A dear friend and a Nader supporter writes:

I am disturbed to find you reserve your greatest scorn for me because of my support for Ralph Nader.
Bob why do you go so far out of your way to insult everyone and then have the arrogance to end your letters with "Peace".
You see, I do read your long letters to the end.
Maybe I should just delete them and keep my peace.

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Dear Friend,

I regret that you took my letter so personally. After my essay, I have been waiting for the blowback, especially from some of my friends who are supporters of Ron Paul. I really did not anticipate your position on Nader. Had I done so, I might have been tempted to modify my rhetoric some.

Of course, as a Buddhist, I am not entitled to scorn any person, only behaviors. In today's charged political environment, such nuance often takes too long to explain and most do not grasp the subtleties. In this Buddhist sense I support all sentient beings: our President, our soldiers who commit war crimes and atrocities as well as terrorists who destroy innocent life. What I condemn is the War and the behavior. This argument is so far beyond normal human comprehension that I rarely even try to advance it.

Since you are probably the last person I expected to take me to task on this, I think I owe you an explanation of my intentions in writing the piece. Let me say first, that I have almost never heard Ralph Nader say anything that I disagree with. One of my greatest regrets was that I did not support and campaign for him in the last two elections. As I have said endlessly, I am convinced that both Al Gore and John Kerry won the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 respectively. Why they and the Democratic Party did not have the courage to contest the stealing of their presidency (then or now) is one of the great mysteries of our time.

Nine months ago, I was asked to be a Missouri Progressive/Green Party delegate. I wholeheartedly agreed because I felt that the Democrats had clearly defied the mandate of the last election to end the war. I thought that this was perhaps the best time in our history in which to mount a Third Party contest for the presidency.

I waited and waited. I watched Dennis Kucinich's humiliation by the Party and the press. I waited for Nader to speak up while he stood resolutely on the sidelines, hands in pockets. No one, prophet, savior or fool, came forth to take up the Third Party banner and say to the electorate all those things that desperately needed to be said.

Finally, at the last possible minute, after the positions of the electorate and the candidates were solidified, after there was no longer any hope of an alternate Third Party candidate having any positive impact on the election, after it was even too late to effect the platforms of either Party - Nader announced his candidacy. I personally think that the man is either mad, a megalomaniac or both. It is impossible to express to you what a disservice he is doing both for the cause of populist/progressive politics and for democracy in this country.

I came down so harshly at the end of my diatribe precisely to try to dissuade people (like you?) from being tempted to support him. Support for Nader can only result in the election of a Republican president in November. Do you really want that? I don't care if that same argument was used in 2000 and 2004. It was probably not a valid argument then (especially by 20/20 hindsight) since both Democratic candidates it turns out were not interested in serving. This time I think it is a valid argument. Obama, the Democrats, and the voters, I hope this time ,will not settle for massive vote fraud, a Supreme Court appointment for McCain, or a Diebold computer "glitch".

I support virtually every position Nader advocates. I have made my position pretty clear on my reservations concerning Barack Obama. I also made it abundantly clear that one cannot have any inflated expectation for the Democratic Party in the event that they can overcome their longstanding tradition of resting defeat from the jaws of victory. All we can have the slimmest hope for this time, in the event of a Democratic victory, is a very precarious chance of turning back the erosion of our civil rights. That is all. To that end a vote for Nader can only be a vote for John McCain and our further enslavement. I would be delighted if you could explain it to me any other way. I am so tired of leftist, Libertarian, Progressive Children's Crusades in politics in this country. I have come to truly scorn the inspired people who stand on principle while the whole process turns to s**t around them. Our democracy is probably lost anyway no matter who you vote for. All I am arguing for here is a last strategic stand - quite apart from noble principles. If Obama is elected (and I do plan on working on his campaign after Denver) I have every intention of fighting him with even more passion than I had in opposing Bush. It's just that I hope I will be able to fight him as a relatively free citizen standing in a storm-trooper free street as opposed to scratching my obscenities against president McCain with bloody fingers on the walls of my prison cell. Nothing less than this is at stake this time and that is the way I see it. I will scorn any vote for Nader as vehemently as I would a vote for McCain. I know I said this last time, but this may well be the most important election in our history. It will either retard the Republican tyranny or it will put an end to us all. The Democrats must not only win this time, they must win overwhelmingly, both in the presidency and also in the congress. I cannot accept anything that threatens to diminish this victory in any way regardless the motives no matter how senselessly idealistic or noble.

Peace (not of the grave but the peace that comes from the struggle
to overcome darkness with light!)

Bob Boldt

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Bob Wrote (excerpt):

I do reserve my greatest scorn however for the supporters of Ron Paul and Ralph Nader. Setting aside Ron Paul's Libertarian clinical insanity on matters domestic and addressing strictly the strategic issues of the effect support for these two candidates will have on the election after Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul - support for these two men will only guarantee the continuance of a Republican tyranny in this country. Hopefully we will have heard the last of Ron Paul after the Republican Convention. But we still will have to try to bitch-slap some sense into a megalomaniacal Ralph Nader.
Peace,
Bob