Nader, Ralph

Nader was born in Winstead , Connecticut , into a family of Natra and Rosa Nader (نادر), Orthodox Christian Arabs from Lebanon . However, he always refused to indicate religion in his family. His father, Natra Nader, worked at a textile factory, and at a certain point in time owned a bakery and a restaurant in which he involved visitors in political discussions.

Ralph Nader had a brother and has two sisters:

• Shafeek Nader is the elder brother, founder of the Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest . Died in 1986 from prostate cancer ^[3] ;
• Laura Nader Milleron - Ph.D. holder D. and professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley ^[4] ;
• Claire Nader holds Ph. D. and founder of the Council for Responsible Genetics ^[5] .

Ralph Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and Harvard Law School in 1958 . He served six months in the US Army , then began his career as a lawyer in Hartford . Between 1961 and 1963, he was a professor of history and public administration at the University of Hartford . In 1964 he moved to Washington and got a job with Daniel Patrick Moynihan , then Assistant Secretary of Labor. It was later published as a third-party author in The Nation and Christian Science Monitor , and also advised the Senate commission on automotive safety issues . In the early 1980s , Nader struggled with a powerful lobby against the FDA-enabled large-scale experiment of artificial lens implants. Subsequently published in The Progressive Populist .

In 1965, Nader published Dangerous at Any Speed , a study that was supposed to demonstrate unsafe methods of constructing many American cars, especially the Chevrolet Corveire and General Motors. The latter tried to discredit Nader by hiring private detectives to listen to his phones and investigate his past, and prostitutes to lure him into an unseemly situation ^{[6] [7]} . However, the company failed to find any incriminating information. When Nader discovered these attempts, he successfully sued General Motors for invading privacy , forcing the company to apologize publicly and winning $ 425,000 in compensation. A significant part of this amount went to the further expansion of his activities to protect consumer rights.

Hundreds of young activists, inspired by the work of Nader, joined his projects. They became known as the Nader's Raiders . Led by Nader, they investigated government corruption and published dozens of books with results.

In 1971, Nader founded the non-governmental organization Citizen Public Citizen as an umbrella for all of these projects. Today, the “Civil Activist” has more than 140,000 members and carries out many investigations into the activities of the congress, healthcare, environmental use, etc. The organization’s activities, in particular, contributed to the adoption of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Freedom Act information (Freedom of Information Act), as well as the creation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

1996

In 1996, Nader became the presidential candidate for the greens. He was not formally nominated by the US Green Party (the largest association of greens at that time); instead, he was nominated by various state-level green parties, and in some states acted as an independent candidate. Despite this, many Green Party activists worked in his campaign. Nader was put on the ballots in a relatively small number of states (in the USA, the electoral list may differ in each state) and collected less than 1% of the vote. However, this campaign brought significant organizational benefits to the Green Party. Nader refused to raise or spend more than $ 5,000 (a ridiculous amount by American standards) for his campaign, possibly not to reach the threshold for reporting by the Federal Election Commission . An informal Draft Nader committee could have spent (and spent) more than this amount, but did not have the legal rights to coordinate with Ralph Nader.

2000

Nader was already an official presidential candidate in the 2000 election from the Green Party, which was formed, in large part, thanks to his 1996 campaign. However, according to a former party activist, it was Nader and his associates, and not the Green Party itself, that were the main driving force behind this campaign. In these elections, Ralph Nader has already received 2.74% of the vote, which, however, was noticeably less than the 5% barrier, the achievement of which was necessary for the Party to receive green federal funds in the next election - the stated goal of this campaign ^[8] .

Nader criticized the de facto power of corporations and advocated eliminating corporate finance in elections , environmentalism , public health care, affordable housing prices, free college education , workers rights, legalizing industrial use of hemp , and tax changes to move the burden from medium and poor classes on corporations. He also opposed the trade in pollution quotas and the further privatization of public property.

Winner La Duke , environmental activist and representative of the Ojibwe tribe from Minnesota , was a candidate for Vice President.

Separation of votes

The very intense competition between the two main candidates - Al Gore and George W. Bush - created additional controversy over the Nader campaign. Many Democrats claimed that since Nader had no real chance of winning, his supporters should have voted for Horus because his victory should have been preferable to Bush’s victory. Many liberal politicians, activists and celebrities have argued with voters in states where the outcome of the vote was unclear in advance (see the description of the US electoral system ), sometimes using the slogan "Vote for Nader is the vote for Bush." The Republican Leadership Council paid for pronader advertising in several states, apparently to separate the “left” votes ^[9] . Nader and his supporters used the reciprocal slogan “Voice for Horus is a vote for Bush,” claiming that although Horus is perhaps a little preferable to Bush, the difference between them did not give rise to support Horus.

2004

On December 24, 2003, Nader announced that he would not run in the 2004 elections as a candidate for the Green Party. However, he did not rule out participation in the status of an independent candidate. On February 22, 2004, Ralph Nader stated in a Meet the Press program on NBC that he would indeed run for President, saying: “Too much power and money is concentrated in too few people . ” Due to disagreements over the separation of votes in the 2000 elections , many Democrats advised Nader to withdraw his candidacy. The chairman of the National Democrats Committee , Terry MacAliffe , said that Nader “made a remarkable career fighting for the rights of working families” and that he (McAulifth) “would not want George W. Bush’s eight years list of achievements . ”

On May 19, 2004, Nader met with John Kerry in Washington for a private discussion of issues related to the possible consequences of Nader participating in the upcoming elections. He refused to withdraw his candidacy, pointing out, in particular, the importance for him of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq (which Kerry did not include). Thus, the meeting ended in nothing. On the same day, two democratic organizations were created - the National Progress Fund and the Democracy Action Team . Both of these organizations sought to reduce Nader’s influence on the electorate of the Democrats, some of which could vote for him. The next day, the Democratic Action Team announced that as part of their Stop Nader campaign, they would pay for television ads in the main states with unclear election outcomes.

