Lol! Naderites having a tough time lately

[berni_mccoy]

Seen several attempts to promote Nader lately. Thank you mods for reminding them that this is Democratic Underground. I do like the new policy very much.

[quiet.american]

1. Thought it was just me that noticed that.

My main problem with Nader (besides 2000, of course), is that his vision seems to consist solely of tearing down Democratic candidates. After that, what's he got. He comes across as humorless, bitter and angry. That's not something I'd want to "convert" to.

[Cha]

2. Good! I don't go

around that nader crap..it's too useless.

[azmouse]

3. For the life of me, I do not understand what they think is so great about Nader.

Are they proud that Nader kept Gore from his rightfully won Presidency?
What kind of sick f**ks are they?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. People don't understand that you can say anything if it doesn't matter what you say.

Nader's free to reflect whatever asinine feelings they have. They think he's great for it and that he can make change really happen. Unfortunately, the only reason why Nader says those things is because he has zero chance of ever being elected. He never has to lead, and thus, he never has to make sense - just whip enough people into a frenzy to keep himself marginally relevant. See also: Kucinich, Dennis and Maher, Bill.

[NJmaverick]

5. Naderites like to let the Dems do all the work and heavy lifting

and after the work is done they turn around and thing they should be the ones calling the shots.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Not to mention demand 100% purity/fealty

even when it's not always practical/realistic. It always seems that they expect that every Democrat needs to be another FDR, LBJ, or a liberal "version" of Bush reality be damned.

[Lindsey]

7. I haven't been able to look at Nader since 2000....

I just think of what could have been and what we got-Nader and Sandra Day...Man, the Karma....

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. There were a lot of crazy things that happened in 2000

However, Nader sure didn't help the situation at all by running around INSISTING that there was "no difference" between Bush and Gore. I heard that there was initially a plan (proposed by the late and great Molly Ivins I believe) that Nader should run only in states Bush was expected to win solidly to help "send a message" to Gore but not run in more competitive states. I heard, though, that Nader ultimately eschewed this idea, however, and well, we sure learned about the kind of "differences" between Bush and what we would've likely gotten with Gore. There is just no way whatsoever that anybody, now (or even then) people could say with a straight face that a Gore Presidency would have been anything like the eight years of the Bush (P)residency. :banghead:

[quiet.american]

10. You're so right - because if DU were around back in the day, they'd hate FDR & LBJ's guts.

How would this go over on DU, I wonder:

FDR: Japanese Internment Camps

On February 19, 1942, soon after the beginning of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The evacuation order commenced the round-up of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage to one of 10 internment camps—officially called "relocation centers"—in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas.

FDR: Social Security:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)

Most women and minorities were excluded from the benefits of unemployment insurance and old age pensions. Employment definitions reflected typical white male categories and patterns.<11> Job categories that were not covered by the act included workers in agricultural labor, domestic service, government employees, and many teachers, nurses, hospital employees, librarians, and social workers.<12> The act also denied coverage to individuals who worked intermittently.<13> These jobs were dominated by women and minorities. For example, women made up 90% of domestic labor in 1940 and two-thirds of all employed black women were in domestic service.<14> Exclusions exempted nearly half the working population.<13> Nearly two-thirds of all African Americans in the labor force, 70 to 80% in some areas in the South, and just over half of all women employed were not covered by Social Security.

LBJ: One word: Vietnam

It's so convenient to gloss over these inconvenient truths for the sake of tearing down Obama with the argument he should be more like FDR and LBJ. If Obama truly were more like them, it would not look anything like the romanticized version many here have of what that would be.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. Everybody has their share of "warts" so to speak

There has never been a totally 100% "pure" progressive/liberal (Democratic) President but we've had some damn fine ones within the past century FDR being the standout- far too few Democrats have managed to make it to the WH in recent years, however (although Gore was very clearly robbed in 2000). I sleep better no matter what whenever the Democrats are in charge, period.

[quiet.american]

14. Absolutely agree, and I do, too.

But to hear some tell it around here, Obama must be 100% pure in all things. Or else he's a corporatist sellout who is an enemy of the people. (Actual words I've read more than once here in regard to him.)

[RFKHumphreyObama]

17. And a lot of FDR's success in getting key New Deal legislation

Came about due to FDR effectively agreeing to turn a blind eye to segregation and anti-lynching efforts in the South in order to win over conservative Southern Democrats. Funny how those who keep unfavorably comparing Obama to FDR don't mention that.

[quiet.american]

11. Further, Nader's nephew laid it out that they exist to: 'punish the Democrats'

Fascinating reading, and certainly goes a long way in explaining why a certain faction on DU rages against anything Obama, and Democrats in general.

Ralph Nader, Suicide Bomber
excerpt:

The next day I was invited to a fundraising party in Greenwich Village. There I approached Michael Moore and described how the campaign could use the Web to provide the latest data on battleground states like Florida, where Nader supporters should hold their noses and vote for Gore. When Moore realized what I was suggesting, he puffed up like one of those fish that expand when threatened, leaned into me, poked his finger into my face, and yelled: "You can't say that! You can't say that! You can't say that!"

Later I was introduced to Nader's closest adviser, his handsome, piercingly intelligent 30-year-old nephew, Tarek Milleron. Although Milleron argued that environmentalists and other activists would find fundraising easier under Bush, he acknowledged that a Bush presidency would be worse for poor and working-class people, for blacks, for most Americans. As Moore had, he claimed that Nader's campaign would encourage Web-based vote-swapping between progressives in safe and contested states. But when I suggested that Nader could gain substantial influence in a Democratic administration by focusing his campaign on the 40 safe states and encouraging his supporters elsewhere to vote Gore, Milleron leaned coolly toward me with extra steel in his voice and body. He did not disagree. He simply said, "We're not going to do that."

"Why not?" I said.

With just a flicker of smile, he answered, "Because we want to punish the Democrats, we want to hurt them, wound them."

There was a long silence and the conversation was over.

[Number23]

16. Wow! He sounds like a psychopath

Translation: "I know that what we're doing will hurt the most vulnerable members of society, but we're going to do it anyway because we're just sooooo PISSED."

[seeinfweggos]

19. wow - have you ever posted this in gd? nt

[CBR]

9. There is a nasty article about Obama and Single Payer floating

around... it is unbelievable

[quiet.american]

12. It is. The author of it took Obama's words and interpreted them wildly.

I know a certain segment exists on DU to try to win converts to whatever it is they're pushing, but every time I see crap like that gleefully posted, I dig in my heels further as a proud Democrat.

[CBR]

15. Me too q.a. nt

[Cha]

18. And, as a proud proponent of

the facts not fiction.