FAYETTEVILLE : Business runs politics, Nader tells UA crowd
Posted on Friday, September 19, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — Corporations have taken over the political process in America, Ralph Nader, an independent candidate for president, told a crowd of about 300 at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“They have no allegiance to our country,” Nader said Thursday night. “Their message is: ‘We’re out of here with your jobs and your industries.’ … The corporations have us on our knees, and we’re willing to do anything for their bidding.” Nader said the once-strong Democratic Party of the 1960 s has been undermined by corporate influences. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, is moving to the right and flip-flopping on many issues because of corporate pressure, said Nader.
“You think this is a democracy ?” Nader asked the crowd. “We worked in Washington for 40 years.... We improved our country in many ways.... Today’s Democrats aren’t up to it. They don’t know who they are anymore.” National news organizations basically have ignored the Nader campaign, he said. He’s not included in presidential debates, and Democrats have labeled him a “spoiler.” Nader, the longtime consumer advocate, was the Green Party nominee for president in 1996 and 2000. He ran for president as an independent in 2004. Many Democrats say Nader cost then-Vice President Al Gore the presidency in 2000 by siphoning off votes in key states like Florida and New Hampshire that would have gone to Gore if Nader hadn’t run.
Nader said that he wrote former President Clinton saying something should be done about the 10, 000 trailers that were sitting empty in Hope while Hurricane Katrina victims were homeless on the Gulf Coast. Nader said he replied, “Why don’t you contact President Bush ? After all, he owes you Florida and New Hampshire.” Bringing American troops home from countries across the globe could save $ 80 billion in “up-front costs,” Nader said.
A total of 47 million Americans make less money today than they did in 1973, when the figures are adjusted for inflation, Nader said. Arkansas is one of the poorest states in the country, he added, and 17. 5 percent of the state’s residents lack health insurance.
Nader also criticized Southwestern Electric Power Co. ’s proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in Fulton in Hempstead County. The plant would be the fourth coal-burning plant in Arkansas, after ones in Gentry, Newark and Redfield.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission announced in August it will lease 11, 500 acres in the Petit Jean River and Gulf Mountain wildlife management areas to Chesapeake Energy Corp. for natural gas exploration. Such exploration will put national resources at risk, Nader said.
Nader’s running mate is Matt Gonzalez, the 2003-05 president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Nader was brought to Fayetteville by Campus Greens, the UA student branch of the Green Party. The national Green Party’s presidential candidate, however, is Cynthia McKinney with Rosa Clemente as running mate.
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