Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush is all there in black and white. The presidential election season is a heyday for the media. They cover every step along the campaign trail, but only focus on issues concerning the two major parties. To find out anything about Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate, Winona LaDuke, you have to read between the lines, and many voters are left asking:
Who is Ralph Nader, and what does he stand for as the candidate for the Green Party?
Nader was born in 1934 to Lebanese immigrants who ran a small business in Connecticut. As a child, he had an early interest in consumer affairs. By age 14 he had read works by early muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell. Their exposure of corporate wrongs inspired him and shaped his future of consumer advocacy. An attorney by profession, Nader has a strong interest in consumer activism, and he has successfully fought against many corporations over the last 35 years.
In 1965 he entered the national consciousness when he went up against General Motors in his book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile. Nader sued General Motors after the company tried to refute his claims about the lack of safety technology in their vehicles. He used the money he won from the settlement to launch the modern consumer movement.
Working out of Washington, D.C., Nader and his followers, "Nader's Raiders," worked to advocate laws to protect consumers, workers, taxpayers, and the environment. They also worked to combat corporate abuse and to increase citizen access to the government.
One of Nader's largest accomplishments came in 1971 when he founded the group Public Citizen, which works for consumer justice, and government and corporate accountability. The six branches of Public Citizen boast an involvement of over 150,000 people who work with issues dealing with health research, natural resources, and international trade.
More recently, Nader has focused on encouraging citizens to transform the government so it is responsive to the population's needs. His most important concern has been defending the civil justice system of the United States. Seeking justice through the courts in areas of product liability, securities fraud, and medical negligence, Nader has expanded consumer rights.
As a presidential candidate, Nader is changing focus from the justice system to the political system. His campaign embodies the same values as his legal work and consumer advocacy. Nader's Green Party platform includes many stances calling for voter empowerment. The platform states its hope to create independent politics: "a democratic vision that empowers and reaches beyond background and political loyalty to bring together our combined strengths as a people."
Among the platform's key tenets are a plan for a prospering, sustainable economy, and the hopes to create a rich, diverse environment with a great sense of community. The Green Party works with grassroots organizations to promote change within the U.S. According to the Green Party website, www.greenparty.org, "the Greens encourage diverse approaches, brought together by our basic values of democracy, justice, nonviolence, and ecological wisdom." With this foundation of thinking, the Greens participate in diverse activities to help change the common good.
The Nader/LaDuke ticket embodies all of these values and is working to bring together progressive communities behind a leader with a long history of fighting for rights.
