[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Energy, Elections, and the Internet

[Jeffrey Fisher <jfisher@igc.org>]

first of all, if gore had managed to win his home state, all of this would be
moot. perhaps before blaming nader, the gore campaign should remove the mote
from its eye and wonder what it could have done differently or better and ways
in which bush cut into the democatic coalition built by clinton. note that
gore lost vast numbers of people who voted for clinton twice.

the exit-poll stuff i was seeing tuesday evening was showing that the nader
vote (nationally, mind you) appeared to come about 40% from gore, about 40%
from non-voters (or, technically, people who wouldn't have voted for anyone
else), and nearly 20% from people who would have voted for bush. i haven't
seen that followwed up recently, but it's what the exit polls (that predicted
gore winning in florida?? ;-) were showing tuesday eve.

the following article, while it also addresses nader further down, elaborates
on the failures of the gore campaign to deal with bush (which they might have
spent their time doing in the last two weeks, rather than attacking nader), or
rather, perhaps, the successes of the bush campaign in cutting directly into
gore's support:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40555-2000Nov8.html

finally, i might add that my experience in arguments with gore-voters, they
were the ones resorting to ad hominem denigration of voters (e.g., nader
voters "don't understand" the complexity of the electoral system, etc.) when
arguments on the issues broke down. perhaps that's symptomatic of gore's
failure in general to manage to appeal to nader-voters.

Law wrote:

> The Nader-ite denial rolls on. First, your characterization of gore
> voters is demeaning and second, where is your support? In an election
> this close, it's entirely reasonable that the votes for nader gave
> shrub some edge and you can't show that they came from repubs. Nader
> makes republicans gag! No, I can't show any votes came from dems, but
> it makes a lot more sense just on ideology.
>
> The denial is nothing more than an attempt to deflect responsibility
> for childish behavior. In that, people who claim a vote for Nader
> didn't matter are acting just like the religious-right, saying in
> effect "we know what's right and everyone else will see the light when
> we make their lives bad enough. No need to act constructively now. In
> fact, it's good to make things worse."
>
> That's one opinion from the land of Pacific Green.
>
> By the way, I will think -- thank you.
>
> Jim
> ---
> On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, aaron auslender wrote:
> >
> > no, they were all scared into voting for gore. most people
> > who actually VOTED for nader were republicans, and weren't
> > going to vote for gore anyway.
> >
>
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--
jeff fisher
dilettant
jfisher@igc.org
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O
"I am the brand name. When all things began, the brand name already
was. The brand name dwelt with God, and what God was, the brand
name was. The brand name, then, was with God at the beginning, and
through him all things came to be; no single thing was created without
him." - Philip K. Dick
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O



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