Imagine a nonpartisan presidential candidate who lives in a modest house, walks or bicycles around town, mows his own lawn, travels in a 1990s motorhome, and does without air conditioning and TV. Meet "Average Joe" Schriner. Joe explains that his age (52), his height (5'10"), his weight (180 pounds), his yearly income (five digits), his home state (Ohio) and his overall political outlook represent the average American.

In 2000 Nader made a collossal mistake that cost Gore the election. Part of that mistake was what seemed an inexplicable statement that Gore and Bush were equivalent. I knew this was bullshit just like I knew it was bullshit when Gore, Cheney and Powell claimed Hussein was tied with al-Qaeda. And events since then have proven Nader was as "mistaken" as Bush, Cheney and Powell. The question always was: was Nader mistaken or lying? Either way, Nader only won 3% of the vote in 2000, not enough to do him any good, but enough, in key swing states, to help deliver the election to Bush.

I don't know about 2000, but by 2004 Nader was abandoning all pretense of values. Nader abandoned the Green Party, yet expected them to follow him blindly. They chose not to. In 2004 a large chunk of Nader's money and support came from Republicans. Among those Republican who went out on a limb for the self proclaimed messiah of the left was none other than John McCain, whose legal team did their best to get Nader on the ballot in Florida. As the Greens went their own way, Nader turned to Republicans, John McCain in particular, to save his campaign. The result? Nader got .3% of the vote...one tenth of what he got in 2000.

Now in 2008 Nader is running yet again. And John McCain seems to be behind his run, quite literally. Nader's website attacks Barack Obama. His website attacks Hillary Clinton. His website DOES NOT talk about John McCain, his former (and current?) patron.

I recently received a disturbing e-mail [please see below] from the Green Party's national headquarters.  It seems that Democrats in Congress are determined to make a joke out of grassroots demands for electoral reform.  Just when everybody had come to the painful realization that the "new" Democrats are more of a problem than a solution, along comes proposed legislation that is transparently designed to assure that future elections will offer voters nowhere else to turn than to the two 'major' parties.  

Here, the country is going to hell in a locomotive with Bush & Company in the driver's seat, and apparently the Democrats' biggest (or only!) concern is that they all be allowed to keep their seats on the train. Just when they have been exposed as weak and ineffectual, Congressional Democrats decide that, rather than reconsider their own party's shortcomings, they will instead change the rules so that no one else will have a fair chance of criticizing--and correcting--those shortcomings.  Apparently, they would prefer that the train run off the tracks than to risk allowing steadier hands to take the throttle.

The Democratic Party is right to be 'running scared' these days; but its current strategy will do nothing to win votes from those of us who hold dear that Party's past principles.  Many of us who used to be registered as Democrats, before that party sold out to the big money corporate interests, are demanding the opportunity to campaign for (and vote for!) candidates who actually represent The People's interests.  This legislation  would effectively scuttle any of our efforts in that direction.

It is obvious that this legislation has been deliberately--and cynically--crafted to subvert  any third-party movement that would seek to bring a measure of sanity back to a government that is clearly broken...and which neither of the 'major' parties seems inclined to fix.   Why else would ANY politician sign on to a scheme to limit our choices and undermine our democracy, leaving us with a perpetual "lesser-of-TWO-evils" politics?  In any fair election, a candidate should be willing to let his or her character, proposals and public record determine his or her showing at the polls....against ALL comers.  

As we have seen already, much to our collective dismay, when politicians put party before principle, we all suffer the consequences.  I suggest that we encourage, cajole, and threaten those who came up with this outrageous proposal until they respond to our demands for MORE voices in the political debate and MORE choices on our ballots.  Let's force them to withdraw this plan, and force them to come up with a NON-partisan plan for genuine electoral reform.  The future of our nation depends on it.