Ralph Nader's Announcement Speech

[SecularMotion]

Candidacy for the Green Party's Nomination for President, Washington, D.C., February 21, 2000

Today I wish to explain why, after working for years as a citizen advocate for consumers, workers, taxpayers, and the environment, I am seeking the Green Party's nomination for president. A crisis of democracy in our country convinces me to take this action. Over the past twenty years, big business has increasingly dominated our political economy. This control by the corporate government over our political government is creating a widening "democracy gap." Active citizens are left shouting their concerns over a deep chasm between them and their government. This state of affairs is a world away from the legislative milestones in civil rights, the environment, and health and safety of workers and consumers seen in the sixties and seventies. At that time, informed and dedicated citizens powered their concerns through the channels of government to produce laws that bettered the lives of millions of Americans.

Today we face grave and growing societal problems in health care, education, labor, energy, and the environment. These are problems for which active citizens have solutions, yet their voices are not carrying across the democracy gap. Citizen groups and individual thinkers have generated a tremendous capital of ideas, information, and solutions to the point of surplus, while our government has been drawn away from us by a corporate government. Our political leadership has been hijacked.

Citizen advocates have no other choice but to close the democracy gap by direct political means. Only effective national political leadership will restore the responsiveness of government to its citizenry. Truly progressive political movements do not just produce more good results, they enable a flowering of progressive citizen movements to effectively advance the quality of our neighborhoods and communities outside of politics.

I have a personal distaste for the trappings of modern politics, in which incumbents and candidates daily extol their own inflated virtues, paint complex issues with trivial brushstrokes, and propose plans quickly generated by campaign consultants. But I can no longer stomach the systemic political decay that has weakened our democracy. I can no longer watch people dedicate themselves to improving their country while their government leaders turn their backs, or worse, actively block fair treatment for citizens. It is necessary to launch a sustained effort to wrest control of our democracy from the corporate government and restore it to the political government under the control of citizens.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Nader/Nader2000_AnnounceSpeech.html

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. And the point in posting this more than 15 years later is ... ? nt

[bunnies]

7. +1.

Equating Sanders to Nader but too afraid to own it? Pathetic if so.

[IDemo]

9. Because a non-Hillary is unsafe at any speed...

[Autumn]

2. That was a nice speech. We don't have a third party candidate running this time.

Of course we do still have some of the same asshole supreme court justice's who awarded the 2000 election to Bush on the court. Oh wait...are you worried about Hillary losing to one of the other Democratic candidates in this race for the 2016 election?

[hrmjustin]

3. Oh him!

[arcane1]

4. Some good points in your excerpt.

I didn't read the whole thing, but I can't disagree with what's posted. Still relevant today.

[LanternWaste]

5. I don't think it's a coincidence that the same people who say "Nader is all about Nader"

I don't think it's a coincidence that the same people who say "Nader is all about Nader" are the same ones I compulsively want to pat on the head and say "well, bless your little heart-- aren't you an adorable little fella..."

[bluestateguy]

6. And he reneged on his promise to actually join the Green Party

but that's because Nader is a dishonest self-serving asshole.

[hrmjustin]

8. +1

[WhiteTara]

10. I think Nadir is appropriate

in that it means lowest point.

[yurbud]

18. DLCers renege on being Democrats

[whatchamacallit]

11. Care to provide some context?

[JHB]

12. Oh dear, someone else who doesn't understand that primaries...

...and general elections are two separate elections.

Well, there's over 8 months until the first primaries happen, so you'll have time to learn, we can only hope.

[Maedhros]

13. ...And this is relevant WHY?

I voted for Nader in 2000 - love his policy positions.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. So did I,

and I'm not sorry. Gore would never have won Alaska anyway, and it was refreshing to vote my conscience.

[BootinUp]

14. Fuck, fuck, fuck, and fuckity fuck

Fuck Nader! Yeah! Woo!

[onehandle]

16. Nader in 2000: 'Gore or Bush, which he would choose... Nader answered without hesitation: Bush.'

Ralph Nader 2000 Campaign Interview:
Will Ralph Nader become Al Gore's worst nightmare?

Of more immediate interest, at least to Al Gore, are Nader's respectable poll numbers: 7 to 10 percent in California as of June, 6 percent nationally. If California tips Green enough, Bush could win the state and the whole damn election.

Which, Nader confided to Outside in June, wouldn't be so bad. When asked if someone put a gun to his head and told him to vote for either Gore or Bush, which he would choose, Nader answered without hesitation: "Bush."

http://www.outsideonline.com/1837851/ralph-nader-2000-campaign-interview

Nader flew back and forth between California and Florida, finally spending the most of the last few weeks in Florida, and fulfilling his goal of a Bush Presidency.