Ralph Nader on Principles & Values 2008 Independent for for President; 2004 Reform nominee; 2000 Green nominee

Sub-sections under Principles & Values:
• Green Party
• Seventeen Traditions
• Spoiler Issue
• Other issues under Principles & Values

Organize to give the president some backbone

A: What I prefer as an American citizen?

Q: Yes.

A: You’re asking me? I’m running for president, for heaven’s sake.

Q: But as a citizen.

A: I would prefer that the American people organize, that whoever is president, they give that person backbone.

The two parties steal elections & can’t even count the votes

The only true aging is the erosion of one’s ideals

A: Thank you very much. I really like that.

Q: It’s an issue that has been discussed about John McCain, and I’m presenting it to you.

A: Someone once said the only true aging is the erosion of one’s ideals, and I want the people out there just to look at our Web site and see how exciting it’s going to be. I’ve been assured by my computer/Internet literate associates--I grew up in the Underwood typewriter age, you know--that this is going to be the most exciting, informative, participatory Web site of any presidential campaign, votenader.org. We’re millions of people out there, and we simply have to, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and the state of our nation in the world, we have to mobilize in that manner, and that’s what that Web site is all about. It’s not just a Web site. It’s a gathering center, votenader.org.

Hillary is a panderer; Obama is too abstract & general

A: The voters lost a critic of corporate control in the form of John Edwards, also i the departure of Dennis Kucinich. And corporate control is a major issue in any political campaign.

Q: I know you don’t like the Republican candidates, and you’ve told me on several occasions that you consider Hillary Clinton a panderer. That’s the wor you’ve used. But what about Barack Obama? What don’t you like about him?

A: He’s too abstract and too general. He comes on as a constitutional law specialist, but he offers nothing to hold this outlaw presidency accountable. And he’s not speaking out.

Bloomberg run would add to debate, but not stop a Nader run

NADER: I would like the idea of a no-nonsense mayor, who doesn’t have to dial for dollars and who can go right in and turn it into a multiparty or multicandidate race.

Q: What do you think about a potential Bloomberg run? Would that stop you from running?

A: No, because although he will address certain issues the other two parties will not address, he doesn’t address the civil liberties issues. He’s not good on civil liberties. He’s not good on stopping taxpayer subsidies to corporate welfare recipients, big corporations on the dole. So, I don’t know why we are rationing candidate choice in this country. We certainly don’t ration entertainment. We don’t ration sports. We shouldn’t ration candidate choice, we shouldn’t ration debates, we shouldn’t ration the full, vibrant, robust process of democracy so that taboo issues are untaboo.

The “money horse race” is unhealthy, rancid politics

Hillary is a panderer, flatterer, & corporate Democrat

A: No. I don’t think she has the fortitude. Actually, she’s really a panderer and a flatterer as she goes around the country. You’ll see more of that.

Q: If Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination, would that encourage you to go forward and put your name on the ballot?

A: It would make it more important that that be the case.

For 2008, likes Bloomberg, Gravel, Kucinich, & Bill Moyers

A: He’ll give more diversity for sure, and he’ll focus on urban problems. And I might say, he has got the money to do it, doesn’t he?

Q: Are there any Democrats or Republicans out there?

A: Well, there are, but they don’t have a lot of money. Mike Gravel made a great speech before the Democratic National Convention on the war, on the corporate domination of our economy, on the need for a national referendum to give more power to the people.

Q: I think it’s fair to say he’s a long shot. You like Congressman Kucinich, too.

A: [Yes], these people have records, not just rhetoric, going back in their own elected careers.

Q: You wrote, “Bill Moyers is unusually articulate and authentic in evaluating the unmet necessities and framing the ignored solutions in our country.” You’d like him to run for president?

A: Very much. I got a great response to that column.

Q: What about response did you get from Bill Moyers?

A: We haven’t heard from Bill Moyers.

New book, “The 17 Traditions”, about his upbringing

A: Well, there are 17 ways my mother and father raised four children, two girls and two boys, in a little factory town in northwest Connecticut. And their traditions, I think they’ll resonate with a lot of people, especially young parents who think everything’s out of control for them, including their children. So the first tradition is learning how to listen. My mother would say, learn how to listen so you’ll listen to learn, something I wish George W. Bush grew up learning. There’s a tradition of history, a tradition of the family food table, where a lot of discussion was conducted. Tradition of work: Father had a restaurant where they said for a nickel, you got a cup of coffee and ten minutes of politics. So it was a lot of town meeting activity.

