NEWSWEEK: 2000 ELECTION "STOLEN" FROM DEMOCRATS BY NADER

We're inclined to believe that it was never theirs to begin with. At least that's what the American people seem to have decided. But it's always interesting to see how assumptions harden into linguistic ticks harden into conventional wisdom:

Waterston actually lives in Connecticut, but concedes his Hollywood friends are having a hard time getting their heads around the notion of a third-party candidacy. “Part of it is fear,” he says. “Ralph Nader fear.” Democrats don’t want another election stolen from them by an allegedly well-meaning idealist wanting to reform the system. Republicans are skittish, too. They like control, and the Internet by definition is an uncontrollable force.

"Republicans like control", you say? Because it was the Republicans who opened this Congress by trying to shut down political speech on the Internet. From bland pro-Democratic resentment to glib anti-Republican stereotypes, thus does opinion filter from one myopic self-styled sophisticate to another.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]