Due to the immensity of this election, it is hard to believe that there are still a large number of undecided voters. This may be due to the fact that neither candidate is willing to touch upon the issues that Americans hold closest to their hearts. President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are afraid of alienating voters, and more importantly, alienating big contributors and political allies within their respective parties.
Only one presidential candidate calls for free college tuition. Only one candidate also calls for health care for all, a living wage of at least $10 per hour, and the elimination of federal income tax for Americans who earn below $50,000 a year. This same candidate calls for withdrawal from the illegal war and occupation in Iraq.
A recent Los Angeles Times article stated that 19 percent of Californians do not have medical insurance. Bush’s plan: give seniors money for medication. Kerry’s plan: cut premiums, cut prescription drug costs, and decrease certain taxes.
Ralph Nader’s plan: universal health care. Every American has the fundamental right to necessary health care. It should be provided to all U.S. citizens, not just 80 percent of them. Private businesses have shown that they are not able to provide adequate health care (remember the grocery worker strikes).
Bush is telling us that he is creating fair and stable democracies out of the “terrorist havens” in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is just not true. Outside of Kabul, the same warlords are running their opium businesses just as before. The death rate in Iraq has more than doubled since the war officially ended. Kerry says he would have fought the war differently, possibly at a later point in time.
Nader consistently recognizes this war for what it is – a neocolonial power grab in which the death and destruction in Iraq cannot possibly outweigh the benefits to the American people, let alone the Iraqi people.
Finally, the activities of our corporations are kept most quiet of all. Pensions are being taken away and people are becoming unemployed or kept in poverty. Many of the corporate criminals responsible should be locked up behind bars.
Bush and Dick Cheney are likely allowing no-bid contracts to go to Halliburton. Kerry claims that increasing taxes on corporations that outsource labor will solve the problem, but we need to be realistic. The benefits of cheap labor will always overcome any tax burden we can place upon them. There have been a lot of budget cuts at UCLA over the past years and it is important to realize that we are in part responsible as voters. Too many people blindly listen to what the two main political parties in this country tell them.
People believed that an ex-bodybuilder and actor had the talent and vision to rectify the problems of our state economy. People believed Ronald Reagan when he told them of his vision for California. And now we have a rampant homeless problem, budget cuts to some of the finest public universities in the country, and tuition hikes.
This is largely the result of the Republican party, but the basic structure and method of electing candidates in both parties is the same; the issues are not. We are hand-fed candidates whose greatest quality is their ability to convince an elite few that they can win the election.
Now the Democrats are telling you that somehow casting a vote for Nader is the same as casting a vote for Bush. The worst of it is that the greater part of the voting population is buying it. They bought it last time, and Nader ended up losing votes.
An article published shortly after the 2000 election in the Dartmouth Review stated, “Exit polls showed that about half of all voters who voted for Nader would have voted for Gore.” This means that the other half of those votes would have gone to Bush or other third party candidates. The reason that conservative third parties were not brought into the limelight is that the Democrats were unhappy with the fact that they could not defeat the obviously weaker candidate, Bush.
This year’s campaign is about fear. The Republicans want you to fear the bogeyman that they have created and labeled “terrorist.” The Democrats want you to fear four more years of Bush.
Nader wants to encourage a government that gives the American people something to look forward to. If reading this makes you think twice about your vote, please take the time to look at the facts, not the rhetoric.
California is in all likelihood going to end up voting for Kerry. If Nader represents your views more clearly than Kerry, you should not let politicians pressure you into thinking that voting for him will keep Bush in the White House. Only a vote for Bush can keep Bush in the White House.
Martin is the UCLA campus coordinator for the Nader 2004 presidential campaign.