General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Party Loyalty [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)Also, you are missing the point that one of the things Nader was able to run on was insufficient difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and it was not Nader's fault, but Clinton-Gore's that his message resonated with some Democrats.
Third parties have run against Republican Presidential candidates for years. Nader's candidacy made considerably less of a dent than some of them have. Blaming Nader and/or those who voted for him is silly. When Truman ran in 1948, there was a three way split in the Party. Was it close, yes. But Truman would only have looked weak if he had whined about being opposed, ust as the vitriol on DU against Nader only makes Democrats seem weak. Instead, he ran on being a "real Democrat," and the Third Way crowd needs to heed that.
Hell, I don't think Republicans railed this much against Perot and he did probably did lose Republicans at least one election, if not two.
People who run for President should expect opposition from both their left and their right. If you take care of the 99%, they vote for you. If you are going to diffeerentiate yourself mostly in cutural issues, Presidentials will continue to be too close for comfort.