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Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive. Editorial:07/21/2000 I once watched voters in El Salvador line up for their country's first free elections. They came for miles to the polling place, by truck, bus, horse, mule, and foot. They stood in a tropical downpour. They scattered when a rebel mortar attack dropped two shells into a nearby street. They then picked themselves up, wiped off the mud, and voted. Contrast them to us. We can't be bothered to vote if there's a light drizzle or if something better's on TV. Only around half of us who are eligible even bother to vote. A new poll from the Pew Center reveals 30 per-cent of us believe it doesn't make any difference who's elected president. In post-modern America the Cynical, the two statistics go hand in hand. Which is why it's time to start paying at least a little bit of attention to the two fringe candidates who could make all the difference this time around. Both of them appeal to the old George Wallace "there ain't a dime's worth of difference between them" school of politics. And both of them threaten to pull away just enough votes to make a difference. The most serious threat to Al Gore's chances of pulling this one out of the fire comes from good old Ralph Nader. As unsmiling and rumpled as ever, Nader's carrying the banner for the Green (actually Red) party. Going after the "corporate Democrats and the corporate Republicans," Nader is drawing Bobby Kennedy-sized crowds on college campuses. He's attracting the lefties of organized labor, as well as some enviornmentalists. Nader portrays Gore as a corporate sellout. This could end up hurting Gore just enough in vital states like California, Washington, and Oregon to tip the scales toward Bush. But before George W. starts measuring the Oval Office for a Texas-sized swivel chair, he needs to look over his right shoulder. Pat Buchanan has just about completed his purge of the Reform Party. His appeal is as old as he is--American Fascism. Buchanan has torn into Bush and the G.O.P. as "tools of multi-national corporations." Sound familiar? Buchannan is trying to weld the anti-foreigner, anti-NAFTA, anti-abortion wing of the conservative movement into a permanant coalition. He might get just enough traction in the South and West to deny a few electoral votes to Bush. This could be the election of the disenchanted and disenfranchised. There are plenty of right-wing talk radio loonies and left-wing anti-WTO radicals out there, more than we might think. Two things, oddly enough, united them--the feeling that the electoral game is rigged, and the belief that the two major candidates have sold out to business and corporate interests. That strain of anti-corporate populism bears watching. Two things will have to happen for the Buchanan-Nader dispossessed to make a difference. One--if plenty of mainstream voters agree with them, but instead choose to stay home and not vote. Two--if suspicions about the new, improved New Global Mulkti-Cultural Dot Com Economy run deeper than we think. Watch small towns in the rural South and West for Buchanan strength, and keep an eye on the college towns of the nation for Nader traction. There could be just enough fed-up resentment in both to make either Gore or Bush uncomfortable. And the rest of us? We'll just watch on TV. |
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