Ralph Nader, former independent presidential candidate, said the presidential race was so close on the national level because Sen. John Kerry and President Bush were too similar to one another on the popular issues, and silent on “taboo” issues such as corporate crime, prison reform and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nader delivered a speech to a predominantly student audience Oct. 29 on the shortfalls of the current American government and suggested negative similarities between the Republican and Democratic parties.
John Clarke, a philosophy professor who worked on Nader’s 1996 campaign and is adviser to the Loyola Green Party, introduced Nader with a short speech urging the audience to support Nader’s candidacy.
The candidate’s speech lasted for more than an hour and addressed campaign issues ranging from the legalization of marijuana to the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Nader, who ran as a Green Party candidate in 2000 and drew a significant minority of votes in some swing states, said that the outcome of the election in Louisiana was “a foregoneconclusion. George W. Bush will win in a landslide.”
Bush won 57 percent of Louisiana’s votes on Tuesday, with Nader drawing 7,015 votes.
Nader had harsh words for both Kerry and Bush, deriding Kerry as a tool of special interests and Bush as a “messianic, militarist, chicken-hawk draft dodger.”
Nader, a lifelong consumer advocate and political activist, lamented what he perceives as a corporate takeover of the American government.
“All you hear from the Democrats is too often silence,” he said. “They should be landsliding Bush, but instead they’re indentured to the same corporate interests, and that’s our problem.”
Nader also spoke about corruption, pollution and governmental ineffectiveness in Louisiana, calling the state’s air and water “sewers for corporate emissions.”
He also accused the Bush administration of ignoring several causes of preventable death in America, quoting fatality statistics and making frequent comparisons to 9/11. Nader described al-Qaida as a “criminal gang” and implied that terrorism is an exaggerated threat.
“Terrorism’s become the inventory for reelecting George W. Bush,” Nader said, “because he can’t respond to the necessities of the American people.”
Toward the end of the speech, Nader praised the role of third parties in American politics as “the rumbling of the people.”
He said that America is currently going “backwards into the future” and implored the audience to “vote your conscience” on Election Day. He finally answered questions from the audience and stayed for a book signing.
Casey Toplitz, a sociology senior who attended the speech and donated $100 to the Nader campaign, said on Wednesday that President Bush’s reelection made him support Nader even more.
“I’ve given up on two-party politics,” Toplitz said. “There’s no hope playing within the system. There’s just got to be overall change, and if Nader’s the guy to do it, then more power to him.”
Thomas Stevenson can be reached at [email protected].
