Ralph Nader, the tireless consumer protection advocate who has launched three third-party presidential campaigns, will discuss corporate negligence and government indifference during a speech titled “The American Duopoly” at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 7 in McCrary Theatre, located on the Elon campus in the Faith Rockefeller Model Center for the Arts. Sponsored by the Liberal Arts Forum, Nader’s speech is free and open to the public.
Believing that Republicans and Democrats are so close ideologically he calls them “tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum,” Nader organized presidential campaigns in 1992, 1996 and 2000 to challenge the “duopoly” of the two-party system. His goal is to build the foundation of a viable third political party.
Nader has confronted political and corporate organizations on hundreds of issues, fighting against insurance companies, the auto industry, corporate lobbyists and politicians. In 1971, he founded Public Citizen, a consumer group which works for government and corporate accountability. It has been responsible for consumer protection laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act, the formation of new federal regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and created access to government through the Freedom of Information Act, passed in 1974.
Nader’s Green Party bid for the presidency drew the ire of Democrats in the wake of the 2000 election, with many speculating that his candidacy took votes away from Al Gore in the extraordinarily close Florida race. Nader was unapologetic, saying, “Gore ran a poor campaign, failed to attract new voters and remained a captive of the conservative Democratic Leadership Council.”
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