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Ralph Nader

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Ralph Nader
Personal details
Born (1934-02-27) February 27, 1934 (age 90)
Winsted, Connecticut
United States
Political partyIndependent
Green
Height300px
OccupationAttorney and Political Activist
Websitehttp://www.nader.org

Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney and political activist in the areas of consumer rights, humanitarianism, environmentalism and democratic government. Nader has been a staunch critic of corporations, which he believes wield too much power and are undermining the fundamental American values of democracy and human rights. He helped found many governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Public Citizen, and several Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), including NYPIRG. The Atlantic Monthly, in its list of the "100 most influential Americans", ranked Nader 96: "He made the cars we drive safer; thirty years later, he made George W. Bush the president".[1]

Nader ran for President four times (in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004). In 1992 he ran as a Democrat in the Democratic primaries. In 1996 and 2000, he was the nominee of the Green Party; in 2004, he ran as an independent, but was also endorsed by the Reform Party [1].

Life and early career

Nader was born in Winsted, Connecticut. His parents, Nathra and Rose Nader, were Lebanese and Egyptian immigrants. Nathra Nader was employed in a textile mill, and at one point owned a bakery and restaurant where he engaged customers in political discourse.

Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and Harvard Law School in 1958.[2] He served in the United States Army for six months in 1959, then began work as a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut. Between 1961 and 1963, he was a Professor of History and Government at the University of Hartford. In 1964, Nader moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He also advised a United States Senate subcommittee on car safety. In the early 1980s, Nader spearheaded a powerful lobby against FDA approval of mass-scale experimentation of artificial lens implants. Nader also served as a faculty member at The American University Washington College of Law. He is currently married to Barbara Suarez, a prominent historian of the Boston intelligentsia.

Clash with the automobile industry

Nader's first consumer safety articles appeared in the Harvard Law Record, a student publication of Harvard Law School, but he first criticized the automobile industry in an article he wrote for The Nation in 1959 called "The Safe Car You Can't Buy."[3] In 1965, Nader wrote Unsafe at Any Speed, a study that purported to demonstrate that many American automobiles were unsafe, especially the Chevrolet Corvair and General Motors. GM tried to discredit Nader, hiring private detectives to tap his phones and investigate his past, and hiring prostitutes to trap him in compromising situations.[4][5] GM failed to uncover any wrongdoing, and never explained resorting to smear tactics instead of defending the car in the popular press, where the company had considerable corporate influence. GM's avoidance of technical journals makes more sense, as it was well known among auto engineers that the Corvair's swing axle suspension handled miserably.[6][7] Upon learning of GM's actions, Nader successfully sued the company for invasion of privacy, forced it to publicly apologize, and used much of his $284,000 net settlement to expand his consumer rights efforts. Nader's lawsuit against GM was ultimately decided by the New York Court of Appeals, whose opinion in the case expanded tort law to cover "overzealous surveillance".[8]

A 1972 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University ultimately exonerated the Corvair, declaring that the car possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporaries in extreme situations.[9] A different account, however, was given in John DeLorean's "General Motors autobiography", On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors, 1979 (published under the name of his would-be ghostwriter, J. Patrick Wright), in which DeLorean asserts that Nader's criticisms were valid. The specific Corvair design flaws were corrected in the last years of the Corvair's production, although by then the Corvair name was irredeemably compromised.

Activism

Nader speaks out against the Iraq War at the September 15, 2007 anti-war protest.

Hundreds of young activists, inspired by Nader's work, came to DC to help him with other projects. They came to be known as "Nader's Raiders" who, under Nader, investigated government corruption, publishing dozens of books with their results:

In 1971, Nader founded the non-governmental organization (NGO) Public Citizen as an umbrella organization for these projects. Today, Public Citizen has over 140,000 members and scores of researchers investigating Congressional, health, environmental, economic and other issues. Their work is credited with facilitating the passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and prompting the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

In the 1970's and 1980's Nader was a key leader in the anti-nuclear power movement. "By 1976, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who later became allied with the environmental movement 'stood as the titular head of opposition to nuclear energy'" [10] [11] He advocates the complete elimination of nuclear energy in favor of solar, tidal, wind and geothermal, citing environmental, worker safety, migrant labor, national security, disaster preparedness, foreign policy, government accountability and democratic governance issues to bolster his position. [12]

