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What the Candidates
Avoid
by
Ralph
Nader
Here
is a short list of what you won't hear much of from the front-runners in this
presidential
primary season. Call them the candidate taboos.
--You
won't hear a call for a national crackdown on the corporate crime, fraud, and
abuse
that have robbed trillions of dollars from workers, investors, pension
holders,
taxpayers and consumers. Among the reforms that won't be suggested are
providing
resources to prosecute executive crooks and laws to democratize corporate
governance
so shareholders have real power.
Candidates
will not shout for a payback of
ill-gotten gains, to rein in executive pay, or to demand corporate sunshine
laws.
--You
won’t hear a demand that workers receive a living wage instead of a minimum
wage.
There will be no backing for a repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of
1947,
which has blocked more than 40 million workers from forming or joining trade
unions
to improve wages and benefits above Wal-Mart or McDonald's
levels.
--You
won’t hear for a call for a withdrawal from the WTO and NAFTA. Renegotiated
trade
agreements should stick to trade while labor, environmental, and consumer
rights
are advanced by separate treaties without being subordinated to the dictates
of
international commerce.
--You
won’t hear a call for our income tax system to be substantially revamped so
that
workers can keep more of their wages while we tax the things we like least,
such
as pollution, stock speculation, addictive industries, and energy guzzling
technologies.
Nor will you hear that corporations should be required to pay their fair
share; corporate tax contributions as a percent of the overall federal revenue
stream
have been declining for 50 years.
--You
won’t hear a call for a single payer health system. Almost sixty years after
President
Truman first proposed it, we still need health insurance for everyone, a
program
with quality and cost controls and an emphasis on prevention. Full Medicare
for
everyone will save thousands of lives a year while maintaining patient choice of
doctors
and hospitals within a competitive private health care delivery
system.
--There
is no reason to believe that the candidates will stand up to the commercial
interests
profiting from our current energy situation. We need a major environmental
health
agenda that challenges these entrenched interests with major new initiatives
in
solar energy, doubling motor vehicle fuel efficiency, and other quantified
sustainable
and clean energy technologies. Nor will there be adequate recognition
that
current fossil fuels are producing not just global warming, but also cancer,
respiratory
diseases, and geopolitical entanglements. Finally, there will be no calls
for ending environmental racism that leads to more contaminated water, air,
and
toxic dumps in poorer
neighborhoods.
--The
candidates will not demand a reduction in the military budget that devours
half
the federal government's operating expenditures at a time when there is no
Soviet
Union or other major state enemy in the world. Studies by the General
Accounting
Office and internal Pentagon assessments support the judgment of many
retired
admirals and generals that a wasteful defense weakens our country and
distorts
priorities at
home.
--You
won't hear a consistent clarion call for electoral reform. Both parties have
shamelessly
engaged in gerrymandering, a process that guarantees reelection of their
candidates at the expense of frustrated voters. Nor will there be serious
proposals that millions of law-abiding ex-felons be allowed to vote.
Other
electoral reforms should include reducing barriers to candidates, same day
registration,
a voter verified paper record for electronic voting, run-off voting to
insure
winners receive a majority vote, binding none-of-the-above choices and most
important,
full public financing to guarantee clean
elections.
--You
won’t hear much about a failed war on drugs that costs nearly $50 billion
annually.
And the major candidates will not argue that addicts should be treated
rather
than imprisoned. Nor should observers hope for any call to repeal the "three
strikes
and you're out" laws that have needlessly filled our jails or to end
mandatory
sentencing that hamstrings our
judges.
--The
candidates will ignore the diverse Israeli peace movement whose members have
developed accords for a two state solution with their Palestinian and American
counterparts.
It is time to replace the Washington puppet show with a real Washington
peace show for the security of the American, Palestinian, and Israeli
people.
--You
won’t hear the candidates stand up to business interests that have backed
changes
to our civil justice system that restrict or close the courtroom to wrongfully
injured and cheated individuals, but not to corporations. Where is the
vocal
campaign against fraud and injury upon innocent patients, consumers, and
workers?
We should make it easier for consumers to band together and defend themselves
against harmful practices in the
marketplace.
Voters
should visit the webpages of the major party candidates. See what they say,
and
see what they do not say. Then email or send a letter to any or all the
candidates
and ask them why they are avoiding these issues. Breaking the taboos
won’t
start with the candidates. Maybe it can start with the
voters.
Ralph Nader, attorney, author, was a green
party candidate for U.S. President in the 2000 campaign. He is again a
candidate in the 2008 campaign. Nader has been a prominent environmentalist
and consumer advocate for several decades, who founded along the way, several
non profit organizations that are still active; his accomplishments, like
forcing U.S. auto companies to install seat belts, are legendary. His most
recent book is The Seventeen Traditions.
This essay is herein reprinted with the author's
permission.
Posted March 17,
2008
URL:
www.thecitizenfsr.org
SM 2000-2011
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