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Steve Sloane, a Long Islander who supported Nader, sent out the following e-mail:
Nader Forum-You are blind-copied to protect your privacy (what is left of it).
I voted for Nader again yesterday. I watched the results on CNN, Comedy Channel and NET. They did not mention Nader during the hours that I watched. It was typical of the campaign season. It lasted 20 months and there wasn’t much time to discuss 3rd party candidates and platforms. It was mostly about personality and odds. Third party candidates were all blacked out by major net-works and mostly ignored by the rest, along with the major issues that matter to progressives.
How do you feel about a draft to raise the extra 80,000 troupes that Obama is calling for to escalate the war in Afganastan? Are you ready to send your boys to war, like Sarah Palin, Joe Biden, & John McCain?
I have been charmed by Obama and his family. They are lovely. I can feel the happiness that his election has instilled especially for Afro-Americans, but not just for them.
After I voted, I opened the curtain and there was my neighbor Drew, whom I have known all his life. His parents went to college with me and live down the block. His father is a Jew who looks like a white buffalo, and his mother was the prettiest girl at CW Post. Her skin is dark brown. When he was younger, Drew and his brother Garth shoveled my driveway and drank hot chocolate in my kitchen and hung out with my elder daughter. Drew stole the show playing the Cowardly Lion in the Glen Cove Highschool’s production of the Wizard of Oz. Drew played center on the Big Red Glen Cove Highschool football team. When I saw him waiting to vote, his face lit up with recognition. He looking like the happiest young man alive. He gave me a hug, and I didn’t volunteer that I had voted for Nader. I didn’t think it was appropriate. I hope that Drew doesn’t have to go to Afganastan or Pakistan to kill and die if Obama reinstates the draft to raise his army. I hope that Drew and Garth and my nephew Sam don’t have to go. I wish that we had elected a peace candidate, which Obama is not.
Our voting station is in the Boys and Girls Club in Glen Cove, across the street from the Federal Housing Project which houses nearly exclusively economically challenged Afro-Americans. The voting station was never busier. It was well run. I was in and out in 5 minutes. There were several other African-Americans there, besides Drew. The atmosphere was as merry as Christmas. I noticed that a voting monitor keeping track and her sheet indicated that twice as many Dems had voted as Repubs and that half as many Independents had voted as Repubs. That would indicate a big win for Dems and a significant vote by Independents. I guess the Independents all voted for Obama. We went 70+% for the Pres. elect!
My wife and daughter voted for Obama too. I don’t think that they would mind that I am revealing their secret ballot. They are proud and happy. My elder daughter tried to vote for Obama too in FL, and like many of her friends was denied due to cryptic irregularities in registration that she was unable to straighten out. I held my breath and hoped that the Repubs would not steal another election, which seems to have become an American tradition, going back to Kennedy in 1960 with the help of Mayor Daly in Chicago. I could not resist feeling relieved and happy that Obama won. I admire so much about him; his demeanor, his intellect, his political skills, his brilliant campaign, his sense of humor, his sense of destiny. But the best thing about this victory is not his position on the key issues. He had a platform that was only slightly better than McCain’s. It is Obama’s color that makes this victory great. Would a Biden for Pres. victory be so great? How about it? It is a great thing for America and the world that we have finally elected a black President. It is even better because it is not Condi Rice, or Clarence Thomas, I think.
I visited the Nader web-site www.votenader.org this afternoon, looking for a vote tally. I couldn’t find any mention of Nader or the 3rd party votes in either the Times or in Newsday today. Maybe we can have the count in tomorrow’s editions. I didn’t see anything on CNN this morning when I watched during my 28 minute exercise routine. I did read in the Nader blog that he made a comment that FOX picked up, saying he hoped that Obama would be serving Uncle Sam and not Uncle Tom. Me too. I wonder if Obama will serve the interests of the contributors that gave him the richest campaign, by far, in history, or will he serve us. You know who I mean, “We the people…”
He said that he would debate anyone, on Tim Russert’s last show in May, but that was a lie.
He said that he would restrict his campaign to the use of public campaign finance if McCain would, but that was a lie too.
Obama undoubtedly stole millions of votes from Nader’s independent base of supporters. Still, I am relieved that Obama beat McCain, because his platform is slightly better, and I am hoping that Obama takes advantage of this opportunity to lead us to a better future; a much better future…
Peace, love, and understanding.
Steve Sloane
Filed under: 3rd party, afghanistan, Anti-War, Barack Obama, campaign 2008, election, Election 2008, elections, international politics, Iraq, local, long island, Long Island Politics, Political Websites, president, presidential, presidential race, progressive politics, Ralph Nader, social & economic justice, third party, US Politics Tagged: | afghanistan, Barack Obama, draft, Ralph Nader, vote, voter, voting
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