MIDDLETOWN -- Presidential hopeful Ralph Nader, who was meeting with signature gatherers in the city, spoke exclusively with The Herald Press concerning the Iraq War, corporate welfare and the economy, while on his "40 States in 40 Days" effort to petition his way on the Connecticut ballot, as well as those in other states.
"We have to get 7,500 registered (Connecticut) voters by Aug. 4," said Nader. "That means we have to get about 12,000 for the margin once you consider illegible or unregistered signatures."
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Getting on the ballot in each state has been a major battle in itself, as he faces opposition from the Democrats and Republicans just to get on the ballot.
"The two parties have really rigged the system with some of those laws. Some of the laws are just horrendous," said Nader. "To cover the margin we need 200,000 signatures in North Carolina to reach 100,000 signatures, because if they are not registered voters, they put the wrong county or street instead of avenue. They can just pick them apart."
Nader’s greater opponent has been the Democrats, who feel Nader may take away potential Kerry votes in swing states.
"The Democrats are really obstructive. They have hired three corporate law firms in Arizona to get us off the ballot there for 21,000 signatures, because we couldn’t afford the lawyers to defend it," said Nader. "They are going after little things. Fourteen hundred signatures had the street and the town, but didn’t have the county. That is what the secretary of state is for, but if you have to litigate, that is $250 an hour and that is not what we were raising money for."
In one of the few states that Republicans actually attempted to help Nader in an effort to get more votes taken away from Kerry, the Democrats went against their own standards to dispute the signatures.
"In Michigan, where the Republicans got signatures, which we are not using, the Democrats hired a firm to cross check them to see if they were valid," said Nader. "They actually sourced it out to India. The Democrats are supposedly all AFL-CIO and critical of NAFTA and they outsource to India."
In another state, Nader says the actions of the Democrats could best be described as scandal-ous.
"In Oregon, one way to get on the ballot is to get 1,000 registered voters in a room. The state officials are there with the counters. They then sign the nominations we are on," said Nader. So what did the Democrats do, they infiltrated us till we got over 1,100 or 1,150 people. We figured all of them were registered voters, so we closed the doors. The Democrats didn’t sign so we were down to 1,004 and of course there are always a few that are illegible or not registered, so they Trojan horsed us."
Nader says he even brought the issue up to Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.
"He said that ‘We are gonna do this in every state that is close. We’re gonna challenge you,’" said Nader. "You’re gonna have a mini Watergate on your hands."
Nader says he brought the issue up to Kerry and he responded by saying that McAuliffe doesn’t speak for him and that he would look into it.
"I haven’t heard from him in over two weeks. This is serious, it could be a real scandal. People have a sense of fairness," said Nader. "They don’t like Goliath coming in on a small candidate."
When Nader does look at the two bigger candidates, he does not really see much difference be-tween George W. Bush and Kerry.
"Look at the parallels. Bush and Kerry are for the war. Kerry wants more troops. Bush and Kerry are for the Patriot Act," said Nader. "Bush and Kerry are for not touching the bloated, re-dundant military budget which is half of the government operating expenditures."
On another issue, Nader says neither side is willing to do anything.
"Both are not making an effort to crack down on corporate crime that has looted or drained trillions of dollars from workers, small investors and pension holders," Nader said.
While corporations such as Tyco, Worldcom, and Enron are being allowed to do as they wish, Nader says the hardest ones being hit are working people.
"Forty-seven million workers don’t make a living wage, defined as $10 an hour, which is no big deal. In other words there are Wal-Mart workers making five and a half, six, seven, eight dollars an hour and that’s before payroll deductions or the cost of getting to work," said Nader. "You have to have a jalopy and insurance just to get to work. One out of three workers can’t support themselves or their families."
While companies are making millions, Nader says the workers that are making them millions are just in an endless cycle of debt caused by a system that has failed them.
"Let’s say you have two bread winners and they are making $7.50 to $8 an hour, that still doesn’t do it. So they go into more debt, they borrow from family, or they just go without," said Nader. "This is at a point when the American economy is booming and has doubled over the last 25 years."
Since Reagan was president, Nader says the economy has been focused on taking from the workers and giving back to major corporations.
"In 2002, 60 percent of U.S. corporations paid no federal income tax," said Nader. "Seventy percent of foreign companies operating in the U.S. didn’t pay either. Corporations are slowly moving to tax exempt status."
To emphasize his point Nader points to one statistic during Reagan’s tenure as president.
"In 1981-1983 under Reagan’s tax cut for corporations, General Electric paid no income tax on $6.5 billion in profits," said Nader. "One employee of General Electric paid more income tax than the entire company did during that span."
Nader says a lot of this has to do with an unbalance in power that has occurred since the Taft-Hartley Law that has virtually outlawed unions. Nader says most Western countries have laws that are much more welcoming to unions, while the U.S. completely denies them.
"We are the only candidates that are willing to repeal the Taft-Hartley Law, which has had a stranglehold on 42 million workers wanting to join a union," said Nader.
When it comes to the war on Iraq, Nader feels the only way for success in Iraq is to leave. Al-though he does not suggest packing up overnight and leaving, he knows a country will not be happy as long as it is occupied by another nation.
"If you want to discourage the mainstream millions of Iraqis from insurgence then you have to give them there country back," said Nader. "You can’t do it right away because of security prob-lems, but you do have to do it."
Nader suggests removing all troops within six months, having elections monitored internation-ally by the United Nations to avoid a puppet regime and then still dispensing humanitarian aid to the country.
As things are currently going in Iraq, Nader says it is only a matter of time before the draft is put back into effect.
"Currently 40 percent of the soldiers we have over there are reservist or national guards," said Nader. "The only way to get around the draft is to outsource things, but you can only do that for so many things. You cannot outsource for people that will be fighting."
Nader also says the draft is another issue both sides have declined commenting on.
"Both of them have not responded to a letter I sent demanding they take a stand on the draft," said Nader.
Ultimately, Nader says his goal for this election is to get on the debates, get over 5 percent of the popular vote so he could get federal funds, and open a few peoples’ eyes.
"I want to deepen and broaden this election," said Nader. "By the time October usually comes around they are only discussing three or four issues.
Nader says he wants to make this country a better country and simply choosing between Kerry and Bush will not make that happen.
"There is a lot of work to do, if we want a better country and we can not do it if we are only choosing the lesser of two evils," Nader concluded. |
