Regarding Paula on voting for Nader where Gore can't lose, and Gore
otherwise. I honestly don't understand the fears. They have been put
forth in every election since 1948, when Henry Wallace, who would have
spared us the Cold War, was wiped out for fear that Dewey would beat
Truman. The fact is that we do have a system of checks and balances.
The guys who wrote our Constitution were downright brilliant. The only
thing that can bring about sharp change is essentially lifetime rule
by a president pointed in a new direction. That was possible with
Roosevelt, who was elected four times, and even he, to win that
fourth, had to dump Henry Wallace as vice-president in favor of a
non-entity, Truman.
Conservatives learned from that experience, and passed the
Constitutional amendment limiting presidencies to two terms. So one
certainly can get a gradual shift. Reagan did, within his two terms,
bring us a new institution in American life: mass-scale homelessness
in good times. But other than that, movement to the Right has, in
fact, been glacial. When Gingrich tried to bring about qualitative
change, he was dumped in a single Congressional term.
It will be hard enough, under our system, for a people's party to
shft the country leftward. Don't make it harder by destroying the best
chance to build one we've had in half a century.
Bill Mandel
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