I just wanted to share some thoughts on that sad tale of long ago--the 2000 election--and the politics of its aftermath. It's an essay aimed at those who, like me, thought of themselves as Democrats, who held out hope that a successful Sanders campaign could reform the party from the inside, and who are now left wondering what comes next. It seems relevant right about now.

Nader was the spoiler. The destroyer. That was (and for some, still is) the narrative. I have voted loyally as a Democrat in every election from 1992 to 2014 (including 2000, when I voted for Gore in Florida, assuming they counted my vote). After the debacle of 2000, I bought into that Nader narrative myself, and, not wanting to spoil anything, "held my nose" and continued to be a loyal Democrat. Of course, back in 2000, it was not widely noted that, numerically speaking, far more registered Democrats crossed over and voted for Bush than voted for Nader. Why, for so long, were Nader and the voters he allegedly lured away like the pied piper blamed, shunned, and ridiculed?

What I realize now, looking back, is that this narrative of the "spoiler Nader" was a self-serving scare story repeated endlessly by the Democratic Party in order to shame voters back into the two-party system. For those touting this officially approved Party narrative, no other factor impinging on the 2000 election is allowed into the discussion. Bill Clinton's triangulation? His lies and behavior with a young intern that would, in many other institutions, lead to summary termination of employment? The media's abysmal coverage? No. No, no, no. Nader Cost Gore the Election. That's it. End of story. Moral of story: a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush.

In my defense, the horrible years of Bush, Cheney, Tom DeLay, etc. seemed so bad that I and many others were willing to overlook the profound differences that existed on our own side. We were united against what seemed the common enemy. I knew quite well what NAFTA and PNTR were doing; I was aware of the disturbing consolidations in telecommunications and banking; I watched the skyrocketing increase of wealth inequality with muted horror. But somehow, and maybe I need to be subjected to a psychological study, I still thought it was best to stay with the Democrats. The fear of the Republicans, and the taboo of Nader, kept me in place.

Now it is clear that Democrats have been and currently are just as beholden to Wall Street, the banks, and the corporate sector as the Republicans (and in the case of Hillary, maybe more so). The Democratic president who in 2008 said he would re-negotiate NAFTA has not only not done that, but is rather poised to sign an even more noxious neoliberal trade deal, the TPP. There are, of course, some social issues that distinguish D from R, and social issues and civil rights are vital concerns. But fighting for social issues when you can't find a job, are drowning in medical bills and tuition bills, and you can't even trust the drinking water because of fracking or privatization, seems rather like fighting for a hollow victory. And it became very clear this past year, when Bernie ran a campaign grounded in class politics (with plenty of respect for civil rights) and Hillary countered with a campaign of identity politics that blurred over her corrupt ties to the ownership class, that those long-standing differences in the Democratic Party were too profound to be ignored.

Bernie was a last attempt to renovate the party. And in a concerted, top-down effort, with able assistance from toadies in the media and online, the party blocked him at every turn. They insinuated that he was sexist or racist, when his record on civil rights was in truth far more commendable than anything Hillary Clinton could claim. A photograph showing Bernie's anti-segregation activism at the University of Chicago was claimed to be a fake, and the media only (reluctantly) gave up on the conspiracy theory when another photograph and a short film surfaced, one that actually showed the young Sanders being rather painfully frogmarched into a paddywagon for protesting Chicago school segregation.

All the masks came off. The Democratic party elite laugh at and ridicule the Republicans, but they despise the economic left, the progressives who insist on the inseparability of social and economic issues, and who contend that the neoliberal turn enabled by Bill Clinton in the 1990s is directly responsible for untold misery and the destruction of countless lives and thousands of communities. They are Dorian Gray, and we are the picture in the attic that reveals the monstrous lie that they are living. They absolutely hate us.

I have been persuaded for all of my adult life to vote against myself, to vote "strategically," and to think inside the box presented to me by a system that only cares about extending its power and profits. But now I have reached that point where, as Bernie said, enough is enough.

I don't know how things will turn out this fall. The oddsmakers probably don't give Jill Stein much of a chance, but then they didn't give Bernie much of a chance either. The nasty, criminal, undemocratic behavior of the Democratic party has been amply displayed for all to see. So finally, at long last, I got the message. The owners of the country didn't want a major-party progressive alternative to be on the general election menu. And if they have corrupted the Democratic Party to the extent that it will obediently deliver to Wall Street the nominee of Wall Street, it's long past time, in my view, to start fresh somewhere else.

So for the first time ever, I will be able to vote for someone whose values are truly my values, whose understanding of the world has not been distorted by the narratives emanating from millionaire pundits on television or from the advice whispered by amoral political hacks zipping around the revolving door. I'm here because as Jill Stein said, voting for the lesser evil doesn't oppose the greater evil, it paves the way for it.

For me, the future is Green. Cheers, everyone.