Independents promote Nader '55 candidacy

The group, called Princeton Independents, is mounting a campaign to have Nader included in the national presidential debates.

“We want to let people know that there are more than two presidential candidates in these elections,” Sofya Aptekar GS, president of the group, said in an e-mail. “Ralph Nader is on 45 ballots this year ... and polling 6% when polls include him. But many people still don’t know that he is running.”

The group has distributed black-and-white posters all around campus to push for the Nader cause.

“[Nader] was very interested in being included in the debates,” Ashley Sanders, the youth spokesperson for Nader’s national campaign, said in a phone interview. “However, the commission that orchestrates the debates was created by the Democratic and Republican parties, who have a vested interest in maintaining the two-party system.”

Since the Nader campaign has so far been unsuccessful in its attempt to have the candidate included in the national presidential debates, Princeton Independents members are now focused on raising consciousness about their candidate, Aptekar said.

The group hosted its initial event Thursday, a screening of the biographical documentary of Nader “An Unreasonable Man.” The screening was followed by a question-and-answer session with the group leaders.

Nader, a graduate of the Wilson School and Harvard Law School, is widely known for his consumer protection advocacy, political journalism and numerous campaigns for the U.S. presidency. He ran as the Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000 and as an independent in 2004.

His role during the hotly contested 2000 election stirred controversy. Many Democrats accuse him of taking votes from Democratic candidate Al Gore and costing Gore the election.

Campus Democrats and Republicans alike disagree with Nader’s assertion that there are no significant differences between them.

“When Nader told thousands of voters in 2000 that [Republic presidential nominee George] Bush and Gore were one and the same, corporate flunkies, and then cost Gore the election, he lost a lot of credibility with the American public,” College Democrats president Rob Weiss ’09 said in an e-mail.

Nader’s supporters, however, insist that he speaks for a sizable group of voters not represented by either major party.

“Nader addresses issues that are off the table for Obama and McCain,” Aptekar said. “[He talks about] single-payer health insurance, reversing the Middle East policy, impeaching [President] Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney...”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“This election is a pretty clear choice between John McCain and Barack Obama, and I don’t anticipate any of the independent candidates having much effect,” College Republicans president Andrew Malcolm ’09 said in an e-mail. “I do not see much of a void for other candidates to fill this year because the differences between the candidates on major issues are pretty clear.”

But many of Nader’s most impassioned criticisms of government deal not with foreign or domestic policy but with the two-party system itself.

“He calls it a two-party electoral dictatorship,” Sanders said. “The two parties are very similar to each other.”

Aptekar said she believes that third parties occupy an important place in American politics and can express the voice of those who do not identify with mainstream Democrats or Republicans. “Third parties raise issues that the major parties shy away from,” she said. “There are millions of unsatisfied voters out there whose views are not represented by the two major parties.”

“Today’s third party candidates are inheritors of a long American tradition of third parties,” she added.

But this position is controversial even among those who agree that the two-party system is flawed.

“Taking a principled stand against the two-party system is one thing, but running again and again to distract our country from the real, fundamental differences between the two major candidates is entirely another,” Weiss said.

The Nader campaign will be holding a separate, third-party debate on Oct. 16 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.