Today [Tuesday, February 27, 2018] is the 84th birthday of consumer advocate and former presidential nominee Ralph Nader.
Born February 27, 1934 in Winsted, Connecticut, Ralph Nader admitted to having voted for about 20 years for “the lesser of two evils.” He was referring, of course, to the Democratic Party. He no longer does that. And Nader has me thinking I may be heading where he is now politically. My theory is, If you go enough election cycles—that is counting both midterm and presidential election years—without voting for one’s preferred of the two major political parties, especially saying no to both, then you find you have truly broken the habit.
I admire Ralph Nader. He has been correct about so many things. I laugh at Democratic Party Loyalists who have used him as a scapegoat since 2000. I welcome them, if they think Nader is so damaging, to drive their cars without safety belts—especially while they are traveling the interstates. (I am, of course, referring to his 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed.)
For more information on Ralph Nader: Wikipedia.org — Ralph Nader.
Here are fifteen [15] quotes from Ralph Nader:
“Things have gotten so bad in this country, you look back at Richard Nixon with nostalgia.”
“The essence of globalization is a subordination of human rights, of labor rights, consumer, environmental rights, democracy rights, to the imperatives of global trade and investment.”
“Capitalism will always survive, because socialism will always be there to save it.”
“Ours is a system of corporate socialism, where companies capitalize their profits and socialize their losses…in effect, they tax you for their accidents, bungling, boondoggles, and mismanagement, just like a government. We should be able to dis-elect them.”
“We live in a two-party tyranny that doesn’t believe in competition, can enforce it with penalties and obstructions, and they’re getting closer and closer to being both one corporate party with two heads having different labels.”
“The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference.”
“If you choose the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil.”
“Can you imagine [Al Gore is] in a neck-and-neck race with a bumbling Republican governor [George W. Bush], from Texas, with such a horrific record? …What does that say about the Democratic Party?”
“Gore beat Gore… He didn’t get Tennessee, his home state. That would have made him president. And he blundered in Florida and didn’t ask for a statewide recount.” (Ed. note: Bill Clinton carried Tennessee, then a bellwether state, in both of his elections. Florida carried for Clinton in 1996. A 2000 Al Gore finished with an initial electoral-vote score of 267. A faithless elector reduced it to 266.)
“This assumption that my votes only come from Democrats is simply not true…”
“We have a Democratic Party which cannot defend the people from the worst Republican Party in history because it’s a Democratic Party of war and Wall Street.”
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not followers.”
“A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and the energy to get it done.”
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. The struggle for justice should never be adjourned. The forces of injustice do not take vacations.”
“All empires eventually destroy themselves. That’s the record of history.”
Recommended interview, in print, of Ralph Nader:
The Intercept — The Democrats Are Unable to Defend the U.S. From the “Most Vicious” Republican Party in History
Recommended entries from his blog Nader.org:
Nader.org — Hillary’s Corporate Democrats Taking Down Bernie Sanders
Nader.org — Hillary’s Convention Con
Nader.org — What Does Trump Mean by “Make America Great Again”?
Recommended videos related to Ralph Nader:
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