Thom Hartmann: Ralph Nader's Solutions for Saving the Future

[ljm2002]

10. I recently mentioned to one of my adult daughters...

...that back when I was growing up, cars did not even have seat belts, much less laws requiring people to use them. She was blown away. I forgot to tell her that it was Ralph Nader who made it happen. While he was out there stumping for seat belts, people were writing editorials saying "How can you ask people to pay and extra $200 per car by requiring cars to have seat belts?"

He has helped with other consumer issues as well. Sure he has an ego. Sure one can be mad at him for the 2000 election -- although truth to tell, his candidacy should have made NO difference as Gore was an excellent candidate and GWBush was an awful one and people ought to have been able to see that. I lay a large part of that on Gore who (a) rejected any association with Clinton (even though he was Clinton's vice president for 8 years); and (b) chose Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Personally I don't think it is fair to blame Ralph Nader for the outcome, given all of the other missteps committed by Gore, and the media's touting of GWBush and ignoring of his many, many flaws.

We need to recognize that people are complex. Few are saints and few are demons. Nader has done so much good in his career, I find it disheartening to see the hate spewed in his direction.

K&R