General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Ralph Nader: 'Cowering' Democrats face defeat [View all]sunnystarr
(2,638 posts)in all of your posts in this thread. While one can point to all the other things that happened, ie: voter purge, butterfly ballot, Harris, etc etc, those are all to be expected from the other side. Even with everything the Republicans could conjure up and throw at Gore, Gore would have been victorious if one of our OWN, a progressive, didn't insist on putting his own ego before the good of the country.
That one act from our side was the cause of Gore's defeat. Had he not run there wouldn't have been the recount. Even if it was close enough for Bush to challenge it, Gore still would have been the presumptive winner and the Supreme Court would have been hesitant to step in.
Of course his run for president was legal. Of course it was his right. He knew he would be the "spoiler" as every 3rd party candidate is in a close race. He accepted financing from the Republicans - the "enemy" so to speak. His ego trumped all! He saw himself as the crusader for the ideal while knowing that the ideal didn't have a chance of realizing that goal as a result of his candidacy. He just wanted his media time to get his message out there and the country be damned.
He changed the course of our history and ushered in two wars and the death and maiming of hundreds of thousands of people, a destroyed economy, the fall of the middle class, and the rise of the tea party.
I don't know he sleeps at night.