More muses on McCain - Lieberman '08

I always wonder why nobody talks more about the role Ralph Nader played in the 2000 presidential election. Or indeed, the role of the third party in recent history.

Back in the eight grade, the cool thing to do was be an anarchist, and therefore the cool party to vote for were the libertarians. In fact, in one mock election, they almost came to power in our classroom but were narrowly defeated by the prissy little baby republicans, and I began to realize as I got older that to vote for anything other than the big two parties was to throw a vote away, if you were going to vote for them, you might as well stay home.

Then came my first real election. We all remember the grim night in 2000 when we learned that in spite of having won the popular vote, Al Gore lost to Dubba because of the votes of 537 Floridians. Not only was it a sad day for America, it was made even sadder because it came down to so many people who live in America's wang.

Yet when the dust settled and the craziness of elections were over, I had an epiphany, I don't know why no major news media picked up upon it, but 97,421 Floridians actually voted for Ralph Nader. If half a percent of those people had voted for the Democratic candidate, instead of trying to make an ultra leftist statement, the outcome of these last eight years would be a different story.

And whilst Ross Perot was perhaps the most entertaining man ever to enter the political ring (if any of you remember the Animaniacs episode featuring the spoof of him, it was perhaps the most brilliant piece of animation in existence), he too was a ringer that torpedoed his own constituency. Now, it is hard to know the impact that good ol Ross took from either side, as he was fairly oddball moderate, but even still, in an election that was won by only 6.6%, taking a full 18.9% had a definitive impact upon the political landscape. If you follow the wikipedia breakdown of the demographics for the third party vote, he took far more votes from the republicans than he had from the Democrats.

The problem with a third party in a two party system, is that ultimately, they serve as nothing more then a spoiler. The more votes they get ultimately is nothing more than a denial of votes for the party that closest represents the ideals of the third party. And if the last recent elections have proven anything, they've proven the power of a third party to elect those who's views are farthest from their own.

If we see a McCain - Lieberman ticket in 08, then we can be assured of doom because it will mean a shoe in for Hilary.

At which point, we're doomed to a fate far worse then Dubbya.