“Vote Blue No Matter Who?”

As a veteran of the Ralph Nader 2000 presidential campaign and twenty-years in television news production, I enjoyed a backstage pass to the greatest spectacle on earth: American politics.

US Citizens’ unconditional allegiance to their respective political parties rivals said behavior of sports fandom.

Frustrated by the duopoly of the electoral “system” I joined Ralph’s campaign twenty-four years ago, writing and distributing press releases. I learned fast. The corporate media had chosen their candidates based on ad dollars and political maneuvering. An American who saved more lives than any military endeavor in my lifetime was not invited to the party.

Third party candidacies are designed not to win elections. Their purpose is to hold the two major parties accountable to the independent party platform tenets. The party(s) that ignore the independent agenda do not get the all-important independent vote. Simple as that.

The corporate media tagged Nader as a spoiler when Vice President and environmental capitalist Al Gore not only shunned the peace advocating public option health care Green Party, but he couldn’t even win his own state against a Republican candidate, who, as I recall, had trouble finishing his sentences.

During the 2000 campaign, angry Democrats spit on me when Ralph held his sold-out Madison Square Garden party which was ignored by local and national press! Along with losing elections, I guess that’s a liberal tradition I somehow missed.

Which brings us to Vote Blue No Matter Who. If you do not hold your party accountable, you get what happened to Kamla Harris and the Democrats in November 2024.

More than a few years back, a great football coach was at the helm of a losing team slogging through a losing season. Following yet another defeat a reporter queried the coach “the referees made a few questionable calls against your team… the field was a mess…. Coach, do you think your team is better than their record?”

The coach, who had won Super Bowls and division titles, among other accomplishments snapped back “both teams had the same officials… both teams played on the same field… you are what your record says you are. We are losers!”

The Democrats record since the Clinton Administration has favored Wall Street rather than Main Street. Don’t take my word, look at the record: the Democrats are the party of: Big Business, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, the Military Industrial Complex, the Prison Industrial Complex, and open boarders, to cite a few biggies.

The most damaging legislation in my lifetime has come with a Democrat as head coach in the White House including NAFTA, the repeal of Glass Steagell Act of 1933, FCC deregulation, Obamacare (written by lobbyists), and the 1994 Crime Bill penned by Joe Biden, signed by Bill Clinton, which resulted in mass incarceration of primarily people of color. “You ain’t black Joe?”

The biggest fumble from the Dems has been women’s reproductive rights. A few Dems in the White House could have codified Roe v. Wade but when you’re on the Big Insurance payroll, you do as your told. Women’s health care cost Big Insurance big dollars. Blaming the filibuster or Blue Dog Democrats is akin to blaming the messy playing surface or the corrupt referees.

Democrats who Voted Blue No Matter Who never held their party accountable. For the second time in recent history, Democrats lost the White House, and now Congress – to an obnoxious game-show host.

You are what your record says you are.

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