Music Theory Researchers for Kerry

It may not roll off the tongue like "Greek Americans for Kerry" (a bumper sticker I saw yesterday, sharing truck bumper space with "Dean for President"), Republicans for Kerry, or Kerry Haters for Kerry. But it is certainly more melodious than John Kerry is a Douchebag But I'm Voting For Him Anyway.

In two posts I have written about the work of Paul von Hippel and Bret Aarden for Music Theory Online. Paul has contacted me to tell me about an article he wrote for The Gadflyer about Ralph Nader. Paul points out that Ralph created an objective measure of politicians' stances on corporate-consumer issues. According to this measure, tracked by Nader-created Congress Watch, there has been a huge difference between Democrats and Republicans. Here is a graph comparing the voting records of the recent presidential and vice-presidential candidates, those people that Ralph claimed were identical.



John Kerry, the guy that Nader is currently running against, had a perfect score in 1990, meaning that he agreed with Nader on key issues for every single vote. Only two years earlier, Dick Cheney scored a 0%, disagreeing with Nader on every issue. So why is Nader running for President?