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Nader off Florida Ballot
Rory writes "This could be it for Ralph Nader. A Florida judge has issued a preliminary injunction, ruling the Reform Party is no longer a party, thereby knocking its candidate, Ralph Nader, off the Florida ballot. The devil is in the details, and Florida has too many electoral votes for this not to have serious impact on the national election, if this preliminary ruling holds up on appeal."
Dupetown, USA, but it still warrants a response.
I think it is a sad day in politics if you have to be affiliated with a party in order to run for office, especially President. The constitution protected our right to hold public office before these judges "modified" their interpretations of it for "our own good".
I think the ballot should have as many people as want to run, perhaps with a petition saying x number of people will vote for me, like 5,000 or so.
This is already how many states do it, but this seems a sad attempt by Jeb's good ol' boys to block a change in the outcome of the 2004 election.
Chris
It's interesting for me to consider:
Insofar as those voting for Nader were more likely to be from the "Gore" camp than the "Bush" camp in the last election, and probably are more likely to be from the "Kerry" camp than the "Bush" camp in this election, isn't/wasn't it in the non-Gore / non-Kerry interest respectively to give Nader as many votes as can possibly be taken from the entire left-of-center field?
For example, I would think giving five thousand dollars to Nader's campaign in Florida would empower the Republican interest more than giving five thousand more dollars to Bush's. (Diminishing returns - Bush already is reaching almost all the republicans, but Nader's campaign is small, and the very very lefts might be swayable).
As I understand it, the margin between Bush and Gore last year was so close in Florida that if Nader had "taken" even slightly fewer votes from Gore (insofar as Nader's votes probably would NOT have gone to Bush instead), Bush could not have prevailed. Hence the vote-swapping among Naderites who were aware of how close swing states would be, but nevertheless wanted their candidate represented. (Vote swapping consisted, as I understand it, of, say, a Massachusetts Gore-ite gentlemanly agreeing with a Florida Nader-ite to vote Nader / Gore respectively.)
Objectively, do you think that Nader gets any support from sources whose soul interest in his campaign is to "take" votes away from the more moderate (but non-zero-chance-of-winning) side?
This post does NOT advocate any political viewpoint.
Last week was a preliminary injunction, this is the hearing. Nader is off and the Florida supreme court has issued an injunction preventing any more ballots being sent out without their permission.
The Bushies did try to do an end run by ignoring the first injunction and sending out as many ballots as they could, but only a few were actually mailed and those are likely to end up being cancelled. The net effect is likely to be damage to Bush since the four counties that sent out the invalid postal ballots are ones where the GOP controls the returning officer - i.e. republican areas.
This whole Nader issue is a GOP shell game. Nader does not have the support of 100,000 floridians that it takes to get on the ballot through petition. He is unlikely to poll that number nationwide. In fact he is unlikely to even qualify for the ballot in enough states to have a mathematical chance of winning.
The 'reform' party does not have a significant national membership, Nader has had four years to form a 'leftwing cretins who want to hand the election to Bush' party and has not done so.
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I would, but he till he gets rid of his idea that the borders of the United States should no be protected at all, that immigration should be unlimited and that goverment has no business protecting workers I will be unable to vote for him.
He appears to want most people in the USA to be reduced to near slaves so he and the others in power will have a cheap source of labor.
I'm tired of this two-party system. I want more choices.
We have more choices, the problem is the majority of people are democrats and republicans who are convinced that their parties mediocrity and corporate ownership is the best way to go. They are so convinced, that they call everyone who is sick of the lies, the bullshit, the hypocrisy, the games, the corruption, etc... stupid. They call US stupid, because we won't say that their party's shit smells like roses.
Vote 3rd party anyway and don't listen to any democrat or republican. They'll be the last people to realize how jacked up everything is because of their parties.
Think for yourself, destroy your television.
From his issue paper on immigration:
Doesn't sound like Michael Badnarik advocates that, "the borders of the United States should no[sic] be protected at all," to me. But maybe my reading skills are fading.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
...let Badnarik debate...