General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Ralph Nader wasn't the only person that cost Al Gore the election in 2000. [View all]JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Nader didn't commit any.
There was election fraud.
Then there was a judicial coup d'etat.
Then:
"Things would be easier if this was a dictatorship."
And we had a dictatorship, especially after the 9/11 event. Its accomplishments are no longer subject to question. The present elected administration has not overturned but consolidated and moved to legalize the essential elements of the "unitary executive" and the permanent state of war, sometimes under new branding. Pretense to rule of law or democracy has been abandoned wherever it is said to impinge on national security. We live under a permanent state of exception, emergency rule.
Blaming Nader is a form of denial for those who like their targets small, harmless, and historically distant. Twelve years ago, Nader ran a legal campaign. He didn't execute a coup d'etat. He didn't oversee the post-9/11 societal transformation. He didn't consolidate the achievements of the new authoritarian statism after the departure of Bush.