Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 7/2/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy of MCT Campus Presidential candidate Ralph Nader will be on Hawaii ballots this November. Nader, who is running as an independent, is famous for his consumer advocacy and role as a spoiler in the 2000 presidential election. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Kris DeRego Ka Leo interview with presidential candidate Ralph Nader

This Thursday, presidential candidate Ralph Nader will bring his campaign to Hawai‘i, something that neither of his two presumptive competitors, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, currently plan to do.

Appearing at UH Mānoa's Art Building Auditorium, Nader, who is running as an independent, will speak on behalf of the Nader-Gonzalez ticket, which seeks to unsettle the entrenched interests of the United States' two major political parties.

"I think in Hawai‘i, if people realize that it's a slam dunk Democratic state, they may want to send the Democrats a message: Don't define yourself principally be how bad the Republicans are. Define yourselves by the progressive platform of Nader-Gonzalez," said Nader about his purpose for campaigning in the islands.

Nader, a consumer advocate who helped reform automobile safety standards in the 1960s, is best known for playing the role of spoiler during the 2000 presidential election, in which current President George W. Bush defeated his opponent, Democrat Al Gore, when the Supreme Court halted a recount of the ballots cast in Florida.

In the aftermath of the election, political commentators asserted that many of Nader's voters, who comprised 2.74 percent of the country's total popular vote, would have likely voted for Gore. Accordingly, Nader's appearance on the Florida ballot was said to have siphoned off enough would-be Gore votes to swing the election to Bush.

This time around, Nader hopes to loosen Obama's and McCain's grasp on targeted demographics, especially among younger voters, who Nader believes will bear the brunt of the nation's blunders.

"They're facing a political system that puts a premium on money, puts a premium on selling out to giant corporations that dominate Washington D.C.'s departments and agencies, and play a huge role in elections."

Nader also plans to ease the financial burden on college students by combating the rising cost of tuition and textbook inflation.

"We should be more like Western Europe, where (higher education) is essentially free," said Nader. "And as far as textbooks are concerned, that's a clear anti-monopoly problem that should be prosecuted by the Department of Jusitce. There's no reason for a 600-page textbook, manufactured in volume, to cost more than a 600-page novel."

With the regard to the environment, Nader says that the implementation of a national policy of energy conversion that goes "beyond the mission to go to the moon" will help the United States not only achieve energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, but allow the federal government to avoid geopolitical entanglements, as well.

Even Native Hawaiians stand to benefit from Nader's insurgent candidacy, according to the third-party candidate, who favors granting Native Hawaiians indigenous protections and establishing government-to-government legal relations between an autonomous Native Hawaiian governing body and the United States government.

"The Native Hawaiians were dispossessed. Their queen was overthrown by white planters," says Nader. "Native Hawaiians have the same kind of grievances as other native peoples."

While Nader's chances of electoral success remain slim, his numbers have surpassed the expectations of most political pundits. Some national polls have shown support for the Nader-Gonzalez ticket running as high as 6 percent of registered voters. Recent polls in Michigan show Nader polling even higher, earning as much as 10 percent of voters' support.

Still, the prospect of a presidential candidate visiting campus, this week, is exciting for many members of the UH community. And Nader comes bearing a message for the likely Democratic nominee, who, having been born and raised in Hawai‘i, can boast a local pedigree.

"Come back to your native state, Barack," says Nader. "People want to see you and ask you questions."

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