General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Ralph Nader's Open Letter to former President George W. Bush: "The Country You Destroyed" [View all]KoKo
(84,711 posts)It's an Exceptional Watch at the "RNN Link" and you can find it posted in DU Group "Progressive Media Resources" here on DU!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1269494
Here's the one part. He does a great watch interview with Paul Jay of RNN about the accusations that his Third Party Candidacy was responsible for Bush's Win in 2000. Most of us Lefties know it was the "Punch Card Ballots" the Supreme Vote Decision to Stop the Counting and Al Gore's relying on his Handlers to not be more Aggressive. Yet there are those who throw stones at Nader to this day...blaming him for failures of our Supreme Court, Democratic Party not being behind the Recount and those trying to expose the Punch Card Voting and the Electronic Voting Machines.
Scroll through the interviews with Nader here at the Link: About the Florida Election and the Accusations against Him: Segment with Nader and the Florida Recount is in Part 2 of the RNN's Interview of 3 parts with Nader:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11229&updaterx=2013-12-19+11%3A18%3A07
But, for us Older Democrats ....THIS INTERVIEW is the NADER WE KNEW...and it's lovely to remind those who didn't know of how "WE DEMS" Admired Ralph Nader and how the Consumer Movement that has and is being trashed by the RW and their Think Tanks and Big Money Funders (who also fund Democrats) have worked to tarnish Nader's Achievements in starting so much of what we Left Dems are still fighting for these days.
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The Nader You Didn't Know...Are Nader-Like Reforms Still Possible? - on "The Real News Network!"
Are Nader-Like Reforms Still Possible? - Ralph Nader on Reality Asserts Itself
On "Reality Inserts Itself" with Paul Jay, Ralph Nader says the reforms of the 1960's and 70's are no longer possible as Congress is bought and sold by a small number of very rich people and commercial interests - December 19, 2013
LINK:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11229&updaterx=2013-12-19+11%3A18%3A07
TRANSCRIPT:
Bio
Named by The Atlantic as one of the hundred most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century, Ralph Nader has helped us drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments for more than four decades. The crusading attorney first made headlines in 1965 with his book Unsafe at Any Speed, a scathing indictment that lambasted the auto industry for producing unsafe vehicles. The book led to congressional hearings and automobile safety laws passed in 1966, including the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. He was instrumental in the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC), and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Many lives have been saved by Nader's involvement in the recall of millions of unsafe consumer products, including defective motor vehicles, and in the protection of laborers and the environment. By starting dozens of citizen groups, Ralph Nader has created an atmosphere of corporate and governmental accountability.
Consumer advocate and author Ralph Nader says that the anti-communist reign of terror inaugurated in the 1950s by Senator Joe McCarthy intimidated activists from advocating for any kind of systemic public philosophy to change things for the better.
So they just became very empirical, says Nader. They'll try to get a labor union organized or try to get better working conditions or something like that because they didn't want to be accused of isms, you know, like socialism or communism. And the other side was, of course, they were all about capitalism.
We went after the auto companies' unsafe cars. No ism there, he says.
Paul Jay asked Nader why his run of legislative accomplishmentsincluding the Clean Air Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Freedom of Information Act in 1974, and the Clear Water Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Mine Safety and Health Actculminated in the 70s.
Nader said this was because the Democratic Party had then started to accept corporate funding, making it harder and harder to get congressional hearings, harder and harder to get decent judges to hear your case, harder and harder to get regulatory agencies to issue safety standards or even to make investigations.
The Constitution starts We the People, not We the Corporation, says Nader. They don't even mention the corporation or a company in the Constitution. So why do they rule us?
Because we have disempowered ourselves by making excuses for ourselves. Oh, it doesn't pay to vote, because it doesn't mean anything to us. Oh, why go to a city council meeting? It doesn't matter. That's exactly what the big boys want you to do. They'll pay you to be cynical if you don't do it free," says Nader.
THE VIDEO At the Site is Great View..if you have the Bandwidth...If not...go to the link to read the FULL TRANSCRIPT ...: [/]b
PROGRESSIVE MEDIA RESOURCES GROUP...(Democratic Underground)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1269494
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