Hillary is a corporate Democrat, a panderer and a flatterer

A: No. I don’t think she has the fortitude. Actually, she’s really a panderer and a flatterer as she goes around the country. You’ll see more of that.

A: It would make it more important that that be the case.

Q: Are there any Democrats out there that you like right now?

A: Well, there are, but they don’t have a lot of money. Mike Gravel made a great speech before the DNC, on the war, on the corporate domination of our economy, on the need for a national referendum to give more power to the people.

Listening is the first of the “Seventeen Traditions”

A: Well, there are 17 ways my mother and father raised four children, two girls and two boys, in a little factory town in northwest Connecticut. And their traditions, I think they’ll resonate with a lot of people, especially young parents who think everything’s out of control for them, including their children. So the first tradition is learning how to listen. My mother would say, learn how to listen so you’ll listen to learn, something I wish George W. Bush grew up learning. There’s a tradition of history, a tradition of the family food table, where a lot of discussion was conducted. The tradition of history, it was very important for us. Tradition of work.

Bush is turning the U.S. into a police state

OpEd: Liberal trap: perfect is the enemy of the good

Al was going to win big states by large margins, but Bush was going to win more small rural states, and they had an advantage in the electoral college.

Gore did win [the popular vote], but the electoral college was in doubt. The race came down to Florida, after Gore won a narrow victory in New Mexico, one of several states that were closer than they would have been had Ralph Nader not been on the ballot.

New Hampshire went for Bush by a margin of just over 7,000 because Nader got 22,198 votes. Even worse, Nader received more than 90,000 votes in Florida, where Bush was hanging by a thread in an election contest that would drag on for more than a month.

Saw anti-Bork campaign as constituency-building opportunity

Ralph Nader's personal asceticism and low-key style masked a sour and unrelenting demagogue--and he clearly understood the new political terrain better than Biden did.

Gore & Bush both ignore youth issues in favor of fat cats

For months, a nonpartisan group called Youth in Action tried to have that seat filled in Philadelphia’s Drexel University auditorium. The event was part of the National Youth Conventions, which involved thousands of high school students and other young people contributing to a National Youth Platform.

By demonstrating a serious engagement with the presidential campaign of 2000, as well as their deep stake in America’s future, Youth in Action was hoping that it could lay claim to some personal attention by George W. Bush and Al Gore, just as large campaign donors had done throughout the year. Its schedulers made sure that there were no conflicts with the big events at the two conventions.

It was not to be. Gore matched Bush in declining to appear. The two candidates had more important events to attend--lavish parties with corporate lobbyists and fat cats.

“Priceless” ad caused lawsuit but got priceless attention

The 30-second spot caught the attention of MasterCard CEO Robert Selander, who called Nader directly while vacationing in the tropics. Back came MasterCard with a lawsuit, claiming trademark and copyright infringement. The company demanded $15 million in damages. The Nader campaign pulled the ad, pending the outcome of the lawsuit. But it was remarkable how much mileage Nader got out of a single ad. Countless articles about the debacle appeared. Nader campaign headquarters received hundreds of cut-up MasterCards.

Nader “stood” for president in 1996 (didn’t “run”)

Nader received 580,627 votes in 1996, good for 0.6% of the electorate. He came in fourth behind Reform Party candidate Ross Perot (8.5%) and just ahead of Harry Browne of the Libertarian Party (0.5%). Considering that Nader had merely “stood” for president, it was an impressive outcome. He began to wonder what would happen if he ever ran in earnest. So, too, did the Green Party. The stage was set for 2000.

Political systems benefit from outside competition

Dems will lose until they become more progressive

Bush intensifies contradictions and galvanizes progressives

Ran because unable to get hearing with president or Congress

As for the Clinton-era Congress, Nader found that he was a pariah, even among the most liberal members. In 1997 Nader was invited to speak before the House Progressive Caucus, but only 5 of the 50 caucus members even bothered to show up.

From Nader’s standpoint. the icy reception in Washington was proof of a serious drift among Democrats. They had pilfered the Republican agenda and called it their own--a process he termed “protective imitation.”

The doors were shut, tighter than ever. As he did during the Reagan years, Nader went to the grassroots, but there were limits to what could be accomplished. Nader wanted to have a say on weighty national issues. But more than ever before, he found it hard to get any political traction.

