A Comparison: McCain, Nader, and Obama

Ralph who? If you find yourself asking this question, the reason why you haven’t heard much about Ralph Nader is because the news barred him from the political debates on television. The fact is, six GLOBAL corporations own about half the media that we consume, not to mention the large companies at home. Whether they view Nader as a threat to their interests or whether they have chosen their presidential candidates for us, we have a threat to our democracy simply because media control skews our votes by controlling our information.

Would you like to hear more about Nader? I hope so. Because his is a radically different point of view.

The Middle East
Between Obama and McCain, they both agree that the goals in Iraq need to be accomplished. They say they’re fighting for peace. The former wants a time-phase withdrawal that will take several years, the other speaks of staying in until ‘mission accomplished’. Ralph Nader has a goal for immediate withdrawal within six months, making Obama’s timid measures appear like he wants to win a war. Ralph Nader is a proponent of peace, acknowledging the death toll of Iraqi civilians (that Obama and McCain fail to even mention), add also the fact that the Middle East wants peace (and so they’d be willing to negotiate). Other things that Nader acknowledges that Obama and McCain fail to mention are the public opinion polls, the peace groups forming all over the Middle East, Israel’s military occupation of the Gaza (controversial to Fox news), the cost (in real numbers) of a failing war, and the Tibetan rights and dignity.

The Market
The political debates have not even began to mention anything about Fair Trade. And Fair Trade is more than consuming responsibly when you’re choosing your coffee beans at Trader Joe’s. Fair Trade has to do with reversing the problems caused by our policies – namely, what the World Trade Organization does, and the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. These agreements are made to benefit American corporate interests so that poor countries can “develop” by having American companies come in and take their resources without regard to environmental, labor, or political costs. Isn’t this like the more sophisticated form of imperialism? Nader wants to make international standards – and this is important in a globalizing economy.

Environmental Policy
Nader’s environmental policy has a larger scope than Obama and McCain’s. Obama goes one step further than McCain – a Cap-and-Trade system (which I am not opposed to at all), while Ralph Nader in addition plans to take action to defend the environment itself. There are more issues out there beyond the scope of the news media. To read more, go visit http://www.votenader.org/issues/environment/environment/

The Military Budget
Did you know that the US spends more than the REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED on the military? Add also, the militarization of space – out of the global expenditures, 95% belongs to the US. Between Obama and McCain, they both have not talked about diverting superfluous tax expenditures to something like healthcare… or jobs… or education. How these things will be funded for in the Obama plan is unknown. He claims that he will decrease taxes; however, McCain supporters feel he’s going to increase taxes despite what he says. Not to mention, both Republicans and Democrats alike both want to increase the $600 Billion military budget. Why? They fail to ask why on the news.

Minimum Wage
Obama says the problem is that the government hasn’t increased minimum wage. He hopes to raise it to 9 an hour by 2011. The problem with that proposal though is two things – is it a livable wage? And is it going to matter according to the cost of living and inflation rates by 2011? Ralph Nader wants a livable wage for people, as well as a “Bill of Rights” for workers – accident protection, retirement, the right to organize into unions, anti-Wal Mart contracts, etc. Nader also acknowledges the distribution of wealth and how the gap is widening between the CEO and bottom employee 300:1. On average a CEO in a large company takes home over $150,000 A WEEK. Need I mention the minimum wage to you? $5.25 an hour.

Alternative Energy
Ralph Nader once said something along the lines of ‘the reason why energy companies hasn’t invested in solar energy is because they cannot own the sun’. Frederick Bastiat made a joke once saying something similar, ‘the lamp makers are arguing against the sun, telling people to close their windows for the sake of free trade’. Wait, how was the economy supposed to work for us again? Almost anyone can manufacture solar power cells (in fact, I have a book that teaches me how to make one!) – this will decentralize the energy monopoly, and with something like the sun, it will be truly the people’s asset. I am not against this. Nader’s plan is predominately invested in solar energy. Obama? He wants to take cap-and-trade revenue to fund research in all forms. McCain? He wants to expand oil production and natural gas.. somehow. *Edit: McCain also has plans for a cap-and-trade system, alternative energy, as well as acknowledgment of speculative oil pricing. His alternative energy plan is largely invested in Hydrogen.

Conclusion
I’m sorry to cut this short, especially if you’ve found use to this article. All I want to say really is that McCain is FAR TO THE RIGHT of public opinion (he doesn’t want much to change), Obama is still hanging on the right of public opinion (he proposes incremental changes), and Nader is more in tune with it. In fact, he has statistics with public opinions on his website. Nader is a candidate that reflects the public. Why he doesn’t get any airtime is another reason why our democracy is failing. It is sad that some people have also told me (after I informed them that there was a third person running), “a vote for Nader is a wasted vote for Obama”, when the two aren’t even the same at all! And even though my hero Noam Chomsky said “there’s nothing wrong with voting for the lesser of two evils”, I beg to differ. Who wants to participate in an authoritative election where which ever way we choose, it will still pertain more to corporate interests?

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