NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES?

A post to one progressive list contained these words:
"Vote Greens, Vote Commies, Vote Socialists, Vote Peace and Freedom; Vote anything but Democrat or Republican or Libertarian if you really want to start the country down a new road. America is sick to the core. We need new directions. Not another Republican/Democrat. They are one and the same."

I responded:


"...for me the biggest and only priority is defeating Bush.
I don't see how advocacy of supporting third parties now
will help do that.

The practical reality is that a third party presidential candidate
will only siphon votes away from the
democrats, as Nader did in 2000, and as a result we got Bush
and his evil cabal. While a viable progressive third party is
critical to the future of democracy as you and I define it, another
Bush term will do more to destroy that democracy than the lack
of that viable third party. Look at the damage so far; and with no
election to worry about, and empowered by another victory,
these evildoers will make our lives hell. You think the country is
sick now? Give them another four years. Their goal is to bring
back the "constitution in exile"--the way this country was
before the New Deal, maybe even before Teddy Roosevelt.
They want to bankrupt the govt so it cannot fund any social
programs--that's what the tax cut is all about.

The dems aren't heroes, and they won't take
us in new directions, but they'll not put another
Scalia or Thomas on the Supreme Court, or fill the federal
courts with right wing extremist scum.

They won't kill social programs,
and they won't kill the separation of church and state.
They won't pass Patriot Act 2--they wouldn't have passed #1
or Total Information Awareness,
or glibly ignore the 4th amendment and other civil protections.
They won't call you and I traitors and try to silence us because
we visibly protest their plans and policies. They won't try to
emasculate the Bill of Rights (except for 'ol #2). They won't
pass or propose a constitutional amendment banning
same-sex marriage. The won't overturn Roe vs.. Wade.
They won't allocate 50% of their promised AIDS $ for
Africa to abstinence-only programs, or withhold money from
int'l health orgs if they even mention abortion. They won't
effectively kill school health programs that advocate condom
use for all, especially LGBT teens, or organize local school
boards and bigots to squelch straight-gay alliances in high schools
They won't remove mention of condoms as a means of safe sex from the CDC
web site. They won't preemptively attack other nations, alienate most of
the world, cut the balls off the UN (another long term republican goal).
They won't kill 15,000 people for regional hegemony and control over
oil and lie in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary (well,
not as blatantly, anyway, and maybe not at all).
They certainly won't spit on international anti-nuke and environmental treaties, or propose
mini-nukes for the US as a necessary weapon. They won't kill higher CAFE standards
for automobiles, or gut the EPA and most environmental regulations like the
Clean Air act. They won't dismantle Head Start or unfund Americorp, and lots
of other proven effective programs. They won't try to gut consumer protection
laws.

They won't ignore and belittle those who disagree with them,
whether that's us or the rest of the world. Not always, anyway.

They won't behave with the most outrageous hubris I have ever seen in
a government.

The list, as you know, is very long, and grows almost weekly.
Everything--I mean everything--you and I take for granted
is at risk.

Of course, the dems won't fix a corrupt military/corporate-controlled government either,
That, they have in common with the republicans. But neither will a third party nominee
or even victor.

So to say there is no difference between the parties, especially
when it comes to things that affect our lives daily and directly
and for a long long time, is simply wrong, and these days,
dangerous.

I resented it when Nader tried that tactic in 2000. He was only talking about corporate
control, not most of the other issues I mentioned. His ego and arrogance
helped put Bush in power. Until that election, I had a lot of respect
for Nader. But his behavior during that campaign was execrable.
He campaigned in swing states, knowing full well that the votes
he siphoned from the dems would give the state to Bush. That
was more important to him than really helping establish that
viable third party.

Nader's personal antipathy towards the dems, who had slighted him more than once
years ago by not giving him positions of power (not a proud moment
for the dems), resulted in a grudge match. In post election interviews
he still insisted on his obfuscatory sloganeering, showed no remorse
or even self reflection on how he contributed to Bush's victory, and
still insisted there was no diff between the parties. In fact,he seemed
almost glad that the dems lost. That'll show them! His tunnelvision
and his megalomania disqualify him for any serious consideration.
If the Greens nominate him again, it is to their shame. If he finds
a way to run again, he will have to answer for his behavior to
the thousands, maybe millions who are and will suffer for his folly.

(Oh sure, Gore played the wrong cards almost all the way, even in
the Florida recount strategy, and lost what should have been an
easy victory. Without Nader, even his idiot tactics may not have
cost him the election, and I wouldn't have to write emails like this.)

It's just plain vital that Bush is defeated--more vital than anything
I can think of on the planet today. This is the most critical
election in the history of this country--that's no hyperbole.
It's too dangerous to support a third party presidential candidate
now.

Instead, support local third party candidates. A friend wrote this to me,
and I can't say it any better:

'It seems to me that the building of a viable third-party alternative in
this country must begin at the local level, beginning with local
representatives, working slowly up to state legislative representatives,
and then to governors and Congressional leaders. What the Green Party
achieves in this manner will be slow and incremental, but infinitely more
meaningful than another empty campaign for the highest office in the land.
I think progressives need to work on both long- and short-term timescales,
but the greatest possible mistake is confusing the two.'

Right now the priority is to stop Bush. Then we can work on
the failures--and they are many, too many--of the democrats.
For now, we need them, and desperately. We all have to hold
our noses and once again vote for what could be the lesser of
two evils. We simply have no other choice if we want to save
this unfulfilled democracy, with all its flaws, and not allow to be overturned
60 years of the greatest social progress any modern nation has
ever achieved."