The Ralph Nader Effect
Just yesterday, I decided to donate twenty of my hard earned dollars to the Tea Party. This may seem like a ridiculous act to most liberals and progressives out there, but there is a good reason for this. For one thing, when the Tea Party people grab their guns and try to start a revolution by eradicating all Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives, I’m hoping that they will remember my donation and spare me. The second reason that I have decided to support the Tea Party, is what I like to call the Ralph Nader effect.
For those of you who don’t remember Ralph Nader, he is famous for arguably costing Al Gore a victory in Florida over George W. Bush in the 2000 election. Al Gore only lost Florida by 537 votes, this loss essentially cost Al Gore the election. The argument is that most of the people who wound up voting for Mr. Nader, would have voted for Mr. Gore, had Mr. Nader not been part of the election. This is exactly the scenario that I think the Tea Party is presenting for the Republican Party.
I still believe that the majority of the country is moderate, somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum. This is exactly why candidates like Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul never win elections. The presence of the Tea Party is dragging the Republican Party more and more to the right wing crazy fringe. The thing is, in order for a candidate in either party to win in a general election, they have to win the primary first. Because of the primaries, Republican candidates have to appeal to the extreme wing of the party, in order to win the primary, and in turn be able to compete in a general election.
Take the 2010 Florida race for Senate. The two front running candidates for the Republican Party are Charlie Crist and Marco Rubeo. Mr. Crist is considered by most Republicans to be a moderate, while Mr. Rubeo is a Tea Party nut job. Because of the high concentration of Tea Party crazy people in Florida, Mr. Rubeo is the favorite to win the Republican primary. The problem for the Republican Party in Florida is, Mr. Rubeo, according to the polls, is going to have a very difficult time winning in a general election against the Democratic candidate in Florida, because he is so far to the right, and that does not appeal to moderate Republicans and Independents. In my opinion, Mr. Rubeo is going to wind up costing the Republicans their Senate seat because he is too polarizing to win in the general election.
This phenomenon appears to be happening all over the country. Look at the 2009 election in New York’s 23rd Congressional district. The Republican primary, pitted the moderate Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, against the hard-right Tea Party Candidate, Doug Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman wound up winning the primary election, but losing the general election to the Democratic candidate Bill Owens. Keep in mind that Republicans had not lost in New York’s 23rd Congressional district since the Civil War. A seat that was a historical lock for the Republican Party, in a district that had been under Republican rule since 1873, was lost to a Democrat, all because of a crazy right wing Tea Party nut job.
Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives, with your help and donations, we can help the Tea Party run primary candidates in every Republican primary across the nation in 2010. The larger the Tea Party becomes, the more extreme they get, the more they are going to single handedly kill the Republican chances of ever getting another majority in either house of Congress. So donate to your local Tea Party chapter today, the Democrats will thank you tomorrow.
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March 28th, 2010 - 00:57
Go ahead and contribute to the Tea Party! The Spiritual Leader of the Tea Party says they will merge with the GOP.
My wife, who is a Tea Party organizer, says her people have a single objective this fall: Get rid of every Democrat in Congress.
March 28th, 2010 - 01:00
Well then…if the “spiritual leader of the Tea Party” says it’s so, then I guess it must. Personally, I don’t care what some peddler of mythology thinks, he has already proven himself wrong.
March 28th, 2010 - 01:01
LMAO…
Ken, You wife & all the other tea-baggers have one thing in common … they are all disgruntled Republicans & have been voting GOP for years & will continue voting GOP in the future. They all voted against Obama in the 08 elections.
Hope you folks succeed in “taking your country back”. … whatever that means… LMAO.
Can ask your wife a few questions for me??
1. Who took her country from her???
2. When did they take it???
A Proud Progressive!!!
March 28th, 2010 - 01:02
And where have they put it?
“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.”
March 28th, 2010 - 01:03
My wife, she says that electing Scott Brown in the most liberal blue state in the country was a challenge, but the margin of victory was large. So she is confident that Democrats can be defeated in every district and state in the country.
March 28th, 2010 - 01:05
Pleas explain to us why we should give a crap what your wife thinks. Oh, that’s right, she is a Tea Party organizer. So again, why should we remotely care what she thinks?
March 28th, 2010 - 01:07
Who is Scott Brown again????? … LMAO
A Proud Progressive!!!
March 28th, 2010 - 01:08
“Who is Scott Brown again?????”
He is just one more person who made you look like a complete imbecile with your idiotic predictions.
Since you clearly know nothing about politics, perhaps you might give consideration to shutting your pie hole?
March 28th, 2010 - 01:08
Oh, He is the guy who was elected to stop HC. How did that go again???
I’m genuinely happy I lost this prediction, him winning made the HC bill stronger.
p.s .. Still waiting on your wife’s answers to my questions.
A Proud Progressive!!!
March 28th, 2010 - 01:09
Hey Ken,
I spoke to my wife, and she thinks that your wife doesn’t know anything.
March 28th, 2010 - 23:33
Well written
(Taken from the POV of someone who thinks Gore would have been President if the Supremes had sent it back to Florida as they SHOULD have – for the sake of this post, let us agree that Bush “won. Okay?)
I know it’s the popular mythos and I understand why people want to think it so, but Ralph Nader didn’t lose the Florida election.
Al Gore did.
It was up to his campaign to win the votes and they didn’t do a good enough job of convincing people, or they wouldn’t have voted for Nader in the first place.
I’m not a Nader Nut, never have voted for him, but I have always though he got too much blame for The Bush Years. Gore ran an “I’m entitled” campaign, the way sitting VP’s almost always do. And almost always lose.
I can see that you have very carefully framed your wording in order to not lay the blame at Nader’s doorstep (well done, suh!) but I fear most readers don’t pay as close attention to detail as I would wish they would and may come away from reading your post with the impression that you are adding to the pile on. Especially if it suits their agenda.
I go a step further than you when you say you think most of America is moderate. I would say that most Americans are oblivious to their surroundings.
(Numbers approx) America has 305 million people, 55 million being 17 or under leaves 250 million eligible to vote. 131 Million votes were cast in ’08 – the most ever, but that still left 120 million people who didn’t vote. If you can’t get Americans off their fat asses to vote in as historic election as the ’08 one was, they just don’t fucking care. And they sure as hell aren’t going to be motivated by an off-year election.
The point I hope I’m making is that the Tea Partiers don’t need our support. They will dominate the Republican primaries, but very few will stand up to scrutiny in a general election. The question that is left hanging is who will Democrats put up to run against them?
Thanks for a thought provoker.
March 28th, 2010 - 23:34
I agree with you 100% that Gore takes the blame for losing in FL. I just look at it like this, Gore lost by 537 votes (technically), and Nader received somewhere around 97,000 votes. I just can’t help but think that most of the Nader voters would have voted for Gore (or legitimately did & got screwed with the whole butterfly ballot thing) rather than Bush, putting Gore over the edge.
Still, Gore has no excuse. He should have ran a better campaign, he also should have fought harder when the whole recount/Supreme Court thing was going on.
Thanks again for the kind words. I am always open to constructive criticism .