This is not democracy

As Ralph Nader stopped by last week, I was reminded of the hugely injust electoral system in the US.

Democracy is Greek and means the people rules. In most countries this is brought about by a government governing for the people and elected by a majority of the people. But not in America. Or at least it does not have to be – a person can win the presidency without winning the popular vote, as it happened in 2000 when Al Gore got 500.000 more votes than George Bush and Bush, alas, became president.

This is because of the electoral system in America which is a ‘winner takes all’ for each state. Because of this it is also close to impossible for other parties to gain any kind of influence. There are other parties though – like Ralph Nader‘s Peace and Freedom Party which visited San Francisco State University on Thursday.

When you use an old computer box for a poster your campaign is far from wealthy.

Nader was in a bad mood, speaking in a low and hopeless voice in the beginning, then raising a roar as he awoke his own anger against the system.

- People have the votes but the politicians don’t obey them. They obey corporations. That’s not democracy! he said to several hundred people gathered in the university’s McKenna Theatre adding that this was obvious in all parts of politics from health care over war to the bail out and the presidential debate.

- The debate was steril and ridiculous. It was won by state terrorism, big business and military budget, he said.

As you can gather from the quotes, Nader is a leftie with his major issues being to double the minimum wage, tax the rich, end nuclear power and discrimination, abolish the death penalty, make education and health care free, legalize marijuana, protect the environment and develop public transportation.

With all this one would think that he would be more angry with the GOP’s than the Democrats but that did not seem to be the case Thursday. On the contrary:

- Obama is a snivelling coward who will walk over anybody just to be the president – including his own people, Nader almost yelled out in the theatre.

Nader was not happy

Whether this is because Nader is envious of Obama might actually becoming president or he feels that the Dems have betrayed their voters is hard to say – probably a bit of both. The Dems do not like Nader either. Back in 2000 he was accused of costing Al Gore the presidency by attracting liberal votes which could have won the election for the Democrats (as it were, the difference between Gore and Bush in the deciding state of Florida was only 537 votes and Nader’s party got 97,421 votes in Florida so Nader’s votes really could have won it for Gore). Nader argued that Gore could have just done a better job.

Viewed with European eyes the whole thing is a farce. Had it been in Denmark, Al Gore would have won the election and Ralph Nader would have been represented in parlament with seats according to the 2.7% who voted for his party.

The crowd agreed loudly when Nader urged them to "vote for the person you really agree with - not just the lesser of two evils!"

Still, there are some advantages to the American way in America. Many states, like California, are either red or blue to an extent that discourages any competetion. This saves millions in campaigning and leaves the candidates free to concentrate on the deciding toss-up states.

The injustices easily outweigh the advantages though and if the American people were offered the choice a large majority would most likely vote for deciding elections by the popular vote. Well, they probably will not be for many years to come.

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