One Vote, One Party, NO Choice

An audio message from Mumia Abu-Jamal was played at the July 25 rally in Boston on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, and, among other things, he said in the message:

I have seen an amusing cartoon-graphic of a sarcastic bumper sticker printed in a libertarian-type magazine, which reads:

BUSH
KERRY '04
REPUBLICRAT
One Vote, one party,
NO choice

In the bottom, right-hand corner, in small Olde English-style letters, is written, "Skull and Bones," and there's a graphic of that, and it says, "Yale University." It gets a grin out of me every time I see it, for bumper stickers, which are a kind of witty shorthand of oversimplification, tend to do this, if they're good.

It says a lot about the perceptions of millions of voting-age Americans, who really see these things that way, and as a consequence, refrain from even the pretense of voting for what increasingly looks like a single party, with two heads.

It also encapsulates rather nicely the gist of the now-flagging independent presidential campaign of consumer advocate, Ralph Nader.

Listen to the message in full at Prison Radio: Mumia Abu-Jamal, "Vote For Whom?" (recorded on July 18, 2004).

Since the time when Mumia's message was recorded, however, support for the Nader/Camejo 2004 campaign has been inching back up again, despite the difficulty of getting on the ballots due to the Democratic Party's commitment to disenfranchising Nader/Camejo supporters. In the latest Gallup poll, Nader gets the support of 3% of likely voters, 5% of registered voters, and 5% of adults:

3A. As of today, do you lean more toward –- [ROTATED: Kerry and Edwards, the Democrats, Bush and Cheney, the Republicans (or) Nader and Camejo, the independents]?

		Kerry/ Edwards	Bush/ Cheney	Nader/ Camejo	OTHER (vol.)	NONE (vol.)	No opinion
		%	%	%	%	%	%
Likely voters
2004 Aug 9-11		46	48	3	*	1	2
2004 Jul 30-Aug 1		45	51	2	*	1	1
2004 Jul 19-21		47	46	4	*	1	2
2004 Jul 8-11 ^		50	45	2	*	1	2
2004 Jun 21-23		47	48	3	*	*	2
2004 Jun 3-6		49	43	5	1	*	2
2004 May 21-23		47	46	4	*	1	2
2004 May 7-9		45	47	5	--	2	1
2004 May 2-4		47	47	3	*	1	2
2004 Apr 16-18		44	50	4	*	*	2
2004 Apr 5-8		43	47	4	1	2	3
2004 Mar 26-28		45	49	4	--	1	1
2004 Mar 5-7		50	44	2	1	1	2
Registered voters
2004 Aug 9-11		45	46	5	*	1	3
2004 Jul 30-Aug 1		47	48	2	*	1	2
2004 Jul 19-21		47	43	5	*	2	3
2004 Jul 8-11 ^		50	42	4	*	1	3
2004 Jun 21-23		46	45	6	1	*	2
2004 Jun 3-6		45	42	7	1	1	4
2004 May 21-23		46	44	6	*	1	3
2004 May 7-9		46	41	7	*	3	3
2004 May 2-4		44	45	6	1	1	3
2004 Apr 16-18		44	47	5	*	1	3
2004 Apr 5-8		46	45	5	*	2	2
2004 Mar 26-28		43	48	5	--	1	3
2004 Mar 5-7		47	45	5	*	1	2
National adults
2004 Aug 9-11		45	45	5	*	2	3
2004 Jul 30-Aug 1		48	45	3	*	2	2
2004 Jul 19-21		47	43	5	*	2	3
2004 Jul 8-11 ^		49	41	5	*	2	3
2004 Jun 21-23		45	45	6	1	1	2
2004 Jun 3-6		44	42	8	1	2	3
2004 May 21-23		46	42	6	1	2	3
2004 May 7-9		46	41	8	*	3	2
2004 May 2-4		44	44	7	1	1	3
2004 Apr 16-18		43	46	7	*	1	3
2004 Apr 5-8		45	45	5	1	2	2
2004 Mar 26-28		44	46	7	--	1	2
2004 Mar 5-7		47	44	5	1	1	2
(vol.) Volunteered response
^	Vice presidential candidates Edwards, Cheney, and Camejo added beginning with the July 8-11, 2004 survey.

(David W. Moore, "Bush Approval at 51%: Presidential Contest Remains Tight," Gallup.com, August 13, 2004)

3-8% of the voting-age population -- calculated conservatively based upon the November 2002 "Current Population Survey" by the US Census Bureau -- means roughly 6.3-16.8 million Americans. The task of leftists is to create a political party in which they can find their permanent political home.

In the states where open and closet Democrats inside and outside the Green Party succeeded in excluding Nader/Camejo from the ballots, we have to organize write-in campaigns.