Ralph Nader’s train has left the station.
In a whirlwind 18-hour tour, 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader will make five public stops in Eugene between Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.
Nader will begin his day Thursday at a fundraiser for the Lane County Pacific Green Party at 6 p.m. and will not stop until he gives the keynote address at the Public Interest and Environmental Law Conference at noon Friday.
In between stops, Nader will speak at the McDonald Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and will sign books at the EMU Friday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Greens also hope to persuade Nader to attend the after-party benefit at 10:00 p.m. at Cafe Paradiso.
Members of the UO Cultural Forum hope that Nader’s speech at the McDonald will answer a lot of questions that still surround the 2000 election. It will be Nader’s first trip to Eugene since the election, and the Cultural Forum has asked him to speak about his new book, “Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President.” The book allows Nader to retell the 2000 election from his viewpoint, laud what he did right and point out what he would have changed.
“People are still curious on why he didn’t drop out,” said Geoff Hoffa, contemporary issues coordinator for the Cultural Forum.
Nader began his 2000 campaign as a challenge to the two party system, and he decried corporate influence in all levels of politics. With Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush running neck-and-neck during the last weeks of the campaign, many Democrats called on Nader to drop out and not to split the liberal vote. Nader refused to bow out, a move many Democrats felt tipped the election to Bush’s favor.
“Obviously, Bush is in office, and a lot of people blame Nader,” Hoffa said. “And they want to know why he did it.”
Local Democrats said they don’t harbor any animosity toward Nader, although they still wish he would have dropped out of the election.
“I’ve always respected Nader, but I think he did a disservice to his ideals by staying in the election,” said Mike Linman, co-chairman of the College Democrats.
Nader has a distinguished public career that began in 1965 with a book called “Unsafe at Any Speed,” an expose of safety concerns within the automotive industry. He then moved to the legal sphere, working with lawmakers to create the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. Nader also formed numerous citizen groups, including the Center for Auto Safety, Public Citizen and the Public Interest Research Group.
Local members of the Lane County Pacific Green Party hope that Nader’s visit will ignite the spark he lit during his 2000 campaign for president. Since the election, local Greens have moved to other issues such as campaign finance reform and instant runoff elections, but local Green member Natalie White said it will be helpful to get a pep talk.
“It’s always nice when someone from the national level comes to town and says, ‘You can do it,’” she said.
E-mail Pulse/features editor John Liebhardt at [email protected].