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(11/07/00 3:54am)
Universal health care. A healthy environment. A living wage standard for hard working Americans. No more corporate welfare and bail outs. These are things you shouldn't be afraid to vote for.\nUnlike any other presidential candidate, Ralph Nader fights tirelessly for these ideals.\nToday is Nov. 7. If you haven't voted, please take the time and go to the polls to vote. If you are planning on voting for Nader, or would like to, you might have a few questions. \nFirst, you might still have reservations about voting for Nader because you don't want to hurt the chances of who you believe to be the lesser of two evils. Since in all likelihood you are voting in Indiana today, you have nothing to worry about. \nBecause the president is chosen by a majority in the Electoral College and not by who receives the most votes nationally, it has been all but officially decided in Indiana. George W. Bush is way up in the polls in this state and will win all 12 electoral votes. \nSo voting for either Bush or Al Gore in Indiana when you like Nader is more of a wasted vote than voting for Nader and the Greens. A vote for Nader will help the Green Party receive millions of dollars in funds and help build a strong progressive movement here in the United States.\nThe Green Party will be a party that works to protect and advance labor rights and American jobs. By voting for Nader, you will help advance the push for electoral reforms. This means the end to corporate underwriting of political parties. You will help push for publicly financed campaigns, same-day voter registration, binding none-of-the-above (NOTA) and proportional representation to make our government more democratic and responsive. \nThe Greens will fight to end government subsidies for industries that harm the environment. This will prevent these industries from profiting off your tax dollars while polluting our air and water. Your vote for Nader will pressure the auto industry to raise fuel efficiency standards. \nAll these issues probably matter to you. Now is your chance to take control of policies that will affect our generation. The status quo is not serving anyone. If you don't start voting for change now, when will you?\nHow to write in Nader: \n1. Bring your own pen or pencil with you to the polls. If you arrive without one, don't worry, the poll clerk is supposed to have one. \n2. When you enter the polling booth, first make your selections for all the offices for which you don't want to choose a write-in candidate. After you do this, you will be ready to go on to the write-in candidates. \n3. Push the write-in button, and the machine will dispense a piece of paper. \n4. Clearly write the office and the name of the candidate on the paper. For Nader, write: President, Ralph Nader. \nThere should be a list of all official write-in candidates in the booth. If you have any questions, ask someone working the polling station for assistance, and they will be able to help you. \nIf you still would like further information on Nader, visit www.votenader.org.
(10/30/00 5:03am)
After reading Duncan Teater's column "To Green or not to Green" (Oct. 23), I wonder if he knows anything at all about politics, elections or the media. First, he assumes in his column, which was just one big scare tactic, that Bush is a conservative, pro-lifer, isolationist. Bush is not an isolationist; that is absurd! Bush's Web site states his foreign policy goals would be, "accomplished by concentrating on enduring national interests and by resisting the temptation to withdraw from the world." \nTeater continues his storybook absolutes in saying Gore is a liberal, pro-choicer, internationalist! Teater spouts mind-numbing, counter-productive polarities. Now we get to abortion. Gore has voted repeatedly against pro-choice bills such as one to provide assistance to impoverished women. Bush has said the abortion issue will not be a factor in choosing Supreme Court Justices, and he has only come out against late-term abortions. Again, they aren't that far apart. Gore a liberal? Gore has lead the most conservative movement, the Democratic Leadership Council, within the Democratic Party for the last 15 years, and Bush is no Pat Buchanan.\nNow let's get to the media. Teater claims Ralph Nader is a sound bite fiend. First off, what, then, are Bush and Gore? Have you read a newspaper or watched TV lately? It's a sound bite factory! I worked with Nader this summer and, believe me, unless he gave them these stupid sound bites, his name didn't get into the news. When he served up the sound bites, Nader got coverage, when he didn't … well, he didn't get coverage.\nTeater needs to quit listening to his blind-loyal gut and wake up to the evidence: voting records, policy support, direct contextual quotes and other concretes.\nFinally, Teater doesn't understand how presidents are elected. Whoever wins the majority of the Electoral College wins the election, not the popular vote. In 43 states, either Bush or Gore has taken hold decisively, meaning a vote for Nader is not a vote for Bush. By the way, if "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" isn't the most misleading scare tactic sound bite around, then I don't know what is!
