Stupid White Men-- and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! - Michael Moore [108]
“Plus,” he continued, “What makes you think Gore would keep his promise? These people keep no promises.”
“What about all these thousands of kids on the campuses who have worked so hard?” the campaign manager chimed in. “What about the tens of thousands who came to the rallies you and Ralph spoke at? What about them? Here’s their first experience with electoral politics—and the candidate they gave everything for just throws in the towel near the end. You can’t do that to them. It will only turn them into cynical adults who won’t want to get involved in an election again.”
That certainly made a lot of sense. The last thing I wanted to do was to add to the cynical hordes who’ve given up any interest in voting at all.
“But,” I offered, “isn’t there a way we can do this so it is accepted for what it is—a victory for the Greens, for Ralph, for everyone who has worked for him, because by getting Gore to change his positions, we’ve succeeded in a way we never thought possible? You know, it’s like that ultraconservative party in Israel that only has, like, five seats in the Knesset, but their five votes are always needed to form a majority government. Whichever party gives them the most of what they want on their agenda gets their votes. If they join with the liberals to form the government, their ultraconservative supporters don’t get mad at them and accuse them of selling out. Just the opposite—they’re hailed as heroes because, although they’re only five votes, they get their way every time.”
Wow, that was profound, I said to myself. Teaching political science at 30,000 feet!
“Mike,” a voice on the phone replied. “Are you okay? This is not the Israeli Knesset. You’re in the United States. That’s not how it works here. Ralph will be crucified if he backs Gore, and Gore will be crucified if he changes his positions at such a late date. It’s not going to happen.”
I told them I understood. I reminded them that Ralph didn’t have to drop out, just throw the vote to Gore in a few swing states, that’s all. Gore would owe him BIG TIME once he was in the White House. We could have our cake and eat it, too.
No one seemed interested in any cake.
I thanked them for listening and hung up from the $140 call. Then I sank down in my seat and ordered my first drink ever on a plane. Somewhere over Texas, I fell asleep.
What happened on November 7, 2000, will now always have its own page in the history books. Nader was polling 6 percent in Florida the day before I arrived. The day after I left, it was down to 4 percent. And by Election Day, it had dropped to 1.6percent of the vote. But that represented 97,488 Nader votes in Florida. Would at least 538 of these voters changed their vote if they had known on November 7 that their specific votes were the ones that would make the difference? Of course they would.
I’m curious, though, why those upset at Nader have directed none of their anger toward the other candidates from the left who also appeared on the Florida presidential ballot—David McReynolds of the Socialist Party, who got 622 votes; James Harris of the Socialist Worker Party, who got 562 votes; or Monica Moorehead of the Workers World Party, who got 1,804 votes. Surely there were 538 voters among that group who would have held their nose and voted for Gore had they known Bush and his cronies were going to swipe the election.
Personally, that’s who I blame—Monica Moorehead. That’s the one thing we learned from the nineties. It’s always Monica, and (forgive me), it’s always more head.
So blame Monica! Don’t blame Ralph! And DON’T BLAME ME!
Or do blame me. Yes, in fact, if the Democrats are insisting on giving that much power to the Naderites, then maybe we should take it. Yes, it was us! We did it! We are the mighty Thor, all-powerful and all-knowing. We will destroy all in our path! Change your ways or we will turn you into ash!