GRAND FORKS -- In a recent speech at North Dakota State University, Ralph Nader proved he is still the champion of the people. Meanwhile, Barack Obama and John McCain spout empty rhetoric and pander to corporations.
Both Obama and McCain will increase military spending. Obama insists on a military "solution" in Afghanistan. Nader would bring our troops home from both Iraq and Afghanistan and would cut the military budget.
Obama and McCain voted for the Wall Street bailout. Nader vows to crack down on corporate crime and corporate welfare. To eliminate the massive lobbying effort on behalf of corporations in Congress, Nader would end "corporate personhood," a bizarre Supreme Court ruling from the 1890s that gave these behemoths the rights of living, breathing citizens.
Neither Obama nor McCain support a single-payer universal health care plan. Obama insists on including insurance companies in the equation -- companies that make billions by denying claims, randomly capping coverage, increasing co-payments and removing coverage for pre-existing conditions.
Unlike Obama and McCain, Nader takes no money from insurance companies for his campaign. Free from their influence, Nader would remove insurance companies from the middle, providing $350 billion in administrative savings to pay for the system.
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McCain and Obama say "clean coal" exists, even though such technologies do not. Democrats and Republicans have been in the pocket of both the coal and nuclear power industries for decades, and so neither candidate would dare regulate let alone eliminate those industries.
Nader wants to phase out these dirty and dangerous energy sources in favor of conservation (something rarely discussed) and sustainable alternatives such as solar, wind and geothermal.
If you are anti-war, were against the bailout, want to remove Congress from the corporate feeding trough, believe that every American deserves full health care and want a responsible energy policy that just might save the planet, consider voting for Nader on Nov. 4.
Carl Mumm
