Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: It was about the messanger(s) [View all]DanTex
(20,709 posts)Yeah, Nader shares blame for 2000. Then again, so does Bill Clinton, not just for the Lewinsky thing, but also for spearheading the shift rightward along with the DLC/"New Democrat" thing. If Bill Clinton doesn't push his pro-corporate centrist agenda, then Nader wouldn't have gotten traction to begin with.
But that's indirect blame. When it comes to the Iraq War, there's direct blame shared by every single person in congress who voted for it. And there's also direct blame for all the pundits and think tanks that pushed the war.
It's crazy to say that "everything the left complains about they caused." They didn't cause Bill Clinton to deregulate banks, or welfare reform, or the crime bill, or the trade agreements, or everything else.
It's also totally baseless to blame the left when centrists lose elections. It's not the left's fault that both Kerry and HRC voted for the Iraq War, and that that vote contributed to their losses. If they had listened to the left in the first place about the Iraq War (and other things), they would have won.
I agree that the Green Party is counterproductive, all they do is help the GOP win. But it's just as true that centrist DLC/Third Way style Dems have made a lot of catastrophically bad calls over the course of the last 30 or so years, and they can't just blame the left for their own bad actions.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided