September 28, 2000

11:57 AM

Rage Against the Machines' pro-Nader vide (directed by Michael Moore) is up for request today on MTV--but hurry!. (more inside)
posted by rebeccablood (10 comments total)

Select "PLAY MY SONG" from the list & choose Rage Against the Machine's "Testify" today, 9/29 until 3:30 PM EST or call (I have no idea of the number) between 3 and 3:30pm EST.
posted by rebeccablood at 11:58 AM on September 28, 2000

And you can see the video from Michael Moore's site. Just a bit heavy-handed (hey, it's Rage and Michael Moore...whaddaya expect?), but still funny. I wonder how it's going to go over with those kids on the MTV...
posted by RakDaddy at 12:12 PM on September 28, 2000

My guess is the kids'll love it, and Carson Daly or whoever will, like, talk about the social significance of the video maybe a little (in vague terms, but maybe touching on some websites or organizations to seek out if you're into that sort of thing).

Still, if it moves a large number of people actually go vote (for Nader or anyone else) who wouldn't have otherwise, I'd be shocked. Overjoyed, but shocked.
posted by chicobangs at 12:32 PM on September 28, 2000

What I find fascinating is how Nader unites actvists of the New New Left (antiglobalism, the "Seattle movement" people) and the Really Old Left (labor & hard-core high-tax / redistributionist folk) while being most fiercely opposed by the Old New Left (the race and gender activists who feel that a vote for Nader = a vote for Bush = a Supreme Court vote against abortion, affirmative action, and death penalty reform).

After 8 years of by-and-large disappointment by Clinton, it amazes me to see the likes of The Nation fall so strongly in line behind Al Gore, whom they must so fundamentally despise...
posted by MattD at 9:42 PM on September 28, 2000

hey, Nader's on the Late Show right now, cool
anyone know if the video got aired or not?
posted by pnevares at 11:19 PM on September 28, 2000

>>it amazes me to see the likes of The Nation fall so strongly in line behind Al Gore

What gave you that impression? Most of the prominent Nation contributors have publically supported Nader; for example:

Alexander Cockburn -- voting for Nader
Barbara Ehrenreich -- voting for Nader
William Greider -- voting for Nader
Christopher Hitchens -- voting for Nader
Katha Pollitt -- voting for Nader
Edward W. Said -- voting for Nader
Robert Scheer -- voting for Nader

...and so on, down the list of contributors. In general, virturally no one in the progressive community would even consider voting for Gore.
posted by johnb at 2:47 AM on September 29, 2000

JohnB -- good point re: Nation writers, but as far as editorial policy, did you see the current "All Supreme Court, All the Time," feature online now. The message of "Vote Gore, Can't Risk the Supremes" is pretty overwhelming there.

Also the Village Voice has run a number of Gore-backing Supreme Court pieces lately, although I don't have a URL right now.

Interesting to note in the list of your contributors is that they all live in states which are solidly Gore or Bush (actually, I don't know where Scheer or Greider live, but it would be safe to assume NY, DC or CA) so they can vote for Nader without feeling that they are risking Bush taking any electoral votes.

posted by MattD at 7:13 AM on September 29, 2000

About the Supreme Court, you have to consider that both Scalia and Thomas, whom the left hates, were approved by a Democratic-controlled congress. So the Democrats have done absolutely nothing to help their cause in the Supreme Court.
posted by gyc at 9:18 AM on September 29, 2000

MattD: the ironic thing about the disagreement you bring up is that nobody on the left seems to have any problem with Nader himself - that Nader represents progressive interests seems to be a truth so universally accepted nobody talks about it. The question is not whether Nader is a better man than Gore, but whether a vote for Nader backhandedly helps Bush.

Personally, I think it's a whole lot of piffle, and I don't really care whether it's Bush or Gore in the white house next year. Neither one of them has the guts to push through any real changes, other than perhaps a few press-friendly tweaks to this and that. The election will be close, neither one will have a "popular mandate", neither one will have a good relationship with Congress or the press, and Roe-v-Wade will continue to slowly erode no matter which one is picking the judges.

The only reason to vote at all is that this fall is the most consequence-free opportunity to vote your conscience you'll ever see.

I wasn't intending to write a propaganda rant, but here I am: Vote Green. Piss off the big parties. Shake things up. Make progressive politics count. Don't drown your vote in the insignificant flood of the major parties - make it count, put it somewhere nobody will expect to see it. Accomplish something good.

And if your political sympathies fall more to the right, vote Libertarian or something - whatever you do, just make sure to give the Democrats and Republicans a nice fat kick in the ass. They're too arrogant, lazy, and corrupt to deserve the power they hold.

-Mars, thinking wishfully
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:28 AM on September 29, 2000

What's most appealing about Nader to me -- even though I'm a conservative -- is that he is an antidote to the absurd fakery of the Bush and Gore campaigns, and particularly of the conventions.

The sad thing is that I certainly believe that both Bush and Gore are intelligent and sincere people who could mount serious and meaningful campaigns about important issues which should be decided ... but, alas, the political system, or its functionaries, have decreed that it not be so. The great thing about Nader is that he didn't seem to have gotten that memo ...
posted by MattD at 6:09 PM on September 29, 2000