Ralph Nader

When people hear the name Ralph Nader they usually say to themselves, I’ve heard that name before, but I just don’t know where.  America should wake up and realize that there are more than two parties with candidates running for president.  Besides for the big dogs (republicans and democrats) there are Independents, a Green party, a Socialist party, a Libertarian party, among others.
Ralph Nader is a lawyer and an author whom Time magazine has called “one of the most influential men of the twentieth century.”  Over the past forty years, Ralph Nader has tried to call attention to problems in our society.  He has also organized many Americans into public interest groups to try to solve these problems.  Because of his work there is an entirely new set of laws and regulations that have made cars safer and improved the quality of food in the US.
Democrats and Republicans make promises every election year but rarely follow through on those promises because they accept money and are greatly influenced by corporations and wealthy Americans.  The interests of corporations and the wealthy are not the same as the interests of everyone else as we can see by this currently financial crisis.  Here is where Nader stands on some important issues.
The United States spends at least 6,000 dollars per person on health insurance, more than most other countries in the world.  Yet even with these high rates our healthcare is mediocre at best compared to that in Canada or parts of Europe.  47 million Americans cannot afford healthcare and that leads to about 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year (Institute of Medicine Report).  Our current healthcare system is a multi payer fiasco.  This means companies and individuals pay for most of the healthcare.  Healthcare organizations for this reason waste much of the money they receive on advertising, billing and accountants, things that really don’t have much to do with doctors or actual physical healthcare.  Nader supports a single payer system (the government).  This means that yes our taxes might go up a little, but that increase would be nothing compared to the amount of money we pay every year for healthcare now.
Since 2001 America has lost almost 3% of its jobs to countries over seas or to bankruptcies.  By investing in infrastructure projects here in the US, such as building energy efficient power plants, repairing failing structures in crumbling neighborhoods and creating new emission free technologies Nader argues millions of new jobs will be created.
Nader states he would push a new energy policy that cut all government help to oil companies and create subsidies (help) for those who use solar power, wind power or other kinds of renewable energy. Ending our dependence on oil will make our country more secure, help our environment and improve our health since there will be less pollution in the air an water.  Both Democrats and Republicans have been saying the same things for years and have done almost nothing to accomplish these goals.  Both of these parties are so influenced by oil companies and corporations in general that they have not acted in our best interest.  Nader has laid out an entire plan to do this and does not owe anything to oil companies that would stop him from accomplishing his goals.
Nader, along with many Americans, believes that George Bush and Dick Cheney should be impeached (brought up on charges) and removed from office.  Many constitutional law experts believe Bush and Cheney have committed at least five different kinds of crimes punishable by impeachment.  There are so many that where to begin is really the difficult decision.  Under Bush’s administration Americans have been spied on, imprisoned without charges and interrogated by government agents for “The Safety of the US.”  The Constitution has suffered so much abuse over the last eight years.  Perhaps Nader would set things straight.
Most of the information concerning where Nader stands on the Issues came from http://www.votenader.org/index.html