On June 21, 2004, Nader announced that Peter Kamejo , twice Californian governor candidate for the Green Party, would be his vice president candidate. Soon after, Nader also announced that he would accept (but will not actively pursue it) the support of the Green Party. However, in the same month, the Green Party at its national congress refused to support Nader in favor of David Cobb , a party advocate and activist. This meant that Nader could not automatically get into the electoral ballots in 22 states as a candidate from the Green Party, and that he needed to seek this access independently. Despite the fact that he was not originally going to speak in the framework of the Green Party campaign, Nader expressed his dissatisfaction with their choice, calling it “strange” and the party itself “enslaving” ^[10] .

Results

Nader received far fewer votes than in previous elections, worsening his performance from 2.9 million people (2.74%) to 405,623 (about 0.35%) ^[11] . As a result, Nader still took 3rd place, but only 63 thousand votes ahead of candidate from the Libertarian Party Michael Badnarik , who was present in ballots in 49 of the 50 states. Democrats' fears that Nader would play the role of the “feather that broke the camel’s back” did not materialize - unlike 2000, in the “critical” states Kerry lost to Bush noticeably more than the percentage of votes cast in favor of Nader.

2008

Nader participated in the 2008 presidential election as an independent candidate (in some states supported by small parties); Matthew Gonzalez, a former member of the San Francisco City Council from the Green Party, ran for the post of vice president (it is interesting that in all four of his presidential elections, Nader was nominated with various candidates for vice presidents; LaDuc, however, was not only his partner in 2000, but also in 1996, however - not in all states). Their names were on the ballots of 45 states. For the third time in a row, Nader took third place, in this case with 0.5% of the vote.

After the 2000 election , Ralph Nader appeared in the episode Brawl in the Family of The Simpsons , in which he was portrayed as a secret member of the Springfield Republican Party ; he is grateful for his work for the good of the party. Nader participated in the Ali Ji Show , where the presenter, Ali J , convinced him to try his hand at rap music . He is also referred to as a real character in Arthur Hayley’s novel “Wheels” and in Tom Robbins ’s 1980 novel Still Life with Woodpecker as an object of love for Princess Leigh-Cheri ^[12] .

In an interview with Politico, Ralph Nader called Barack Obama a war criminal, criticizing his international politics. “The sovereignty of other countries means nothing to him. His unmanned aerial vehicles can kill anyone, as is the case, for example, in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. This is a war crime, and it must be held accountable, ”said Nader ^[13] .

At the same time, Nader criticized the Republican Party, calling it "the most brutal, most ignorant, anti-worker and most belligerent party since the 1850s."

Books

Nader is the author, co-author, or editor of many books. Here is a list of just a few of them:

• Danger at any speed ( Unsafe at Any Speed )
• Action for a Change ; with Donald Ross, Brett English and Joseph Highland
• Whistle-Blowing (with Peter J. Petkas and Kate Blackwell)
• Corporate Power in America ; with Mark Green
• You and Your Pension (with Kate Blackwell)
• Consumer and Corporate Accountability
• In Search of Justice ( In Pursuit of Justice )
• Ralph Nader Congress Project
• Ralph Nader Presents: A Citizen's Guide to Lobbying
• Verdicts on lawyers
• Who Poisons America ( Who's Poisoning America ; with Ronald Braunstein and John Richard)
• Big Boys ( The Big Boys ; with William Taylor)
• The Good Fight: Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap
• Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender
• Cutting Corporate Welfare
• No Contest: Corporate Lawyers and the Pervertion of Justice in America (shared with Wesley Smith)
• Collision Path : The Truth About Airline Safety ( Collision Course: the Truth About Airline Safety ; with Wesley Smith)
• Lemon Book: Auto Rights (with Clarence Dietlow)
• Winning the Insurance Game: the Complete Consumer's Guide to Saving Money (shared with Wesley Smith)
• Threats to Atomic Energy ( Menace of Atomic Energy ; with John Abbots)
• Taming a huge corporation ( Taming the Giant Corporation ; with Joel Seligman and Mark Green)
• Canada Firsts ( with Nadia Milleron and Daph Conaker)
• The Frugal Shopper (with Wesley Smith)
• Getting the Best from Your Doctor (with Wesley Smith)
• Nader on australia
• The Ralph Nader Reader (inaccessible link from 11/05/2013 [2282 days])
• It Happened in the Kitchen: Recipes for Food and Thought
• Why Women Pay More ( Why Women Pay More ; with Francois Serra Vittsley)
• Children First! A Parent's Guide to Fighting Corporate Predators
• Seventeen traditions
• Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!

Articles

• The 'I' Word , Boston Globe, May 31, 2005 - Impeachment by President George W. Bush (with Kevin Zies)
• Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee on Alito Nomination , January 10, 2006 (letter to the US Senate Legal Committee regarding Alito ’s candidacy)
• Bush to Israel: 'Take your time destroying Lebanon' , The Arab American News, August 2006
• National Security Corporation , CounterPunch, June 21, 2013 PolySMI Translation

Interview

• Merlin Chowkwanyun, The Prescient Candidate Reflects: An Interview with Ralph Nader , (English) Counterpunch, 16 December 2004

• Ralph Nader Website
• Ralph Nader Documentary: Unreasonable Man