Ralph Nader's Latest Super Rally

October 2, 2000 3:06 PM

Ralph Nader's Latest Super Rally The man is drawing some BIG crowds. (Requires RealAudio)
posted by snakey (9 comments total)

I was there. It was amazing. Here's my take:

I will vote for him because I want to do the right thing. I am voting for him because his beliefs match up with mine. I am voting my conscience.

If you live in a state like Massachusetts, you know which candidate will get the electoral college votes of your state. My vote for Nader is not going to make a shred of difference in the electoral college votes from Massachusetts. Massachusetts *will* go to gore, there's not a chance of any other outcome.

But my vote for Nader will be three things:
1. A vote for the candidate whose views most closely match my own, and therefore an exercise of my right as a citizen of a democracy to vote my conscience.
2. A party-building exercise - if we get 5% of the popular vote, the Greens will qualify for Federal Matching funds in 2004.
3. A message to the entrenched 2-party system in this country that I haven't bought into their lies. Goddamn it.
posted by acridrabbit at 6:43 PM on October 2, 2000

Since it's RealAudio, I can't listen to it. Can someone at least tell me which city this was, and what made it interesting?

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:05 PM on October 2, 2000

This was Boston. What made it interesting...uh, are you incapable of doing a little google search?

Ok. here are links for the lazy...

http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/10/01/nader.protests/index.html

http://www.votenader.org/issues.html

http://www.michaelmoore.com/07192000.html

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~sachs/Zinn/

my journal entry about yesterday's super-rally, if anyone's interested:
http://www.impudence.com/journals/polygloss/200010/entry1.htm
posted by acridrabbit at 9:38 PM on October 2, 2000

The Boston IMC is worth checking out for info on the debate situation.

Also includes an illuminating Chomsky lecture given a few days ago -- Part 1, Part 2 (MP3s)
posted by johnb at 12:45 AM on October 3, 2000

Mars, here's Nader's Boston Speech in MP3.

[Alternatively, in Real Audio]

Other speeches here.
posted by johnb at 1:37 AM on October 3, 2000

2. A party-building exercise - if we get 5% of the popular vote, the Greens will qualify for Federal Matching funds in 2004.

Great, another would-be "viable Third Party" for Pat Buchanan to plunder in four years.
posted by ethmar at 9:57 AM on October 3, 2000

I have a sneaking suspicion that Nader could easily beat Buchanan in the Green primaries. Not that Buchanan is all bad, mind you -- he's against NAFTA and WTO -- but he's too incompatible with the Greens on a lot of other issues.
posted by snakey at 10:05 AM on October 3, 2000

johnb: Thanks.

acridrabbit: perhaps I should have been more specific. I know what the rallies & Nader's candidacy are about, and why they're interesting (I went to the Seattle rally, actually), but I wasn't sure whether there was something that made the Boston rally more remarkable than the others. Off I go to listen to it and find out...

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:14 AM on October 3, 2000

My apologies, Mars.

I deal with the clueless too often for my mental health, obviously!
posted by acridrabbit at 12:52 PM on October 3, 2000