Suffers from Bell’s Palsy

In Nader’s case, Bell’s Palsy initially froze the left side of his face, although that gradually abated. But he had continued difficulty controlling the muscles on that side. His left eyelid also began to droop. For some, Bell’s Palsy lasts only a few weeks, but in Nader’s case it would linger. He took to wearing dark sunglasses and began to joke with audiences that he could no longer be accused of talking out of both sides of his mouth.

1960s participatory citizens shut out by 1990s corporations

Yet somehow that spirit, little by little, slipped away, and big business stepped in again to seize more influence on our government. Over the course of my work in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans have drawn so close to the monied, corporate interests that the citizens are shut out.

That is why I ran for president.

Experience to run government comes from suing most agencies

NADER: ‘Well, I’ve been a full-time citizen for 40 years. I think the auto industry knows what I can do in terms of safer cars. We’re almost experts at how to make government and corporations accountable.“

Q: Do you have the experience to run the vast agencies of the US government?

NADER: I don’t know anybody who has sued more of them. I don’t know anybody who has participated for over three decades in the process.

Focus on broader distribution of power

Spoiled political system spawns spoiled candidates

Uses personal income as societal change agent

Opposes concentration of power & monied interests

Counter “democracy gap”: raise expectations in politics

The “democracy gap” in our politics and elections spells a deep sense of powerlessness by people who drop out, do not vote or listlessly vote for the “least-worst” every four years. A few illustrative questions can begin to raise our expectations and suggest what can be lost when the few and powerful hijack our democracy:
• Why can’t the wealthiest nation in the world abolish the chronic poverty of millions of working Americans?
• Are we reversing the disinvestment in our distressed inner cities and rural areas?
• Are we getting the best out of known ways to spread renewable, efficient energy, to save consumers money and to head off global warming?
• Can we extend overseas the best examples of our country’s democratic processes & achievements instead of annually using billions in tax dollars to subsidize corporate munitions exports?
• Can we counter the coarse and brazen commercial culture?
• Can we plan ahead as a society so we know our priorities and where we wish to go?

New populism: citizen participation over commercialism

Expand agenda to voter, worker, consumer, shareholder

A: I’ve heard from emissaries from the Democrats, from some members of Congress, and their question is always, why are you doing this? And I’ve given them the answer:

This is a broad political effort to enlist young people, broaden the agenda, and focus relentlessly on expanding the tools of democracy -- for the five roles we play in our country: voter, worker, taxpayer, consumer and shareholder.

Struggle against commercialism based on priceless things

A: I think of little homilies by my parents. One day, I came home and my parents were in the back yard and my mother said, “How much is a dozen oranges?” I knew. “How much is a dozen eggs?” And I knew. Because my father had a restaurant, so I knew the prices. And then they said, “How much is that breeze that’s caressing our faces? What do you think that sun is worth right now? And you hear those birds? What’s the price of those birds?“ And they were trying to teach me that there are things that are priceless. You don’t always measure things by the dollar. And I remembered that as I embarked in my struggle against commercialism and the overwhelming spread of commercial dictates into universities, into government, even into religion, into areas far removed from traditional market place venues.

Sacrificed personal life because civic work is a joy

A: [Not having] sons and daughters was a sacrifice. It’s [a choice] I have to bear [because] I don’t believe in being an absentee father.

Q: When was the last time you had a whole day off?

A: Sometimes when I’m traveling I take a day off simply because there’s nothing to do. And I do take about a week off during the summer.

Q: What’s your idea of a good time?

A: Reading is a good time. Conversing with friends. Seeing new things and new experiences. When traveling, I like to go see plants and factories, like a meat processing plant. Or a coal mine.

Q: Your work schedule is what? 80 hours a week?

A: It’s pretty much all the time except eight hours to eat and sleep. But I enjoy it. The definition of work implies something you’d rather not be doing. [Civic work] is a joy. If more people would involve themselves in civic action, they’d discover an important formula for personal human happiness.

Power corrupts, unless it fears loss of power

A: Power that is not afraid of losing its power will inevitably corrupt. And that’s why a dictatorship is so dangerous, that’s why monopolies in the corporate area are so dangerous. Power is necessary, but power has to fear losing its power to be responsible in its exercise. I don’t like concentration of power. Whether it’s in Wall Street or whether it’s government ownership of the means of production which is the definition of Socialism.

Pushed consumer protection in “Nader’s Raiders”

Born to Lebanese immigrant parents in Connecticut, Nader is a Harvard-trained lawyer who has taken on a vast range of issues, ranging from an unsafe General Motors car, the Corvair, later withdrawn from the market, to banning smoking on airline flights. He was named by the LA Times as one of the 50 people who most influenced business this century.