(10/24/00 4:25am)
If you care about basic human rights in the workplace and the rights of working Americans to a dignified existence, then you're already a better person than George W. Bush and Al Gore. But government, the media and other institutions keep telling us to pick between only two options, Democrat or Republican. This is tragic if you value democracy, because more and more, these two options agree with each other on a host of issues.\nFor those of you who haven't done the math yet, that leaves you with just one option for the shaping of this country's future. Does this sound like democracy? How would you like it if you were given only one choice on other things in life? What if you were told to decide between a yellow Yugo and a lime green Yugo when you were buying a car? Unless you really had your heart set on this car, you'd be outraged, because you know there are hundreds of better options out there. Apply this to the presidential race, and you will be outraged that you have only two very similar, rather sorry choices for president.\nGore and Bush agree on so many things it should make you sick! How many times did they say in the debates, "Well yeah, I would go along with that," or "Yes, I would have to agree with you there?" This tragic truth is elevated to an outright calamity when you consider that both parties agree on extremely important issues to which large portions of our population are personally opposed.\nThat is why Ralph Nader of the Green Party is running for president.\nOne key issue Gore and Bush agree on, or agree to ignore, is labor issues and workers' rights. The United States entered the World Trade Organization in 1995, and in recent months millions of people all over the world, including those in Seattle, passionately protested this blood-sucking institution. Yet the Democrats and Republicans both support this organization. They both support NAFTA, even though 20 percent of the voting public supported anti-NAFTA candidate Ross Perot. This wasn't because of his boyish good looks or his "pigs-in-a-poke" charm, either. \nWhy are people outraged by NAFTA, the WTO and other free trade institutions? Because they hurt millions of U.S. workers and workers abroad, and lower U.S. environmental standards to third world levels. Instead of exporting higher environmental standards to the rest of the world, America has been forced to import lower standards. The United States lost its right to control environmental standards when it committed to these trade institutions. It can be sued in international courts if its laws do not comply with these ruthless trade agreements. \nThese agreements undermine labor rights, too. More easily than ever, U.S. companies can jump ship and leave our nation's hard-working laborers to sink into poverty. U.S. companies can exploit workers in third world countries and then export these goods back to us at unreduced prices. So, whom is this helping? Not Me. Not you. Certainly not the 4,600 workers here in Bloomington and Louisville, Ky. who are losing their jobs at a GE refrigerator plant after GE decided to move the operation to Mexico. I don't think it benefited their families. How does this help our community? A vote for Gore or Bush says you support this. Nader wants to pull out of the WTO and renegotiate trade agreements so they respect the environment and support workers. By voting for Nader, you stand up for American workers and communities. \nAnother labor issue Gore and Bush conveniently ignore, while a large part of the population suffers, is the debate over the Taft-Hartley Act. This act was put into law at the height of the communist red scare to thwart communist influence. Because people feared unions might be taken over by communists, the law denied millions of workers the right to unionize. This effectively destroyed existing unions' power by killing their ability to strike. The Cold War ended 10 years ago. Let's get with the times and adjust policy to our changing political environment. It is time to liberate our nation's working people and allow them to fight for better living standards. Bush and Gore are content to continue governmental abuse of workers. Nader supports repealing the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act.\nWhy is this so important? Because labor unions have been emasculated. Workers cannot strive for basic standards, such as a living wage. Both Bush and Gore support raising the minimum wage by a dollar over two to three years. Sure, this sounds pro-worker, but in fact, it's a patronizing insult. If the minimum wage were raised a dollar right now, it would still be still be $1.20 less per hour in actual purchasing power than it was in 1968! If workers were able to make a living wage, not only would they live more comfortably, they'd be putting more money back into the economy. If you vote for Bush or Gore you crush America's working families. By voting for Nader you support them, because he supports raising the minimum wage to a living wage standard.\nLabor and trade issues are one example among countless examples where Americans suffer from being given only one dreadful option. Bush and Gore simply don't care! But Nader and the Green Party offer you another option. By voting for Nader you are voting to help workers, protect our environment and broaden our democracy.\nTo learn more about IU Greens, visit www.indiana.edu/~iugreens or e-mail iugreens@indiana.edu.
