October 30, 2000

11:58 AM

Not exactly "Green"."The trouble is, Nader seems uneasy being Green. He refuses to join the party (never has joined one, and swears he never will). And while he matches the Greens in anticorporate fervor—our current government is "of the Exxons, by the General Motors, and for the DuPonts," he says—the environment seems rather low on his policy agenda. Last year he devoted just three of his weekly syndicated newspaper columns to the subject. "
posted by owillis (8 comments total)

Also interesting:"When asked if someone put a gun to his head and told him to vote for either Gore or Bush, which he would choose, Nader answered without hesitation: "Bush." "
posted by owillis at 11:59 AM on October 30, 2000

Well, ya kno, a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush anyway.
posted by snakey at 12:09 PM on October 30, 2000

What the frog said.
posted by holgate at 12:17 PM on October 30, 2000

"Nader answered without hesitation: 'Bush.'

I think that's because if Bush becomes President, he'll anger the US population so much due to his corporate ties that Nader will have even more of a chance in 4 years.
posted by bkdelong at 12:51 PM on October 30, 2000

Yes, and Al Gore has already shown that he can lie to Democrats about his corporate ties -- and the frightened liberals will believe him.
posted by snakey at 1:24 PM on October 30, 2000

I've seen him say at least twice that he'd vote for neither of them. The last one was pretty recent at the National Press club.

I'm glad he's more focused on political corporate corruption than anything else, once that huge obstacle is removed politicians will be accountable to their constituents. If those constituents want clean air and water they'd have a better chance than compared to dealing with the 2 head/1 party roadblock. It all comes down to why he's even running in the first place, the system is too corrupt to allow him to do the work he's been doing for almost 40 years.

I've also heard him speak heavily on the environment, not to mention he and his consumer groups were pretty much responsible for pushing a lot of legislation like Clean water act, OSHA, etc. To be fair, some of that talk is criticizing Gore.
posted by skallas at 1:27 PM on October 30, 2000

Corporations are the biggest polluters. The way to save the environment is to crack down on them.

I’ll have everyone note the EPA was developed out of movements founded by Nader. Clinton/Gore however, have pretty much nuetered and ghettozied the EPA in favor of big business.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 1:51 PM on October 30, 2000

The author makes a common mistake when equating the Green Party with environmentalism. In fact, only two (maybe three, depending on how you look at it) of the greens' "ten key values" have anything to do with the environment.

That Nader spends more time arguing for things like democracy, justice, and peace than for environmental cleanup demonstrates agreement with the general sensibility of the Green Party.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:12 PM on October 30, 2000