Politics & Power Quote by Todd Gitlin

Gitlin’s line is a rebuke aimed less at conservatives than at a strain of left-wing romanticism: the idea that refusing to choose is itself a principled choice. The hook is “for the life of me,” a plainspoken exasperation that doubles as moral incredulity. He’s not inviting debate; he’s staging a reality check. In Gitlin’s framing, the 2000 election isn’t an abstract civics lesson, it’s an empirical exhibit: look at what followed and tell me it didn’t matter.

The target is Ralph Nader’s “no difference” claim, a slogan that flatters the disaffected by turning disappointment into purity. Gitlin’s subtext is harsher: that posture depends on a kind of selective amnesia about power. Parties may converge on donors, triangulation, and televised messaging, but outcomes still cascade through courts, agencies, war-making authority, environmental regulation, labor enforcement, and the daily administration of inequality. “Contemplate the results” is doing heavy lifting here; it’s a demand to measure politics by consequences, not vibes.

Context sharpens the accusation. In 2000, a razor-thin contest, Florida’s chaos, and the Supreme Court effectively decided the presidency. Nader’s candidacy became a symbolic proxy war over whether the left should build leverage inside imperfect coalitions or stand outside them and “send a message.” Gitlin, a movement intellectual who watched the New Left collide with institutional reality, is arguing that abstention isn’t neutrality; it’s participation in the outcome you claim to oppose.