My favorite San Francisco mailing list for Web developers and other dot-commies erupted a few days ago into a heated debate about whether or not the only thing a vote for Nader would achieve would be to prevent Al Gore from winning. It all started with a forwarded screed, penned by Nader advisor Steve Cobble, titled Reasons to Vote for Ralph. (The crux of the argument: You can vote for Nader in states where Gore has a clear lead without changing the electoral vote.) Fifty posts later -- plus endless statistics, torrid flames, reminders about the makeup of the Supreme Court and laments about the ozone layer (not to mention one plaintive plea for Libertarian Party candidate Harry Browne, and another for the Natural Law Party) -- it's still unclear whether or not voting for Nader will truly put Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the White House. But there's no doubting that Nader's liberal fans are legion online, and they're employing that useful tool called e-mail to make up for any lack of lawn signs.
Yes, election time has become a dangerous time to be online. My in-box fills daily with notes from friends who want to make sure that I'm aware of the dangers of certain local San Francisco Bay Area propositions and forwarded political satire. (How many times this week have you seen that Next Debate e-mail parodying the televised presidential debates? ) I even get spam from politicians in Midwestern states who seem to think that, even though I'm three states away, I might still want to vote for them for county supervisor.
And, of course, there's Nader, Nader, Nader -- he may have a mere 3 to 5 percent of the vote nationwide, but he seems to have supplanted the Libertarians as the alternative political online vote of choice. Only one mailing list I'm on has thus far been immune to the Nader debate; but I'm counting the minutes until it, too, explodes into a vituperative discussion of partisan politics. Personally, I won't be swayed: I decided who I was voting for months ago. But until Nov. 7 comes, it seems, my only political weapon is the delete key.
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