[EM] voting methods praxis, value of spoilers

[Bart Ingles]

James Green-Armytage wrote:
>
>  [...]   Here's what I think that people in
> his position should do. They should establish and hold onto a base of
> supporters, i.e. progressives. Then, they should bargain with the
> Democratic candidate, dangle a carrot and brandish a stick. Lay out a
> series of reasonable concessions for the Democrat to make in exchange for
> support. That is, if the Democrat makes the concessions, the
> Naderoid/Green will endorse the Democrat. If the Democrat refuses, the
> Naderoid/Green will make the refusal as public as possible, and call for
> the progressives who find those concession issues to be vitally important
> to vote not for the Democrat, but for the Naderoid/Green, in protest. [...]

How do you know that this isn't what happened?  Except that perhaps
Nader and Gore couldn't agree on what constituted a 'reasonable
concession', or maybe that the Democrats didn't take Nader seriously
enough.  If the latter, I doubt that they will repeat the mistake.   :-)