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In reply to the discussion: Gore not becoming President: whose fault? [View all]Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)Which is a statement of fact. A large majority of the electorate did not vote for Gore even though he did win the popular vote.
You will realize that fundamentally the argument that Nader was responsible for Gore's loss is the same as the argument that the non-voters were responsible for Gore's loss. If you accept the logic of the former you must necessarily accept the logic of the latter. Which is to say that those who did not vote for Gore are responsible for his loss. Of course, I think this is probably a reasonably sound claim.
Which is why I think that if we were to stratify those who did not vote for Gore as an explanation for their inaction, the strata with the largest size would shoulder the most blame.
In order, from most to least responsible, those would be non-voters, those who voted for Bush and, in a hugely distant third, those who voted for Nader.