…apparently now include falling off of bikes. I suppose that it’s too much to hope that Nader will follow President Bush’s and Senator Kerry’s example?
(Plethora of links
So I chose the one from Smash;
Why? Haiku, silly.)
Moe
6 thoughts on “Primary side effects from running for office…”
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Unsafe at any speed.
I was sort of hoping for a “long walk, short pier” from Nader, but whatever works for you…
What’s that you say, Moe?
Nader takes a nasty spill?
We can only dream.
Nader defended himself admirably on “This Week” today, questioning why Democrats obsess over the few thousand votes he garnered in Florida, and not over the much greater number of Democrats (I believe he claimed a quarter million) who voted for George W. Bush in that state in 2000. Apparently, while folks were ranting that a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush (funny story, it is actually a vote for Nader), they somehow missed the more salient point that A VOTE FOR BUSH IS A VOTE FOR BUSH!
Such Democrats act as if they are somehow entitled to Nader’s votes. Well, they are not. Nader earned those votes, Gore did not (nor did Bush, I might add), and no amount of whining and crying “spoiler” changes this simple fact.
The aftermath of the 2000 election was an opportunity for the Democratic party to do some soul-searching about why folks chose Nader over Gore. Instead, they choose to berate already-alienated voters for “throwing their votes away.” It is my opinion that any voter who listens to such drivel and votes for a candidate he doesn’t believe in is the one who is throwing his vote away.
In 1956, just turning eleven, I fell madly in love with John F. Kennedy as he made his unsuccessful vice presidential bid. A good catholic school girl, I was initially attracted by his Catholicism; ten minutes later I was smitten by his intelligence, wit, and charm sexy was not in my virgin’s vocabulary). I was luckier than his other women. Loving Jack Kennedy was good for me. I devoured politics and history. I was a freshman in college when he was shot; I immediately changed my major from English to political science. The fall of 1967 found me at Stanford University, miserably studying politicl science as a quantifiable scinece while Joan Baez’s husbands David Harris led the war protests in the quadrangle. I rushed back to New York ; my fiance was deciding tro apply for conscientious objector status. I became a sixties radical and I have never relinquished that identity.
Visiting New York City today, I kept visualizing the Skull and Bones Building at Yale. (I am the proud parent of two brilliant Yale graduates.) The building looks ominous and impenetrable; one suspects a vampire lair. Except for the “It takes a village idiot anti-Bush sticker I wore on the brim of my hat, there was no evidence of a presidential campaign–no signs, no buttons, no bumper stickers. I am a native New Yorker and a librarian; it took me two hours to locate Kerry headquarters. I googled Kerry’s New York campaign and got an Park Avenue South address. When I got there, all I found was a deserted space and a sign directing me to 1560 Broadway, NY, NY 10035. Helpful mailmen told me 1560 was in Times Square.
When I got to Times Square, the Skull and Bones initiation rite began. The building was unfindable. I talked to about fifteen different policeman and security guards. I began to suspect the Kerry search led to nothingness. Finally I discovered that 1560 Broadway is on Seventh Avenue; worse the entrance ws on West 46 St. Gong up to the ninth floor, I was struck by how little was happening. I have seen more bustling student council high school elections. There were no bumper stickers, posters, buttons; I would get one if I contributed via the web. I recall in 1960 the Rockville Centre, Long Island, Kennedy headquarters gave me many to bring to my high school. The young director told me Kerry wasn’t concentrating on New York. It hadn’t occurred to him that publicity in New York is publicity all over the country. If you don’t have speeches and rallies in New York, you can forget about your crowds in Nebraska.
It felt like Kerry didn’t really want the presidency. I called Bill Clinton’s office in Harlem, and I felt like I had skipped from the nineteenth to the twenty first century. I am feeling in a draft Hllary mood. I am going to apply to be a speechwriter for Kerry; maybe then I can feel more enthusiastic about supporting him.
Since I couldn’t find a functional Kery campaign in New York, I started one in Baldwin. My house in admirabbly located; hundreds of kids pass by twice a day. I used vivid pink chalk on my driveway. The messages were:
The Times They Are a Changin
Dump Dictator Bush.
John Kerry for President in 2004
I marked up a hat to say JFK in 2004. I am very fond of the JFK reference since I was such a passionate Kennedy supporter when I was 15. I put a JFK in 2004 on my door and a sign that said Kerry Baldwin Headquarters. Basically I talked to kids of all ages all day about the campaign; I encouraged to express themselves with chalk. I promised them I would ask the American Civil Liberties Union for help if chalk gets them in trouble. It was gratifying to see first and second graders stop and read my chalk signs. Most stores have excellent sidewalk chalk.
For a while I put Dylan’s Times They Are a Changin and Blowing in the Wind on a steady loop in a cd player in my second floor dormer window. They attracted attention too.
[Comment first deleted, then reconstructed by webmaster.]
Hmmm. I was cut. I guess I was too long winded.
I added that I am practicing singing my political protest songs. Bring back Phil Ochs. So many of his songs are just as current today as they were when they were written.
Both high school and college students seem so distressingly obedient and law-abiding. I haven’t met a radical under thirty.