September 01, 2001
Where's Ralph? The ethics of public participation
Ralph Nader speaks. October 31, 2001. Glenn Memorial Auditorium, 1652 N. Decatur Road. Doors will open at 7:30pm. Parking is available at the Fishburne Deck. No RSVPs or tickets necessary. Seating is limited.
For many years Ralph Nader has been a controversial figure, to say the least. Beginning with the 1965 publication of Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader has long stood out as America’s leading consumer advocate.
His many successes include legislation for automobile safety, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Meat and Poultry Inspection Rules, the Air and Water Pollution Control Laws, and the Freedom of Information Act. He is credited with the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
But more recently Nader has suffered something of a fall from grace. Long considered a stalwart of the Democratic Party, Nader left the party to accept the Green Party presidental nomination in 1996. Renewing his calls against the abuses of multinational corporations, Nader led the Green Party again in the hotly contested presidential race of 2000.
Nader’s support in 2000 was small but spirited. Standing-room-only crowds gathered to listen to Nader’s impassioned calls for reform of the “duopoly” party system of “tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum” Democrats and Republicans.
Support was perhaps most strong among the age group represented by Emory’s students. On campus, Bush and Gore campaign posters were few and far between compared to Nader campaign literature. Post-election studies confirmed a correlating rise in young voter participation and support for Nader.
Still, overall support for Nader’s third-party run paled in comparison to Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential run (although Nader did bring in more votes than the 2000 Reform Party candidate). And the passion of his opposition among many prominent liberal Democrats seemed to rival that of his own supporters. Calls for him to leave the race and throw his support to Gore became more frequent as election day drew closer. And calls of “spoiler” were not uncommon in the wake of Florida ballot counting; many believed his campaign would ultimately lead to a Bush-led peel-back of past decades’ consumer- and environmental-friendly legislation. They charged that a responsible public participant was ethically obliged to drop out for the sake of his own professed cause. Nader continues to disagree.
Despite successes across Europe, the Green Party remains a minor political force in the US. One of Nader’s primary objectives in the 2000 race was to build the foundation necessary for the Green Party to be a viable third party in the future; his success or failure will likely not be apparent until the 2004 election season.
Most recently, Nader has devoted his energies to a new grass-roots initiative he is calling Democracy Rising. Nader led an August rally for the organization, filling 7,500 seats at the Portland, Oregon auditorium at $10 each. Two dozen Democratic activists protested his 2000 presidential run outside the event.
The new organization aims to revitalize civic life in America by encouraging one million citizens to commit at least 100 hours and $100 to a progressive cause over the next year.
In the meantime, a growing protest movement continues to make headlines, a movement whose pro-environment, anti-corporate politics directly echo the platform of the Green Party.
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