An overflow crowd heard the Green Party presidential candidate during his March 7 speech. Details...
Consumer advocate and political activist Ralph Nader visited Elon’s McCrary Theatre March 7, telling the packed house that the influence of corporations and lobbyists on Capitol Hill has made government inaccessible and unresponsive to most Americans.
“Government is nothing more than something to be taken over,” Nader said, adding that today’s system is “government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.” Nader says the average citizen has no chance to have his voice heard in a political system that has been corrupted by money, power and greed.
Nader’s appearance on the Elon campus came exactly four months after one of the closest and most contentious presidential elections in American history. Nader’s Green Party bid for the presidency in the 2000 election drew the ire of Democrats, with many speculating that his candidacy took votes away from Al Gore in the extraordinarily close Florida race. Nader dismisses those arguments, saying, “some Democrats just can’t seem to accept the fact that Al Gore lost the election for Al Gore, not Ralph Nader.”
Nader believes the current two-party political system gives citizens the illusion of a true democracy. “It’s obvious to (the Green Party) that the two-party system is not working,” Nader says. He argues that in most districts, “there’s only a one-party system, with incumbents being supported by big money companies whose dollars virtually shut out any opposition.”
The founder of Public Citizen, a consumer group which works for government and corporate accountability, Nader has confronted political and corporate organizations on hundreds of issues. He has fought against insurance companies, the auto industry, corporate lobbyists and politicians in his effort to protect consumers and make government more accessible.
Nader’s second visit to Elon in three years was sponsored by the Liberal Arts Forum.