Nader: Corporations have no allegiance to USA
 |  Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader |
| |
|  VIDEO |
 CNN's Bill Hemmer talks with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
 CNN's Dan Lothian on protesters at the convention site.
 CNN's Daniel Sieberg on the political "blogosphere."
|
|
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is making his fourth run for the White House to fight what he calls corporate interests in Washington. He spoke to CNN's Lou Dobbs on Monday.
DOBBS: This convention that is now under way in Boston, you wanted to be there, the Democrats said no, because you're receiving support from Republicans, both organizationally and financially, they said. How do you react to that?
NADER: First of all, it's a false characterization. We're receiving no support from organized Republicans. Obviously we welcome support from all Americans who provide legal contributions to our Web site, votenader.org. A huge amount of Republican fat cats have supported Democrats, huge amount of Republican fat cats have supported Republicans -- Democrats supported Republicans because they play both sides of the aisle. So we reject the dirty tricks that the Democrats have been engaging in in Arizona and Oregon and Michigan.
You'll like this one. They got the signatures to put us on the ballot by organized Republican money in Michigan, which we're not taking, we're going to be on the Reform Party candidacy. And they outsourced the analysis of these signatures to India.
This is the Democrats, outsourced the analysis to a firm in India; to show you how offensive they are and how empty they are about protecting American jobs.
DOBBS: I think, Ralph, this is where I say, say it ain't so, Ralph.
NADER: It is. The press has reported it, and there's no denial. In fact the guy who outsourced it said these guys do it cheaper.
DOBBS: They do it cheaper and you're rejecting both, in this case, the Democrats and the Republican organizations, the formal party organizations in Michigan. The Democrats ...
NADER: Get off our back, we're saying, yes, get off our back.
DOBBS: Get off your back.
NADER: Yes.
DOBBS: You are also pointing out wherever you can, and the message gets through in some ways for -- I'm so sure not as strongly as you would like, that both parties, Democrats and Republicans, both parties, are simply under the control, the influence, the unparalleled influence of corporate America.
How are you going to get that message through and explain to those who listen to you how important it is that there be a balance, a proportionality of interest in this country's political system?
NADER: Well, in a summary, it's a new book, "The Good Fight: Declare Independence and Close the Democracy Gap", this really deals with what happens when a country such as ours allows its government and other institutions to be under the control of a rampaging concentration of corporate power and greed in the hands of fewer multinational or global corporations, who move to control our elections -- look at all the money -- to control our government -- look at all the lobbyists -- and then to block the American people from having access without a bale full of money to their Congress, to their courts, to the executive branch.
And what you see is corporate welfare, tax dollars going to subsidies, handouts, giveaways. And you see corporate crime running amok with very limited enforcement resources. And you see the abandonment of America by these global corporations that were born in America and went to profit in America, but have no allegiance to our country or community other than to control them or abandon them to China or elsewhere as they see fit. That's the crisis today.
DOBBS: That is the crisis, it extends to education, it extends to our political system, it extends to our trade policies, but the fact is the American populace also has a great responsibility here as well, isn't that true? Because we are the ones buying products, whether they're made in Sri Lanka or whether they're made in San Antonio. We're buying imported goods rather than made in America. We've been indifferent to the loss of our colleagues' jobs, our friends' jobs, our neighbors' jobs. How do we turn that around?
NADER: Well, first of all, we stop lowering our expectations about what politics is supposed to deliver. Politics in the Greek definition is "of the citizen," not "of the Exxons by the General Motors for the Wal-Marts."
And second, we do have to be more discriminatory in how we shop. Wal-Mart, for example, tells its suppliers that if they can't meet the China price by lowering the wages here in America and reducing the benefits, they should open up in China, shut down here and go and open up in China.
I think consumers should begin judging these global corporations by whether they are patriotic, whether they really respond to the need to continually increase wages in this country rather than strip-mine them by cutting deals with dictators in other countries. You can't have free trade with a country that's not free. Senator [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan said that years ago and it's very true.
DOBBS: We thank you very much, Ralph Nader, we haven't got enough time to talk about the many important issues. We hope you'll come back soon as we explore them with you.
NADER: I'll be delighted. Thank you for your continued scrutiny on corporate crime and outsourcing, Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you, sir. Ralph Nader, independent candidate for president.
