Bashing Greens Won't Help.
by Winona LaDuke
Published by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star
Tribune on Nov 22, 2003.
'Tis the season to bash Greens. David Sarasohn's
Nov. 14 commentary about Nader/LaDuke's impact on the 2000
presidential election falls far short on facts, and relies on lies,
rhetoric and a really mean undercurrent to make a few points.
Sarasohn's suggestion that Ralph Nader is "the worst thing to
happen to civil liberties and poor people in quite a while," is
insane, and fails not only to put the blame where it should be but
also to talk about where we need to go.
Start with that George W. Bush didn't win the election. That would
be an important fact, along with Al Gore getting more votes than any
presidential candidate in history. To point to the 97,000 votes cast
for Ralph and me in Florida as the straw that broke the camel's back
misses a few other facts. Some 250,000 voters didn't even get to
vote because Gov. Jeb Bush was able to deny their basic
constitutional rights. Most of those voters, it seems, were
Democrats and blacks.
Then there may have been (lest I be beat for saying it) a few errors
on Al Gore's part. Later media recounts of the Florida election,
indeed, suggest that a full recount would have found Al Gore was the
victor, but Gore pushed only for a partial recount. Then there was
"drift" in the Democrats; put another way, later surveys
indicated that up to 300,000 Florida Democrats cast votes for Bush
in the election.
Enough of chads, butterfly ballots and the whole lot. Let's say that
we should have a democracy, and that it should work. After all,
people died for the right to vote, and everyone's vote should count.
I also happen to think that people should be able to vote their
conscience, and vote for what they believe in. I'd like to work on
making a democracy that lives up to that potential, which means that
even third parties should be able to participate (remember that the
Greens had to litigate to get on the ballot in nine states, which is
somewhat of a challenge to democracy in itself).
I believe in making America better, and refuse to be called
unpatriotic, or have it suggested that "Nader not only elects
Republicans, he's starting to sound like them." (I would assume
that some of this flak is supposed to carry over to me.) While Ralph
may run, I don't plan on it, at least this election.
But here's a bit of advice for those who don't support Nader or
other Greens. If you don't like the Green candidates, don't vote for
them. And if you want to win an election, go out and get some folks
to vote for you -- like that 50 percent of the American voters who
represent the largest party in America, the nonvoters. On the way,
you might build a party and a platform with some integrity, not just
insults.
Winona LaDuke is a member of the Anishinaabe Tribe and was the
Green Party Vice Presidential candidate in 2000.
From http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4224354.html
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