Non-profit organizations

In 1980, Nader resigned as director of Public Citizen to work on other projects, forcefully campaigning against what he believed to be the dangers of large multinational corporations. He went on to start a variety of non-profit organizations:

File:Nader-sesame01.jpg
Ralph Nader (right) appears with Bob McGrath on a 1988 Sesame Street episode, singing "People in Your Neighborhood". For the episode, Nader included a verse about consumer advocates, unique for a song featuring mail men and firefighters. Nader has since criticized the types of sponsors the show has accepted, such as McDonald's and Discovery Zone.

Presidential campaigns

Main article: Ralph Nader's Presidential Campaigns
1972
"Draft Nader" effort had no ballot line to offer, nor did Nader authorize his name to appear on any ballot until 1992.
1990
Nader considered launching a third party around issues of citizen empowerment and consumer rights. He suggested a serious third party could address needs such as campaign-finance reform, worker and whistle-blower rights, government-sanctioned watchdog groups to oversee banks and insurance agencies, and class-action lawsuit reforms.
1992
Nader stood in as a write-in for "none of the above" in both the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic and Republican Primaries [13] and received 3,054 of the 170,333 Democrat votes and 3,258 of the 177,970 Republican votes cast.[14] He was also a write-in candidate in the 1992 Massachusetts Democratic Primary, where he appeared at the top of the ballot.
1996
Nader was drafted as a candidate for President of the United States on the Green Party ticket during the 1996 presidential election. He was not formally nominated by the Green Party USA, which was, at the time, the largest national Green group; instead he was nominated independently by various state Green parties (in some areas, he appeared on the ballot as an independent).
2000
Nader ran actively in 2000 as candidate of the Green Party, which had been formed in the wake of his 1996 campaign. That year, he received 2,883,105 votes for 2.74 percent of the popular vote,[15], missing the 5 percent needed to qualify the Green Party for federally distributed public funding in the next election, yet qualifying the Greens for ballot status in many new states. In October of 2000, at his largest rally of his campaign, in New York City's Madison Square Garden, Nader said that Al Gore and George W. Bush were "Tweedledee and Tweedledum -they look and act the same, so it doesn't matter which you get". Many Democrats blame Nader for throwing the 2000 election to the Republicans and George Bush.
2004
Nader announced on December 24, 2003 that he would not seek the Green Party's nomination for president in 2004; however, he did not rule out running as an independent candidate. On February 22, 2004, Nader announced on NBC that he would indeed run for president as an independent, saying, "There's too much power and wealth in too few hands." His campaign ran on a platform consistent with the Green Party's positions on major issues, such as opposition to the war in Iraq. Due to concerns about a possible spoiler effect in 2000, many Democrats urged Nader to abandon his 2004 candidacy. The Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, argued that Nader had a "distinguished career, fighting for working families", and "would hate to see part of his legacy being that he got us eight years of George Bush." He received 463,653 votes for 0.38% of the popular vote.[16] Nader replied to this in filmed interviews for the 2007 documentary An Unreasonable Man, by pointing out that, "Voting for a candidate of one's choice is a Constitutional right, and the Democrats who are asking me not to run are, without question, seeking to deny the Constitutional rights of voters who are, by law, otherwise free to choose to vote for me." In this campaign Democrats accused Nader of having his bid funded by Republicans who wanted a repeat of his effect on the 2000 election.
2008
In February 2007, Nader left the door open for another possible White House bid in 2008 and criticized Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton as "a panderer and a flatterer." Asked on CNN's Late Edition news program if he would run in 2008, Nader replied, "It's really too early to say.... I'll consider it later in the year."[17] Asked during a radio appearance to describe the former First Lady, Nader said, "Flatters, panders, coasting, front-runner, looking for a coronation ... She has no political fortitude."[18] He says that his decision to run will be determined by whether the Democratic Party selects Hillary Clinton as its nominee. Some Greens have started a campaign to draft Nader as their party's 2008 presidential candidate.[19]
In June 2007, Nader again hinted at a run. He said, "You know the two parties are still converging -- they don't even debate the military budget anymore. I really think there needs to be more competition from outside the two parties."[20]

Personal finances and private life

According to the mandatory financial disclosure report that he filed with the Federal Election Commission in 2000, he then owned more than $3 million worth of stocks and mutual fund shares; his single largest holding was more than $1 million worth of stock in Cisco Systems, Inc.[21] Nader held an additional $2 million-plus in Fidelity and other mutual funds. The largest recipients of Nader's donations have included his own Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) and other non-profit organizations under his umbrella.

