The Ralph Nader Super Rally: Why I Still Don’t Know Where I’ll Cast My Vote

Ani Difranco was there. Ben Harper was there. Eddie Vedder was there. Susan Sarandon was there. Bill Murray was there. And, frankly, that had a lot to do with why I was there. Walking into the Ralph Nader Super Rally tonight at Madison Square Garden, I stated firmly to my friends that I was interested in Nader’s campaign, respectful of it, even maybe a bit in awe of it, but that I would have to vote for Gore. I couldn’t bear the chance of helping Bush take the presidential office. Two hours later, midway through the rally, I turned to them and confessed, "I might have to vote for Nader."

We walked into MSG through crowds of young people cheering, chanting, and holding signs. I’ve been at rallies and demonstrations. I’ve held signs and shouted. But my stomach tightened as we pushed our way through and I thought to myself, "what are they cheering for? This doesn’t make any difference to anyone except self-congratulatory, middle-class, white lefties." I wanted to cry. But moments later we were settling down in our seats to watch video clips of last November’s protests against the WTO in Seattle. Watching peaceful young demonstrators assaulted by police in full riot gear with captions reminding us that we were looking at pictures of America, "the great democracy", I suddenly wanted to jump up and join the cheering crowds on the street.

"A vote for Nader isn’t a vote for Bush because Nader’s votes are coming from those who would have stayed home. "

Phil Donahue—yes, really, the Phil Donahue—appeared on stage and welcomed us all to Madison Square Garden. As he began to speak, briefly running through Nader and the Green Party’s platform, I began to feel as though I was witnessing a great moment in our country’s history. Donahue, who I watched on TV as a little kid home sick from school, began to talk about campaign finance reform, universal health care, the desperate need to support strong, democratic unions, the importance of finding a successful alternative to the war on drugs, the horrors of the death penalty—"holy cow! They’re killing retarded teenagers!"—and the control of mega-corporations all over the country. Donahue introduced Mark Dunau, a self-employed organic farmer running for the Senate on the Green Party ticket, who told us that "today the American people face a crisis of identity and extinction" because of the "fist of tyranny of unbridled corporate power."

I began to join all the people around me clapping and cheering. Professor Troy Duster took the podium and chided all those arguing that a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. One hundred million people didn’t vote in the last presidential election, he said. They didn’t vote, because they didn’t see a candidate they felt they could stand behind and vote for. A vote for Nader isn’t a vote for Bush because Nader’s votes are coming from those who would have stayed home. Wait a minute. My head was in my hands again. I will vote no matter what. My vote for Nader would definitely be one less vote for Gore. Again, all of a sudden I wasn’t in harmonic solidarity with this stadium full of people. Again they seemed self-satisfied, delusional middle-class white people (granted, just like me), with no practical sense of reality. Following Duster, Donahue introduced Company Flow as his "brothers", and I was angry. What are we trying to do here? Certainly there’s value in solidarity activism, but there must be a limit. Do we really know what we’re talking about?

And then Michael Moore took the stage and I was plunged back into the adrenaline of focus and morality and, yes, solidarity. "Last week, in what they call a debate," he said, host Jim Lehrer said, "and I quote directly: ‘Welcome Governor Bush and welcome Vice President Bu…um…I mean Gore." The Green Party volunteer next to my section began to chant, "LET RALPH DEBATE" and we all joined in. Within milliseconds, the entire stadium—including Moore, shouting and clapping into his microphone—had taken up the chant. We really are fighting for something here, I thought. We’re making history. And Moore, catching me in that moment of faith, drove the point home as he directed his remarks to first time voters like me. "If you don’t vote for your conscience in this election", he said, "when will you start? If we keep settling, it will only get worse. Don’t make your decision from fear, make it from your hopes, dreams, aspirations, and conscience."