^{Nader Voters for Bush!!!}

It’s tempting to be drawn into the current maneuverings between the Democratic and Republican parties. Especially when the Republicans are so gallingly evil and dishonest.(Did anyone on their side tell Karl “Bush’s Brain” Rove that appearing afraid votes might be counted could be a voter-unfriendly position?) But when I think beyond the current sniping, I’m not sure I want Republicans to lose Florida, and I say that as a liberal, left wing, patsy Nader voter.

Nader voters don’t have a lot to be proud of considering the Green Party didn’t make its five percent. Many of us (at least on line and on TV) are spending our time defending Nader from the blame being shoved on him. Nader representatives are struggling to claim that none of Florida’s Green voters would have voted for Gore had Nader not been in the race. Speaking only for myself, if Nader had not been in the race I would have voted for Gore. I don't have a hard time believing that four or five hundred of Florida Nader voters would have done the same.

Although I would prefer to talk about the Democratic Party's abandonment of the left and Gore's own inept campaigning, Nader is clearly a contributing factor to Gore’s loss. Nader’s drain on the left was not balanced by a Buchanan drain. The whole point of a protest or message vote is to stick it to your closest ideological cousin for not keeping the faith. Nobody says Nader is sending a message to the Republican Party (or Buchanan to the Democratic Party.) The power of a protest vote is in direct correlation to its ability to threaten the election.

This may sound perverse, but I think Greens should be proud that we might have cost Gore the election. Green votes do matter and Gore didn't earn them so he loses. Saying the Nader votes didn't matter diminishes Nader into a harmless sideshow who got (let's face it) a tiny percentage of the votes. Nobody fights over the Natural Law Party or the Transcendental Meditation Party because they exist in their own universe. If you don’t levitate, you don’t get their vote. I’d rather Democrats looked at Green Party voters as people who have voted in a populist, environmental, liberal tradition and could be won back if the Democrats worked for it and honored a bit of that tradition themselves.

Two things can happen as far as the Green Party. If the Democratic Party continues its rightward lurch, the Green Party will grow and be distinct. If the Democratic Party works for its left wing, the Green Party will wither into a non-issue. But they can not take these votes for granted any more and we should be proud of that.

Which is not to say we should be proud of a Bush presidency, but let me put a little positive spin on that. With Congress so evenly divided it will take intelligence and experience to get anything done. Bush has neither. And no matter who wins, this will be regarded as a stolen election. The next president will be constantly heckled as a thief and a fraud, especially if he lost the popular vote. And since the president’s party always loses seats in the mid-term election, in 2002 we’ll have a Democratic Congress and in 2004 we’ll most likely have an idiot president with no record to run against. In chess, sacrificing a piece to attack two and gaining position is not a bad move. “Go Bush Go!!! (Sucker!!!)”