Many voices, some his friends and allies of yore, counseled him not to do this. They miss the point. The point is to participate in power, not lower your expectations so that you meekly accept assurances that the government will fix our problems. If you put first the need to protect yourself from the worst, you give your vote away to a lesser evil. That way lies the attrition of your power and the atrophy of your freedom.
Freedom is participation in power.
Nader said that often. Not Whole-Hogging It Look again at the word Participation . It does not say that to be free you must be able to dominate, to be the only power the latter is the mantra and message of corporate capitalism, fueled by the drive for hegemony, domination, control of the market, beating everybody else out. This kind of behavior and attitude has now fully seeped into Washington and threatens whatever is left of our democracy. It is not the Green way.