Last night, I watched the documentary, “Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man.” It was interesting, about various parts of his life, but a good portion was devoted to his 2000 and 2004 campaigns for presidency. There were interviews covering various perspectives on his “spoiler” reputation and this reminded me of all the hullabaloo around that time.
Some individuals interviewed spoke vehemently about Nader’s “irresponsibility” and I recall many Democratic leaning folks (including Dan Savage) saying similar dismissive things around that time. This line of argument strikes me as illogical. No one candidate or party ought to feel “entitled” to any one’s votes – no one can “steal” the election by simply campaigning and inspiring people to vote for them.
And yet, we have an entrenched two-party system, where the presidential debates are controlled by corporations (who are significant donors to both Democrats and Republicans) and third parties are shut out, both literally (disallowed from debates and most advertising) and figuratively by a quite successful propaganda campaign that there are only two parties which have a chance of success. And yet only about 50% of eligible people actually bother to vote. I wonder why that is.
Party Blinders
voting for the best
what is democracy now
settling for less
If only 50% of people vote and the winning party usually gets about 50% of the vote, then what is this “mandate” of the people that I keep hearing about? 25% of eligible voters (perhaps 15% of the total population)? Not bad as far as minorities go, but hardly a “mandate”.
One thing some people in the documentary pointed out was that given the two-party stranglehold, the Democrats don’t worry about people on the left. They know that people on the left have nowhere to go (or, rather, will believe that). They will either vote Democrat or not vote at all. Therefore the Democrats only worry about the centrists or so-called “independents” who swing between the two parties.
I’m sure it is the same on the right – those who are fiscal conservative / libertarian-leaning, but not really aligned with the mainstream Republican agenda have nowhere else to go (or perceive it that way). Sure the third parties get some votes (when they’re lucky enough to get on the ballot), but the major news corporations never even report on any non-major party’s results.
District of C-something
representatives
shilling for ephemera
all for none, for sum
