President's View (Public Citizen News - March/April 2004)

A Message to Members: Claybrook Addresses Ralph Nader’s Candidacy

Most progressives in this country agree that the No. 1 priority this year is to throw out the radical corporate cabal that occupies the White House — the gang that took us to war on an elaborate lie, that has sacrificed civil liberties in a fear-mongering campaign against terror that arguably has exposed us to greater dangers, that has mortgaged the country’s future to give huge tax cuts to the very wealthy, that has rolled back environmental, food safety and public health protections.

There is palpable anger directed toward the Bush administration. This administration hasn’t just put corporate America in charge of the government, it is corporate America. So, the anguished reaction to Ralph Nader’s decision to run for president again was understandable, given the belief by many that he put George W. Bush in the White House.

There are endless arguments about whether Ralph was a "spoiler" in 2000, which I don’t need to rehash. But because he founded Public Citizen, many of our members and friends are not aware he no longer oversees it and have directed their frustration about his role in presidential elections toward us.

I’d like to take this opportunity to explain his relationship to Public Citizen. Ralph founded this organization in 1971, and today we are the largest of the many organizations he started. But he stepped down as president in 1980 and for the past 24 years has held no position with Public Citizen or its board. The organization was founded on the principles he espoused, and we continue to be inspired by them. But, as a matter of policy, Public Citizen is nonpartisan and does not endorse or oppose political candidates. That includes Ralph. The fact is, he didn’t seek our opinion. We had no influence over his decision to run in 2000 or his decision in 2004, and we have absolutely nothing to do with his campaign.

Nevertheless, many of our supporters were angry at Ralph in 2000 and expressed that anger by withholding their financial support for our work. As a result, we lost about 20 percent of our members, and we are just now getting back to full strength. Although we were hurt financially by the reaction to Ralph’s campaign and had to cut back some of our activities, we kept fighting for the principles we believe in, and we’ve had notable successes.

We work not on electoral politics, but on the issues. In that vein, we are battling the Bush administration on many fronts. Our Alan Morrison, a supreme lawyer and veteran of many battles against the Nixon and Reagan administrations, this spring will argue before the Supreme Court that the records of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force should be open to the public. He has just filed papers asking Justice Scalia to recuse himself, as the front-page story in this issue describes. In addition, we are documenting the Bush administration’s Nixonian obsession with secrecy on a Web site called www.bushsecrecy.org. And we are tracking the favors he doles out to his corporate financiers at www.WhiteHouseForSale.org, where we show that many of the companies outsourcing U.S. jobs are his major contributors.

We are fighting for safer and more fuel efficient cars and SUVs (www.bettersuv.org) against an administration determined to protect the interests of big energy companies and automakers. We won a major court decision blocking the opening of the Mexican border to thousands of long-haul trucks that could pollute the air and won legislation to ensure that such trucks, if allowed, are inspected for safety.

We are battling the Bush-Cheney energy bill, a plan to hand out billions to polluting energy corporations and eviscerate consumer protections preventing electric utility mergers that result in higher rates for consumers and Enron-style fraud. We are working to strengthen programs to protect consumers from mad cow disease and challenging unfair global trade practices. Last year we played a major role in defeating Bush’s plan to restrict the legal rights of patients who are severely injured by negligent doctors.

In short, we are in the trenches every day. Your support over the years is deeply appreciated — and it is critical to our success, because we take no business or government funds. Right now we need your support more than ever.

Joan Claybrook is president of Public Citizen.

Read previous columns by Joan Claybrook:

Recent Events Demonstrate Failure of White House's Market-Based Solutions - January/February 2004

Push to Repeal Roosevelt-Era Energy Regulation Flies in the Face of History - November/December 2003

Power Rangers: Bush Campaign Raking In a Bundle From Corporate Fat Cats - September/October 2003

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