Nerd, you and I only have a problem with one thing, and that is what seems like a hatred so intense of Nader, that it blinds you to true facts.

In reality, there just issn't much difference between Republicans and Democrats, except the lip service that gets paid to one constituency or another by both parties.

Last night on NOW with Bill Moyers, they devoted the program to the political corruption of the entire system by corporate capitalists. The whole shootin' match. Everybody. Your most beloved Democrats, DougR's most beloved Republicans. Corrupt. Corrupt. Corrupt. Unprecedented political corruption is what everybody was talking about.

Al Gore would have responded to 9/11 in exactly the same way. The tax cut wouldn't have been as big, but he would have cut taxes because both Democrats and Republicans do that now for their corporado buddies, and as their only true means of buying votes. Al Gore, like John Kerry, like Bush/Cheney, would have put an energy package on the table that would have left the Arctic Wildlife Refuge alone, but given handouts to energy companies, mining companies, etc. just the same as the Republicans.

The reality is, the system is now so corrupt, the main means of the government doing business is within the parallel system of corruption--lobbyists and media, not through any sort of legitimate means of doing the people's business.

The other thing is Nerd, I don't come unhinged when someone legitimately criticizes Nader, and there are grounds for legitmate criticism. I happen to think he would make an excellent president, because he is uncorruptable. No one can buy his influence, or pay him to shut up about government corruption. Which is why the Democrats, who unlike the Republicans, work very hard to cultivate the image of uncorrupt, honest politicians, hate him. They hate him not because he lost Gore the election, but because he was so successful in exposing the Democrats for the frauds they are. He exposed the fraud of Gore being an environmentalist, by showing how cozy he was with all his energy industry buddies, that sort of thing.

To me, the Dems hatred of Nader has always been rooted in self-loathing. Unlike the Republicans, who have no qualms whatsoever about John Q. Voter seeing their part in the corruption of the political system, the Democrats care. They still want John Q. Voter that they are the great and powerful Oz, and don't want us looking behind the curtain at the little huckster from Kansas.

And it is plain as day to me, that Democrats, nearly to a person, are perfectly content to play along with the delusions and deceptions of their party, and pretend like they aren't every bit as despicable and corrupt as their Republican brethren. But they are Nerd. Even Paul Wellstone was playing along by the time he was killed. Russ Feingold plays along. Dennis Kucinich plays along. They all play along for the good of the party that feeds them. Some of them just have more modest appetites than the gluttons, but they are all feeding at the political corruption trough just the same.