Listen to Dean and Nader spar on NPR!
Howard Dean is really rocking. I miss him. He's been quite gentlemanly in telling Nader to go piss up a rope. He didn't rag on Nader for his role in the 2000 election. He did rip on Nader for his campaign this season, facilitated and supported by naughty, naughty right-wing organisations, and for becoming a filthy tool completely devoid of idealism or real progressivism. He's coming across as impassioned but very very reasonable: he's not a screaming loon. Dean is a practical man: he's not trying to paint Kerry as a perfect progressive saint, but he is pointing out that, if you're really interested in progressive reform, you've got an infinitely greater chance of seeing it under Kerry than under Bush. He comes across as confident, aggressive but not hostile, and competent. And he has an easy, relaxed humour.
Ralph Nader keeps squawking 'Corporate, corporate, corporate, special interests, special interests.' And to a degree, Nader has a point. The electoral system in this nation does call for reform. Corporations do have far too much influence over our government. I voted for him last time because of his spiel. But he seems to have no flexibility whatsoever; Dean is just ripping him apart. Nader seems unable to defend himself and his campaign, and has no ability to adapt to the practical realities of this years' election. Is Nader just going through the motions? God, his jokes are lame.
I think Dean has done a great job of partially-defusing Nader's candidacy (assuming anyone listened to the debate), in large part by explaining quite well why he himself isn't running as a third-party candidate. Dean would've been a much more viable third-party candidate than Nader. Dean comes across as a man who understands what it takes to accomplish real things for real people in the political arena; Nader comes across as hopelessly out of touch with the world in which we live. Dean is against referenda, and points out that they've been used to deny equal rights to gay and lesbian couples; while they sound great in theory, in practice they end up often being quite destructive. Dean himself did great things defending the rights of gays and lesbians against 'the tyranny of the majority.' Nader is a man who actively refuses to even contemplate using his candidacy to actually do anything for the benefit of the people: he bitches and bitches, but won't make the slightest compromise that might give him any real influence. He wouldn't take a cabinet post, if one were offered him. What the shit, man? He has become a vanity candidate, pure and simple.
Posted by aloysius at July 10, 2004 02:01 PM | TrackBack |