05-05-2004, 03:54 AM
Ralph Nader Stands with the People
The Bush Administration and the Democratic Party, in varying extremes, are putting the interests of their corporate paymasters before the interests of the people. In the Nader Campaign the PEOPLE RULE. Mr. Nader takes seriously a government "of, by and for the people" within a deliberative democratic society.
Also, see Ralph Nader's correspondence with Senator Kerry and President Bush concerning important issues of the day
Below are initial summaries of many of Mr. Nader's positions, as you can see, unlike President Bush and the Democratic Party, Ralph Nader :
Wants Equal Rights for Women
Ralph Nader endorses the full eleven-point agenda for economic, social and political rights of women put forward by the National Organization for Women. The NOW platform is reprinted below. The Nader Campaign also announced that it would have a contingent . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Supports the Proposals of the Ad Hoc Coalition to Restore Retirement Security
In recent years, hundreds of large companies have broken long-standing pension and health insurance promises to their loyal, longtime employees and retirees. These unfair practices are accelerating, rather than diminishing, and are undercutting the retire . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to make health care universally available
We need to get the insurance companies out of administering health care, increase patient choice, expand coverage and save money. The United States spends far more on health care per capita than any other country in the world, but more than an 45 million Ame . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants electoral reform that creates a vibrant, active, participatory Democracy.
Our democracy is in a descending crisis. Voter turnout is among the lowest in the western world. Redistricting ensures very few incumbents are at risk in one-party districts. Barriers to full participation of candidates proliferate making it very obstru . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants a crackdown on corporate crime and abuse
The US needs to crack down on corporate crime, fraud and abuse that have just in the last four years looted and drained trillions of dollars from workers, investors, pension holders and consumers. Among the reforms needed are resources to prosecute and c . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants a fair tax where the wealthiest and corporations pay their fair share, tax wealth more than work, and tax activities we dislike more than necessities
The complexity and distortions of the federal tax code produces distributions of tax incidence and payroll tax burdens that are skewed in favor of the wealthy and the corporations further garnished by tax shelters, insufficient enforcement and other avoid . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Opposes media bias and media concentration
The mass media in the United States is extremely concentrated, and the messages that they send are too broadly uniform. Six global corporations control more than half of all mass media in our country: newspapers, magazines, books, radio and television. Ou . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
A family farm-consumer agriculture policy
American agriculture is being dominated by two contrary trends in the 21st Century. First, conventional family farm agricultural production is being destroyed by low prices and lack of market access due to mergers, acquisitions by big agribusinesses and . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to end poverty in the United States
As the wealthiest country in the world, with high productivity per capita, a country that produces an abundance of capital, credit, technology and food, we can end poverty. Yet, according to the Bureau of the Census poverty and hunger for children and ad . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to create jobs by investing in America's future, invest in Americans
Since January 2001, 2.7 million jobs have been lost and more than 75% of those jobs have been high wage, high productivity manufacturing jobs. Overall 5.6% of Americans are unemployed while 10.5% of African Americans are unemployed. Unemployment among La . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to expand worker's rights by developing an employee bill of rights
The rights of workers' have been on the decline. It is time to reverse that trend and begin to give worker's – the backbone of the US economy – the rights they deserve. Workers need a living wage – not a minimum wage; access to health care and no unila . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants fair trade that protects the environment, labor rights and consumer needs
NAFTA and the WTO makes commercial trade supreme over environmental, labor, and consumer standards and need to be replaced with open agreements that pull-up rather than pull down these standards. These forms of secret autocratic governance and their detai . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
A federal budget that puts human needs before corporate greed and corporate militarism
The United States needs a redirected federal budget that adequately funds the crucial priorities like infrastructure, transit and other public works, schools, clinics, libraries, forests, parks, sustainable energy and pollution controls. The budget shoul . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Corporations should not be given equal rights with humans
A national debate is needed regarding the necessity to reverse the dicta in the 1886 Supreme Court Case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad that first awarded the corporation constitutional status as a person and in subsequent decision. Cor . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Education for everyone
Education is primarily the responsibility of state and local governments. The federal government has a critical supporting role to play in ensuring that all children -- irrespective of the income of their parents, or their race -- are provided with rich l . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq
The quagmire of the Iraq war and occupation could have been averted and needs to be ended expeditiously, replacing US forces with a UN peacekeeping force, prompt supervised elections and humanitarian assistance before we sink deeper into this occupation, . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to restore and expand civil liberties and constitutional rights
Civil liberties and due process of law are eroding due to the “war on terrorism” and new technology that allows easy invasion of privacy. Americans of Arab descent and Muslim-Americans are feeling the brunt of these dragnet, arbitrary practices. Mr. Nade . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Supports Equal Rights for Gays and Lesbians
Ralph supports equal rights for gays and lesbians, including equal rights for same-sex couples. He opposes President Bush’s proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages as adults should be treated equally under the law on this matter. Ral . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to reform the criminal injustice system
We need to get smart on preventing crime, invest in education, rehabilitation and restore safe neighborhoods and communities. The United States prison binge has resulted in over 2 million people being incarcerated – the US now holds one out of four of th . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to end the war on drugs
The drug war has failed – we spend nearly $50 billion annually on the drug war and problems related to drug abuse continue to worsen. We need to acknowledge that drug abuse is a health problem with social and economic consequences. Therefore, the solutio . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Environment
The epidemic of silent environmental violence continues. Whether it is the 65,000 Americans who die every year from air pollution, or the 80,000 estimated annual fatalities from hospital malpractice, or the 100,000 Americans whose demise comes from occupa . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Wants to create a new energy policy
We urge a new clean energy policy that no longer subsidizes entrenched oil, nuclear, electric and coal mining interests -- an energy policy that is efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly. We need to invest in a diversified energy policy inclu . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Toward consumer justice
The enforcement of consumer protection laws, especially against the terrible abuses in low-income communities, needs to be given the leadership and resources required. Neither Party in control of our city or national government has concerned itself with s . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Toward saving lives by increasing motor vehicle safety
About 800 Americans die on the roads every week on the average or over 40,000 a year, plus hundreds of thousands of injuries and tens of billion in economic losses. Since 1966 the irregular implementation of the federal motor vehicle and safety laws have . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Toward a world of peace, justice, and fulfillment of human possibilities within a sustainable environment
Our foreign policy must redefine the elements of global security, peace, arms control, an end to nuclear weapons and expand the many assets of our country to launch, with other nations, major initiatives against global infections diseases (such as AIDS, m . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Favors Youth Voting: Lowering the Voting Age to 16
Ralph Nader favors lowering the voting age to 16 years old. He recognizes that 16 year olds work, pay taxes and more and more often are subjected to criminal laws passed that treat them like adults. In addition, democracy in the United States needs to b . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]
Supports Civil Rights of Muslim and Arab Americans
According to a report released on March 3 by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, "The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States 2004," Muslims in the United States experienced more than 1,000 incidents of asserted harassment, violence and . . . [ Full Text >> ] | [ to Top ^ ]