Nader revs up fans at UVM campaign rally

Author: Jahd Khalil and Rodrigo Seira

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader addressed a crowd of about 2,000 people at a campaign stump at the University of Vermont (UVM) Oct. 5, touching on local Vermont politics, the state of American democracy, civic engagement and the current financial crisis.

After an introduction by Progressive Party congressional candidate Thomas Hermann and local political organizers of the Vermont impeachment movement of President Bush, Nader emphasized the need for multi-party politics.

"The least worst is no longer good enough to the American people," he said. Further deploring the idea of voting for Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on the basis of pragmatism, Nader told those in attendance, "the minute you give them [the two main parties] your least-worst vote, you lose your bargaining power." Harping on the "broken" electoral system, Nader claimed the Electoral College is a system that allows the two major parties to write off any voter in a safe state as an unattainable vote.

During his speech Nader criticized Vermont's congressional delegation, calling the leadership of Senator Bernie Sanders into question. Nader also denounced Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative Peter Welch for voting in favor of Congress' $700 billion bailout bill, going so far as to suggest that Vermonters "summon Senator Leahy so he can explain himself." Nader, calling the bailout a "golden lifeboat" for the rich, attacked the idea of bailing out corporations on a constitutional basis saying, "The word corporation does not exist in our constitution."

Nader's platform consists mostly of anti-corporate rhetoric, containing 16 solutions to "shift the power" from corporations to the citizenry. Nader argued that his solutions were all wanted by the American people, and were being held back by corporate interests. Among those solutions were single-payer universal healthcare, accountability of congressional and other elected officials, tax reform, repealing the Patriot Act and clean energy reform.

After discussing national issues at length, Nader turned to state politics. He endorsed independent gubernatorial candidate Anthony Polina and spoke out against the re-licensing of Vermont Yankee - the nuclear power plant in Vernon. Nader also praised the New England style of local governance, calling it a "trendsetter," for its tendency "to assert the great concept of citizenship, which is really the fundamental firmament of our democratic society."

The majority of the speech centered on an appeal for civic engagement among youth, distinguishing between personal and civic freedom, and calling for a 2,000-person watchdog group in the congressional district. Nader framed the issue by polling the students in attendance that had never engaged in the civic arena and compared the issue to those who contribute to corporations through the commercial arena, discussing the implications of participation in each. Furthering his message of civic engagement, Nader addressed the young members of the audience directly.

"It's your twenties when you decide the vector of your life's work, the kind of mark you're going to make on the world, on a nation, on your state, on your community, and on your neighborhood. Don't waste it."

He urged the young voters in the crowd to think independently and push for change.

"You're the ones who have the greatest stake in your country," he said. "When people in any society don't turn onto politics, politics turns on them." Nader also called for students to raise their expectations of their politicians, and change their style of learning as to enhance the civic arena. Nader spoke of an experience of his youth, when after school his father asked him, "Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?"

Ralph Nader is running for President for the fourth time. He rose to national prominence as a consumer advocate, producing the 1965 publication of "Unsafe at Any Speed" which revealed the unsafe conditions of many American vehicles, helping pave the way for the enforcement of mandatory seatbelts and airbags. Nader has been a high-profile activist ever since, playing a significant role in the environmental movement and holding a key position in the anti-nuclear power movement of the 1970's and 1980's. In addition, Nader was a vital part of the Freedom of Information Act.

Nader's contributions as an activist have been overshadowed in recent years by the fallout from his controversial bid for president as the Green Party candidate in the 2000 election. Many Democrats resented Nader and accused him of being the candidate that cost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election.

When announcing his candidacy this February on NBC's Meet the Press, Nader contested this old accusation saying, "Twenty-five percent of my vote, according to a Democratic pollster, exit poll, would have gone to Bush. Thirty-nine percent would have gone to Gore and the rest would have stayed home. Every major third party in Florida got more votes than the 537 vote gap." Nader said he was not concerned that his third party status may again factor into this November's election. He does not believe that his presence will truly alter the outcome of the tight presidential race between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain, both of whom he denounced as "corporate candidates."