He and his team of investigators, popularly dubbed “Nader’s Raiders,” have pushed for legislative change and raised public awareness. Nader works out of the Center for Responsive Law in Washington and lives nearby in a studio apartment. A bachelor, he does not own a television or car and has few interests outside his work.

Both major parties don’t like competition

Running because 61% think both major parties are failing

A: Let me put it in context, to make it a little more palatable to people who have closed minds. 24% of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country. That’s about the lowest ranking ever. 61% think both major parties are failing. 80% would consider voting for a independent this year. Now, you take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized, disrespected; and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? To try to open the doorways, to try to get better ballot access, to respect dissent in America in the terms of third parties and, and independent candidates; to recognize historically that great issues have come in our history against slavery and women rights to vote and worker and farmer progressives, through little parties that never won any national election. Dissent is the mother of ascent. And in that context, I have decided to run for president.

Two parties have been converging; both flunk for the future

A: Of course it does, but the question is, do both flunk? Do both undermine the future potential of our country, curtailing that bloated military budget and cracking down on corporate crime fraud and abuse. These two parties have been converging, unfortunately, on too many issues to avoid addressing these issues. And they’ve been converging because they’ve been dialing for the same corporate dollars.

Ready for Democratic lawsuits against ballot access

A: The Democrats filed 23 lawsuits in 12 weeks to get us off the ballot in state after state like Pennsylvania and Ohio. They did it, in their own words, to distract us and to drain our resources. They’re not going to get away with that this time. We’re ready for them. We’re developing a pro bono network of lawyers. We’ve already sued the Democratic National Committee for what they did in abuse of legal process in 2004. We are now being flooded with volunteers. Donations are coming in, in the testing-the-water period. The forces of injustice work 24 hours a day. The forces for justice and redirection in this country that’s desired by so many Americans who are dissatisfied with the two parties, the forces for justice must also work 24 hours a day.

Greens focus on substance; day-&-night vs. major parties

Green nominee, but declined rival Green Party USA

The Denver convention [which nominated Nader] was held by the group that coveted national elective office, known as the Association of State Green Parties. The rival faction-known as Green Party USA-remained focused on grassroots activism. To confuse matters, it held a convention anyway, in Chicago, where it endorsed Nader. The issues on its platform included abolition of the US Senate and 100% taxation of income above $100,000. Nader refused to accept the rival Green party’s endorsement. But throughout his campaign, many voters and journalists were justifiably confused.

To clarify the record: Nader ran in 2000 as the candidate for the Association of State Green Parties. He did not support abolition of the Senate, nor did he adopt a number of other positions advocated by Green Party USA.

Suffered from "media gap"--little coverage of 3rd parties

We scheduled the announcement of my candidacy for Presidents' Day, Feb. 21, 2000. Because it was a national holiday, the day was almost guaranteed to have little news competition for the announcement. There was not a single sentence about my announcement on any of the three major networks. Was I surprised by this uniform blackout on four networks? Of course. It could be expected that a candidate with a visible 35-year record of consumer, environmental, and worker advocacy would merit at least 15 seconds on the nightly news.

Although there was good coverage throughout the independent media and talk radio, we quickly realized that our "democracy gap" campaign had fallen into a big-time "media gap."

Base campaigns on issues, not on ego

A campaign should not be a vehicle for an ego. Rather, it is an opportunity for other articulate voices to be heard. When the Green Party conventioneers in 1996 started chanting "Go, Ralph, go," I immediately changed the phrase to, "Go, we go," and it caught on to a surprised but delighted audience. Social change occurs when "we" come together to create a just and democratic society. It's as simple as that. If you want a society that embraces both visions and revisions, then the motto must be "Together we can make a difference." That leaves little room for "ego tripping" or people who are so egotistically fragile that they can be blistered by moonbeams.

News media doesn't cover 3rd parties; only the horse race

I asked the political editor whether the LA Times had any overall newsworthiness criteria for covering significant third-party candidates. He allowed that there were no specific standards, but, "If you do anything with Pat Buchanan, or when you campaign in California, I'd be interested."

I often asked newspaper editorial boards across the country what I had to do to be more newsworthy. The responses were either noncommittal or related to our effect on the Gore-Bush competition. One would think that merely to escape the tedium, the press would declare itself some holidays from the horse-race question.

