The only thing the Greens “spoiled” in 2000 was the illusion that the two-party system was meeting the needs of the people. The people who voted for Nader were declaring their independence from a corrupt system and signaling a willingness to build a better one. The real story of the 2000 election, the story you didn’t read about in the newspapers, was the explosive growth of the Green Party. The Greens gained thousands of new members and formed hundreds of new local chapters. It was the beginning of the end of the two-party lock on power.