected if we return to an honest national debate about
the role of the environment in our lives and economy, instead of
the cynical orchestrated charade Vice President Gore is engaged
in."
1) We can't get what we want by voting for what we don't want.
2) We can't win by submitting to fear of imagined Republican
actions.
3) We can no longer condone or reward the long and established
record of dishonesty, smoke & mirrors, shell games and betrayal.
4) We can't get good & honest people to run if we repeatedly
fail to support the ones that do.
5) We demand Fair & Open Debates - and honest politicians.
6) We demand that People and the Public Interest receive the
importance now given to corporate cash and political supporters.
7) We realize that false friends can often do more harm than
known adversaries.
Voting Our Principles & Hopes, Not Our Fears.
--- http://www.commondreams.org/news2000/0721-01.htm for article
and list of signers.
And I'll sign my name to that list, too. ---
> I don't feel it is in the interest of the
> country for someone like ralph nader to try to sabotage the election process
> that should elevate Mr. Gore to the position he so richly deserves.
Now you're either being a sarcastic nuisance, a cynical troll,
or a deluded boob.
> Please
> ralph before you make a complete fool of yourself, please give up this need for
> recognition and give Mr. Gore your followers.
Ralph may be one of the least foolish people in the country, and
he is already one of the most recognized, both in terms of
people KNOWING who he is, and in terms of admiration and honor:
One of "The 50 People Who Most Influenced Business This Century"
(Los Angeles Times, 1999), one of "The 100 Most Important
Americans of the Century" (Life Magazine, 1990), "the fourth
most influential person in the United States" (US News & World
Report, 1974), "America's most important private citizen of the
20th century" (Phil Donahue, 2000).
Nader can't "give" his "followers" to Gore, any more than Gore
"owns" votes that Nader is supposedly "siphoning" away from him.
EVEN if Ralph asked us NOT to vote for him, we would probably
vote for McReynolds, or Hagelin, or someone else before we'd
vote for forked-tongued Gore.
> Only he can use them to thier
> full potential.
I don't relish being "used" by Prince Albert, Pretender to the
Throne, or any other political mercenary. Besides, in NY, where
I live, Gore is leading Bush by at least 20-25%; he doesn't NEED
my vote in NY. Therefore, I vote for Nader with full confidence
and certainty that my vote will count, send several important
messages, and build a viable third-party to counter the
status-quo Corporate Republicrat Uniparty Duopoly that has taken
our votes for granted.
--------------------------
"Nothing can stop
the power of
an informed citizenry
when it is
empowered, organized, and
motivated." (Ralph Nader)
--------------------------
Cameron L. Spitzer
>
>The only "green" Gore represents is the green cash of his
>corporate paymasters. Gore is a political hack who feels it's
>his manifest destiny to perpetuate a dynasty of political hacks.
>He has no knowledge of or empathy with any Green platform for
>social & economic justice, grassroots democracy, ecological
>wisdom, or nonviolence. His actions and inactions as legislator
>and VP have trashed all claims to any "fighting for the people
>rather than the powerful."
Gore may not have read the Green platforms, but somebody in the
White House does. They're in my Web server log quite a lot.
Gore may not have written his 1992 campaign book, _Earth in the
Balance_, but he has probably read it. There are paragraphs in it
that come pretty close to Green politics on particular issues
(I liked the bit about how the limitations of television's format
have emphasized the president's power to the point of skewing
the Constitutional balance, Marshall McLuhan would have been proud),
even though the overall scheme is neoliberal. But Gore has never
*exercised power* in pursuit of the parts of the Green agenda
that he talked about in the book, and that's what counts.
How a public figure has exercised whatever power she or he has is
the best predictor of that public figure's future performance.
Campaign books are a poor predictor.
Cameron
Steve Krulick
> >corporate paymasters. Gore is a political hack who feels it's
> >his manifest destiny to perpetuate a dynasty of political hacks.
> >He has no knowledge of or empathy with any Green platform for
> >social & economic justice, grassroots democracy, ecological
> >wisdom, or nonviolence. His actions and inactions as legislator
> >and VP have trashed all claims to any "fighting for the people
> >rather than the powerful."
>
> White House does. They're in my Web server log quite a lot.
Wow. Did you show a spike just before Al gave his faux
"populist" convention speech?
> Gore may not have written his 1992 campaign book, _Earth in the
> Balance_, but he has probably read it.
Some of us still wonder.