Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumFrom the Guys Who Brought You George W. Bush
If the cast of celebrities and surrogates supporting Bernie Sanders looks familiar, its because many of them were steadfast cheerleaders for another insurgent candidate: Ralph Nader.
The team that brought you the George W. Bush administration in 2000 has gathered behind a new candidate: Bernie Sanders.
A host of prominent Ralph Nader backers has joined team Sanders in 2016, excited by his message discipline and aggressive fight against the establishment powers that be.
In the Democratic socialist from Vermont, they see a flag-bearer for the same issues while the Democratic establishment views him as a persistent pest who is raking in money by the fistful without a clear and obvious path to the nomination.
And the same way that Naders staunchest supporters had no kind words for the eventual nominee then-Vice President Al Gore, some of Sanderss surrogates are spending their time bashing Hillary Clinton, making it even more difficult for the party faithful to rally around him.
Throughout Naders consecutive failed presidential bids, he picked up a cadre of high-profile endorsers ranging from actress Susan Sarandon to academic Cornel West. The rest of the roster backing both men includes actor Danny Glover, former National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, musician Ani DiFranco, country singer Willie Nelson, and Ben Cohen, one of the founders of Ben & Jerrys, just to name a few
There are some pretty obvious parallels, Oliver Hall, Naders lawyer and long-time friend said in an interview with The Daily Beast.
While the players on the bench supporting these candidates are remarkably similar, so far Sanders hasnt drawn the collective ire of the Democratic Party quite nearly as much as Nader did. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
After all, many personally blamed Nader for pulling Democratic votes away from Gore in 2000ushering in Bush.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/05/bernie-sanders-from-the-guys-who-brought-you-george-w-bush.html?via=desktop&source=twitter
Hekate
(90,674 posts)Throughout Naders consecutive failed presidential bids, he picked up a cadre of high-profile endorsers ranging from actress Susan Sarandon to academic Cornel West. The rest of the roster backing both men includes actor Danny Glover, former National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, musician Ani DiFranco, country singer Willie Nelson, and Ben Cohen, one of the founders of Ben & Jerrys, just to name a few.
LisaM
(27,808 posts)It was also the absolute blistering of Al Gore's record and potential. I liked Al Gore a lot. I had looked forward to his following Clinton as President. I think in hindsight, we can all be well aware that not only was he nothing like Bush (remember Nader's "not a dime's worth of difference" , the world would be a different place. I'm convinced that 9/11 would not have happened (not only would Gore have paid more attention to the intelligence, it's also pretty likely he would have followed the directives in the "Gore Commission Report on Airline Security" from the 1990s), but he also would have worked much harder for the environment and to advance clean energy initiatives. The response to Hurricane Katrina would have been vastly different. John Roberts would not be the chief justice of the Supreme Court, which, in fact, would have a very different makeup.
So because I think that Al Gore would have been a good president (not just better than Bush, a very good president), I can't forgive Nader, and I have trouble with those who supported him not taking any responsibility for the results of what was such a razor-thin election, which many of us feel was literally handed to the loser. I'm sure many of them justify this by pretending that Gore wouldn't have been a good president, but I think they are wrong.
And here's the same cast of characters lined up again? I understand that we are losing the fight for people to remember history, but this is just as recent as 2000!
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)(Re: Nader's claim that he was not responsible for Bush because exit polls had 38% of his voters would have voted for Gore and 25% of his voters would have voted for Bush (the rest would have stayed home), in a race decided by 536 votes).
Uhm ... Ralph ... (.38 X 97,00) - (.25 X 97,000) > 536
Do the damned math!
And, others ... can we NOT have to re-learn the lesson?
Thankfully, we have a different cast of characters. And, the cast member vying for the role of Gore, though many think he would play a fine Nader, has already indicated that he will not play the (de-supporting) role.