If you ran into a Nader voter from 2000 what would you say to them?

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Thank you for voting your conscience.  I voted mine.  Gore voters voted theirs.

Al Gore wasn't entitled to any of those votes any more than Bush would have been if the situation were reversed.  It may be safe to assume that if Nader were not on the ballot that a lot of votes, had those voters voted, would have gone to Gore.  But its also safe to assume that had George W. Bush not been on the ballot and there weren't any other options, Al Gore would have gotten more votes.  Nader doesn't have a responsibility to stay off the ballot, nor do his 2000 voters have a responsibility not to vote for him.  Its THEIR vote.  It doesn't belong to Al Gore.  It doesn't belong to George W. Bush.  It doesn't belong to Ralph Nader.  It belongs to them and only them.

It should also be stated that a whole lot of Nader voters were people who merely respected him and his achievements in consumer safety - or folks who just wanted an alternative.  They weren't all necessarily left-wing Green adherents and a decent portion would have even opted to vote for Bush.   The only Nader voter that I know (a friend of mine's mother) falls in to that category.

If the situation were reversed...
Yes, I would be upset that my candidate didn't win.
But I would hate to admit that votes for Peroutka or Buchannan would ever even go to a candidate that I was supporting.  If you are dumb enough to make that kind of choice, then we'll just have to make up that vote elsewhere, thank you very much.