Works

Books

Nader at a book signing

Nader has authored, co-authored and edited many books, which include:

Articles

Selected speeches and interviews

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ralph Nader.
  • Bolohan, Scott (2007-2-16). "Nader critiques political apathy, personal values: Interview with Ralph Nader". The DePaulia. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • Chowkwanyun, Merlin (2004-12-16). "The Prescient Candidate Reflects: An Interview with Ralph Nader". Counterpunch. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • Nader, Ralph (1992-01-15). "Ralph Nader speaking at Harvard Law School". {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

RealVideo format.

Notes

  • An Unreasonable Man (2006). An Unreasonable Man is a documentary film about Ralph Nader that appeared at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
  • Burden, Barry C. (2005). Ralph Nader's Campaign Strategy in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election 2005, American Politics Research 33:672-99.
  • Ralph Nader: Up Close This film blends archival footage and scenes of Nader and his staff at work in Washington with interviews with Nader's family, friends and adversaries, as well as Nader himself. Written, directed and produced by Mark Litwak and Tiiu Lukk, 1990, color, 72 mins. Narration by Studs Terkel. Broadcast on PBS. Winner, Sinking Creek Film Festival; Best of Festival, Baltimore Int'l Film Festival; Silver Plaque, Chicago Int'l Film Festival, Silver Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival.
  • Bear, Greg, "Eon" - the novel includes a depiction of a future group called the "Naderites" who follow Ralph Nader's humanistic teachings.
  • Martin, Justin. Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon. Perseus Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-7382-0563-X

References

  1. ^ "The Top 100: The Most Influential Figures in American History." Atlantic Monthly, (December 2006) p.62. For the article, the Atlantic Monthly selected "100 leading American academic scholars to choose the hundred most influential Americans.
  2. ^ Candidates / Ralph Nader 2004
  3. ^ Mickey Z. 50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed To Know. New York: The Disinformation Company, 2005. p.87 ISBN 1932857184
  4. ^ Ralph Nader's museum of tort law will include relics from famous lawsuits—if it ever gets built December 2005
  5. ^ President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Role in Highway Safety: Epilogue -The Changing Federal Role May 7, 2005
  6. ^ Independent Suspensions: Swing axle suspension 1998
  7. ^ Original Triumph Spitfire -- Camber Compensator August 21, 1999
  8. ^ Nader v. General Motors Corp., 307 N.Y.S.2d 647 (N.Y. 1970).
  9. ^ Brent Fisse and John Braithwaite, The Impact of Publicity on Corporate Offenders. State University of New York Press, 1983. p.30 ISBN 0873957334
  10. ^ Nuclear Power in an Age of Uncertainty (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, OTA-E-216, February 1984), p. 228, citing the following article:
  11. ^ Public Opposition to Nuclear Energy: Retrospect and Prospect, Roger E. Kasperson, Gerald Berk, David Pijawka, Alan B. Sharaf, James Wood, Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 5, No. 31 (Spring, 1980), pp. 11-23
  12. ^ Frontline interview transcript
  13. ^ THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Write-In; In Nader's Campaign, White House Isn't the Goal February 18, 1992
  14. ^ 1992 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY
  15. ^ 2000 Presidential Election Results
  16. ^ 2004 Presidential Election Results
  17. ^ Nader Leaves '08 Door Open, Slams Hillary Reuters, February 5, 2007.
  18. ^ Ralph Nader: Hillary's Just a 'Bad Version of Bill Clinton' Feb. 16, 2007
  19. ^ DraftNader.org
  20. ^ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4580.html
  21. ^ http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/06/20/nader/
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ralph Nader.
Party political offices
New political party Green Party Presidential candidate
1996 (4th), 2000 (3rd) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Reform Party Presidential candidate
2004 (1) (3rd) 		Incumbent
Notes and references
1. Most recent presidential election as of 2005

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