Prior to Ralph Nader’s speech last night, local media representatives had a chance to sit down with him and discuss his thoughts on a variety of issues facing students, the nation and the world. What follows is an edited transcript of that interview.
Who is Ralph Nader? What is the one image you’d like to leave: political presidential candidate, consumer advocate, environmentalist? What do you think you are, and what are you most proud of?
Well, I’m a full-time citizen. And I think we try to get people more full-time citizen opportunities where they get up in the morning, and their job is to try to improve the community. And we need citizen groups to support these kind of people. We need a lot of full-time citizens and we’ll have a lot more part-time citizens. It’s the full-time citizens who hold it all together.
What gives you your passion?
The passion for justice, which is the great work of human beings on Earth. Where would we be without justice? That is a sufficient motivation. People have to put their priorities in order.
What has been your biggest accomplishment in life?
Getting people to feel that they can make a difference rather than the “You can’t fight City Hall” syndrome affecting them.
Do you ever struggle under the weight of being a good citizen instead of just leaning back and enjoying?
There’s no greater enjoyment than pursuing justice.
Why are young people often drawn to the Green Party?
First, they have higher expectations because life hasn’t ground them down. Second, they’re more impatient. Third, they can see through phoniness and shams and are less willing to abide by them. And fourth, they’ve got the biggest stake in the future of the country. They haven’t had their idealism eroded.
Do you have any advice for college students as they enter the workforce?
Yeah, don’t let the work dominate your freedom. When you’re not at work-weekends, evenings-get involved in the community, start building your own institutions, and maybe in a few years you’ll have a group that you can have a full-time job in.
After a failed presidential campaign, how do you convince students that the Green Party is the party of the future?
Well, it wasn’t a failed campaign. Rome wasn’t built in a day. A third party takes a while to get under way, especially since it’s up against a rigged political system controlled by the Republican and Democratic parties, who control all the barriers; it’s hard to get on the ballot in many state; they control the money; they command the media, the control the debate commission; they have a winner take all system, and then they start out each with 30 percent of the voters who are hereditary Democrats and hereditary Republicans. The Green Party is coming out of nowhere. It is now the third largest party in the United States, replacing the Reform Party.
Will you run for president again?
It’s too early to say.
Do you think a third-party candidate can win without corporate support?
We don’t want anyone to win the presidency with corporate support; it wouldn’t be worth it. There has to be a grass-roots movement.
We just can’t e-mail each other or spend a lot of time watching TV. We have to get back to auditoriums and rallies and village squares in order to mobilize. And if we ever do that, there’s nothing that can stop the power of the people. People are still the most powerful potentially in this country. It’s just that they haven’t mobilized, therefore the corporations have replaced the sovereignty of the people with corporate power.
What is the biggest obstacle facing the Green Party?
The major obstacle is the feeling by many Americans that they are stuck with two choices: Republican and Democrat, the lesser of two evils. The system is structured to make them feel that way. The system basically says this is a two-party country: take it or leave it. Of course, half the people leave it: they don’t even vote.
What do you think about Bush’s environmental record so far?
Bush, as I said in the campaign, is really a giant corporation running for president, disguised as a human being. So he’s not surprising us. He’s basically the oil companies, the drug companies and the chemical companies in the White House. He’s going to promote more backlash and more vigorous citizen opposition. Where Clinton succumbed to these corporations too, he didn’t overtly do it. He was more of an anesthetist, a snake charmer. He lulled people into a false sense of security. If you have to choose between an anestisizer and a president who is a provocateur; if you have to choose between a president who says the right things and does nothing, or a president who says the wrong thing and does nothing, you probably choose the latter. Because that’s what really gets people’s ire up and wakes them up to mobilize.