Waited 16 years; Dems no different than GOP about power

Nader said he was not impressed by pressure warning that he could hurt his reputation as well as his causes if he was seen as having helped elect Bush. “I waited in 84, 88, 92, 96,” he said bitterly. “It’s as if the Democrats are telling us, ‘Wait another four years, then ask our permission.’” Then he said the way the two parties cozied up to special interests and encouraged a concentration of power made all other distinctions meaningless. “I don’t care if they’re different on everything else,” he said.

Attract new voters to build future party

NADER: In recent days I’ve been 7 percent, 6 percent, 17 percent in Alaska. We’re going to draw from a lot of young voters for the first time. We’re going to get millions of votes in November to build for the future a strong party.

Vote conscience rather than choosing between drab and dreary

One purpose of campaign is moving Democrats Left

The DemRep duopoly obstructs citizenship

Raised to challenge preconceptions and reject conformity

In these times of widespread conformity and self-censorship, [I decided to write this book to share childhood] memories with others, in the hope that they might offer guidance and inspiration for the parents & children of today. And what I hope will be especially helpful, in this very different world we inhabit, are my memories of the traditions in which my childhood was immersed--traditions that guide me to this day.

Had “a lucky choice of parents” who passed down traditions

Among other things, my parents were responsible for passing down the traditions they had learned from the generations before them traditions they refined and adapted to the unfamiliar country and culture to which they had emigrated early in the twentieth century. These traditions arose from the received wisdom and customs they had learned during their own childhoods in Lebanon, elaborated by their own judgments, sensibilities, and changing circumstances. In turn, they were nourished by regular feedback from their acculturating children, which they encouraged.

Grew up in Winsted CT, a mill town where everyone walked

Winsted was, and wasn’t, a typical New England town. Connecticut is dotted with such mill towns, which depended on the rivers to power their factories. Most of these towns were small, dominated by one or two large factories. Winsted, on the other hand, had spawned a hundred factories and fabrication shops by 1900. When my father opened his restaurant-bakery along the town’s mile-long Main Street, the local population was ten thousand.

It was a walking town. In those days, youngsters didn’t have to rely on Mama or Papa to drive them around. Nor were there school buses, except for the really distant rural homes. You walked. I walked.

Gore responsible for 2000 election; Bush responsible since

A: Not George Bush? Not the Democrats in Congress? Not the voters who voted for George Bush? But the political bigotry that’s involved here is that we shouldn’t enter the electoral arena? All of us who think that the country needs an infusion of freedom, democracy, choice, dissent should just sit on the sidelines and watch the two parties own all the voters and turn the government over to big business? If you want to look at it analytically, Mr. Gore would tell you if he won Tennessee, anything else being equal, he would’ve been president. It’s his home state. So why do they blame the Greens? Why do they blame the people all over the country who are trying to have a progressive platform--what was their crime?

Democrats should landslide Republicans in 2008

A: Not a chance. If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form. You think the American people are going to vote for a pro-war John McCain who almost gives an indication that he’s the candidate of perpetual war, perpetual intervention overseas? You think they’re going to vote for a Republican like McCain, who allies himself with the criminal, recidivistic regime of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the most multipliable impeachable presidency in American history?

Joe Lieberman was unwise VP choice for Gore

Dislikes “spoiler” label and “strategic voting”

Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins suggested that residents of safe states-where either Bush or Gore held a commanding lead-could afford to vote their “hearts.” But in swing states, she urged people to vote their “brains.” This came to be known as the “Ivins Rule.” The Times editorial and Ivins Rule set the standard for the way the media would cover Nader’s campaign.

Personally, Nader did not appreciate either approach. Certainly he did not relish being slapped with the “spoiler” tag. Neither did he approve of the Ivins Rule, with its suggestion that people vote strategically instead of “voting their conscience” as he frequently termed it.

Gore beat Gore -- look at TN, AR, and WV, not FL

Wants credit for a Democratic Senate in 2000 election

Ran in 2000 to address the "democracy gap"

1. The "democracy gap" had widened & deepened over the past 20 years. Citizen groups mattered less; both political parties were morphing into each other.
2. Solutions to our nation's injustices & needs abounded. They were being applied in a few places but without any engines of diffusion.
3. The major media repeatedly headlined investigative stories about the failings of big business & government, but nothing was happening. This was a telltale sign of a weakening democratic society unable to provide the linkages that bring serious misdeeds toward a more just resolution.
4. Having to spend so much time raising money from interests you don't favor or like has turned away too many good people from running for office in America.
5. People's expectation levels toward politics had reached perilously low levels. Why bother? These words become the mantra of withdrawal.