The falsehood that Nader "spoiled" the 2000 election played no small part in this rightward degeneration of US politics. It was the foundation for a fallacious narrative faà §ade that's since been constructed from innumerable other deceptions. Insidiously, it also served as a way of demonizing left-of-liberal political ideals by associating them with a manufactured villain.
"Russiagate" was a repeat of the "spoiler" lie on steroids. Again, the Democrats chose to foist a fairy tale on the public rather than admitting the actual facts, which in this case involved widespread election fraud including racist disenfranchisement, closed polling stations, malfunctioning voting machines and uncounted votes. A serious investigation into these elements, including hand recounts (which Jill Stein unsuccessfully attempted to initiate) could very well have reversed the outcome. Historians will likely view the results as fraudulent.
Now here we are with another election coming up and unless serious steps are taken, it's likely to be stolen again. Millions of likely Democratic voters have been illegally kicked off the voter rolls by Republican operatives, in no small part because of the 2013 gutting of the Voting Rights Act (see here, here & here) during Obama's administration and his lack of a response to such overt racism. We don't actually have free-and-fair elections here in the US, which should be a scandal but somehow isn't.
I don't know if there's a way for us to back out of this disaster. Nominally progressive people are projecting their hopes on Sanders, but he's no Nader, that's for sure. That he's considered "antiwar" shows just how pathetically watered down that concept has become. Apparently all you have to do to earn the badge these days is vote against some military bills when a Republican is president (but not as many when a Democrat is in office). It's no longer part of the progressive conversation (let alone the liberal one) to speak against nuclear weapons or waging wars. That's some weak broth and it's not enough for me or for our dire situation.
For those of us who oppose the bombing of children, it's a lonely time.
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