(10/17/00 5:05am)
Politics doesn't have to be about a rich old boys club, glitzy dinner galas and obscene wads of money flying in from powerful corporate donors. Instead politics can be about you and your interests, regardless of who you know and who your daddy is. \nWhen most students think about the presidential election they probably feel they have four dismal options. \n1) Vote for Republican George W. Bush \n2) Vote for Democrat Al Gore \n3) Throw their vote away and vote for someone else, or \n4) Not to participate at all. \nI would like to propose voters have another option, voting for Ralph Nader and the Green Party. Some would argue that voting for Nader falls under the third choice, throwing their vote away, but they are wrong. Voting for Nader will actually make a difference, even though at this point he is likely to lose the election in November. However, everyone who votes for Nader is bound to win. \nCitizens who vote for Nader and the Greens in this coming election win for many reasons. They are building a strong third party that represents them. Votes for the Greens also force the political discussion to expand, from which we all can benefit.\nThird parties can and do make a difference! Countless times throughout this country's history, third party movements resulted in major reforms.\nThe abolitionist movement developed the Liberty Party in 1844 to take up the anti-slavery cause. The Free Soil Party and the upstart Republican Party continued the abolitionist movement until slavery was abolished under the 13th amendment. \nFrom 1892 to 1924 the Populist Party, the Socialist Party, the Bull Moose and Robert LaFollette's Progressive Party were at the forefront of reforms we take for granted today. Did you know these third parties are responsible for initiating the legalization of unions, environmental conservation, direct election of U.S. senators and other election reforms? Add to that a progressive income tax, the prohibition of child labor and anti-trust laws to stop monopolies and oligopolies, and you can see what an impact third parties make. \nEven Ross Perot's presidential bids caused the Republicans and Democrats to adopt many of his positions, such as reducing the national debt. \nNow Americans have a chance to vote for change once again by voting for Nader.\nHe offers a vital alternative to the average citizen at a time most Americans are fed up with the two-party system. This is fairly apparent when one looks at the results from the last election when Bill Clinton received only 23.6 percent of the votes from eligible voters, while 61 percent of eligible voters either chose not to vote or voted for a third party candidate. Nader and the Green Party hope to attract these disaffected citizens.\nA vote for Nader builds a strong third party, which, at the very least, acts as a watchdog to keep the Democrats and Republicans in line. In addition to this, by voting for Nader you push to end a racist institution, the death penalty, which both Gore and Bush support. \nA vote for Nader would help end the corporate buyouts of our politicians. Both Gore and Bush have already sold their souls to corporate fat cats. Nader has proposed such electoral reforms as real campaign finance reform, same day registration, proportional representation, the opening of the debates and instant runoff voting that almost all modern Western democracies can boast besides the United States. The list goes on. \nA vote for Nader is a vote for fair trade agreements instead of profit-first free trade agreements, which devastate the environment and abuse workers everywhere. If you want government to end the ineffective drug war and to push for universal health care, vote for Nader this November! \nIf not, government will keep ignoring these and other issues. Nader doesn't ignore these issues. By voting for him you will force government to be responsive to these issues.\nMake a change for the better this election. Sustainability, universal health care, fair trade and workers' rights are things that will affect your life for the better if you vote with your conscience. Walk away from the voting booth filled with optimism instead of defeat. Vote for Ralph Nader instead of settling for the lesser of two evils.\nFor information about the IU Green Party, please contact the organization at iugreens@indiana.edu.