Campaign Speech and Q&A Session as delivered to Stanford, October 23 2000

Ralph Nader delivering a campaign speech and QA session upstairs in Memorial Auditorium less than 2 weeks before the ill-fated election of 2000. Nader mostly addresses the terrible state of democracy in the United States due to the stranglehold that Corporations and Big Business have on government. Its scary how much foreshadowing occurs in his speech. The Q&A afterwards by the Stanford students ranges from thoughtful to looney-tunes and is quite engaging. (This recording was provided by the KZSU News Dept as recorded by Mark.)

DISC1:
1) introduction, healthy applause
2) grassroots activism, civil society, and its decline today
3) corporate/business control of government weakening democracy, addresses students directly about their elite positions, golden handcuffs “at Stanford youre not on a ladder to success, youre on an escalator to success”
4) difference between strong economy as defined by market indicators than as defined by quality of life, poverty, buying power and the middle class, compared to the rest of the world
5) example of middle class type economics, bordering on socialism, “here at Stanford you don’t have a Corporate Crime major”… “Corporations should get out of politics” 6) influence buying and pedaling in both parties
7) more on giving too much power to business
8) whats wrong with the democratic party: “the lesser of two evils gets worse”
9) a true look at poverty, “environmental racism”… “what’s your curriculum, on the job training for the business establishment?” 10) (PLAY THIS: directly addresses Stanford student body) “corporate grip on campus” “university is a trade school with a very high tuition”, critical thinking
11) racism, “freedom is participation in power” (oh how ironic and foreshadowing this is considering what happened a week later in Florida)
leads well into 12) invasion of privacy by business and corporations, violence committed by corporations, military spending
13) democracy, none of the above
14) WTO, challenge to congress that these monkeys actually read legislation that they pass, paid one to, only one did (a republican) then he voted against it, brilliant
15) internet and congress, how none have their voting record online, minimum wage decreases, Bush/Gore moronics
16) great rip on Bush
17) rips on Gore/Clinton (who were in power at the time)
18) control of the media and how its “supposed” to belong to the public
19) “we’ve lost the freedom of contract”, how equal bargaining power is gone, how consumers are fucked, some good comedy actually
20) a great analysis of TV “news”, amazing how “weather” usurps democracy, communication and how we have to HAVE OUR OWN MEDIA (hello? Anyone out there, kzsu?)
play with next also:
21) a recollection of Cesar Chavez’s fasting and the media, his death, how we don’t actually “own” our land, our airwaves, what the hell is “public”?, heavy important stuff for a radio station to play, restates the thesis of green party and the election (hint hint)
22) reflects on the past, what people went through to make this country, our freedoms, how democracy actually is good for the economy and our future

DISC2:
1) conclusion, urge to vote, think
2) QA: free trade and exporting labor, exploitation of child labor
3) U.S. foreign policy about “human population growth”, promotes birth control but doesn’t interference with other countries
4) long winded “question” that goes into really great history on the situation in Israel, middle east, Iraq, how Hussein was put in power, etc
5) “hardball” question addressing all the “a vote for Nader is a vote…” etc, really excellent brilliant response from the get-go
6) a constitutional amendment against the draft unless congress declares war
7) a call to put a man on Mars, “send andy grove and bill gates on their own money”, lunatic fringe with some good crowd response
8) public financing of campaigns
9) can the democratic party go green? Interesting foreshadow to what occurred…
10) gay rights: “equal rights, equal responsibilities, end”
11) vote defensively: about Bush appointing Supreme court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, interesting especially these day… defense being that democratic presidents have nominated assholes too, delving into history without a base in the present, really good rips on Bush
12) position on war on drugs (“criminalizing and militarizing the problem”), its all bullshit
13) environmental racism, how to fix it, recycling “the problem is that Exxon doesn’t own the sun”
14) “hardball” question about not attending some minor debate
15) difference between greens and dems