Thank you Mark Dowdy, Jeff, Ericka, Myra, University of Iowa Students for Nader, and Iowa City Green Party members. Thank you everyone for your contributions this evening to the Ralph Nader campaign.
My Democratic Party affiliation is not a casual one. I've worked for the election of every Democratic presidential candidate since Harry Truman in 1948. I've run for the U.S. Senate from Iowa as a Democrat. I've run for Congress as a Democrat. I've held three presidential appointments in the administrations of U.S. Presidents who were Democrats. I've worked on a Democratic National Committee project and held virtually every position within the Johnson County Democrats.
So I have no intention of putting George W. Bush in the White House, and I'll explain before I'm through why you don't have to worry about that happening either.
But the Nader campaign is not about curtailing our fears, it's about celebrating our hopes, our idealism. As President Kennedy's brother Robert used to say, "Some see things as they are and ask 'Why?' I dream of things that never were and ask 'Why not?'"
Ralph Nader dreams of a democracy in which every citizen takes his or her responsibility seriously. He calls it the role of "public citizen." He dreams of a democracy in which political power comes from the hearts and minds of those citizens -- not from the multi-million-dollar contributions of big corporations.
But Ralph has done more than dream. As he says of his campaign, this is not about a leader looking for followers. It is about a leader helping to create more leaders. That's why the chant at his rallies is not "Go Ralph Go." He insists it should be "Go We Go."
This has been his style for the past 40 years.
Ralph still lives on a college student's budget. The money he raises from speeches and publications he uses for public interest start up organizations. He has funded dozens of them during the time I've known him. And then spun them off. He's not about power and control for himself. He's about political power for others -- including college students.
In fact, one of his most innovative programs has been the Public Interest Research Groups, or PIRGs, he's created at colleges and universities all across this country.
So why a third party? Why should you support Nader?
Third parties are a proud tradition in America -- and especially in Iowa.
After the Civil War the Democratic Party came to be controlled by big business and the wealthy. It didn't do much for poor farmers. Disinchanted Democrats organized the People's Party.
By 1912 many Republicans were disgusted with big business control of their party. Those dissidents formed the Progressive Party.
James B. Weaver of Iowa was a third party nominee for president in 1892.
It turns out that most of the progress in this country has been opposed by both of the major parties. It has come about only when third parties have pushed the agenda and picked up enough popular support that they could no longer be ignored.
That's how we got regulation of banks and railroads, a progressive income tax, the eight-hour workday, direct popular election of U.S. senators, workers' compensation, limitations on child labor, the women's right to vote, and the right to collective bargaining.
We have the same problems today.
And the same solutions.
Over 100 years ago New York's Boss Tweed used to say, "I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the nominating." Today's corporate political bosses agree. That's why they give generously to both parties.
I hold in my hand a list of 66 major corporations that have given $50,000 or more to both Bush and Gore. It's available from the billionairesforbushorgore.com Web site.
You may recognize some of their names: AT&T, Phillip Morris, Microsoft, Federal Express, Anheuser-Busch, Pfizer, Time Warner. Ever heard of any of them? Well, there are 59 more I don't have time to list.
These corporations don't care which of their nominees wins. They're not in this for the ideology. They're in it for the return on investment.
And do they get it!
Billionairesforbushorgore also provide some examples of the payback. It often runs 1000 or 2000 to one. Give a million and get back a billion dollars.
Try getting that kind of return in the stock market.
We're back where the Democrats were after the Civil War. Where the Republicans were in 1912. Big business has taken over both parties.
Big business is happy. The gap between the income of working people and that of corporate executives -- now 400 to 1 -- has never been greater. The senators and members of congress who are incumbants are happy. Over 90 percent of them easily get re-elected. After all, business provides them multi-million-dollar campaign chests.
In fact, the two major parties are incapable of enacting campaign finance reform. For thirty years they've been playing a shell game with us, and there's nothing that either Bush or Gore can do to change it.
The only way that the people can recapture the two major parties is the same way they did it 100 years ago: with a third party, the Green Party, and Ralph Nader.
That ought to be enough to persuade you. You who are young. Casting some of your first votes. Fired with idealism.
But I know that some of you are fearful. Fearful that the candidate you most fear may be elected if you vote for Ralph Nader.
So let me speak directly to you fearful few for a moment.
Consider this.
We do not have direct election of the president. We use an electoral college. Each state is winner take all. You may have heard about that somewhere along the way in high school or as an undergraduate.
There are 538 electoral votes.
However close the popular vote may have been during the past five presidential elections the winner’s electoral vote margin – not his total electoral vote, but his margin of victory -- has been something between 220 and 512 votes!
So check the papers the evening of November 6th before election day November 7th. What's the projected national electoral vote going to be?
If it's close ask yourself, is it close enough that Iowa's electoral votes could make the difference?
Iowa had 13 electoral votes in 1900. Now it has 7 -- slightly more than 1 percent of the 538. Never during the past 100 years, incidentally, would a switch in Iowa’s electoral votes have changed the national outcome.
But this year may be different.
So if seven electoral votes could make the difference in who becomes president check the latest Iowa polls. Is the popular vote in Iowa likely to be close?
Only if you answer all of those questions "yes" do you need to be concerned that your vote for Nader risks putting someone you fear in the White House.
If there's a big spread on the national electoral votes, or the Iowa popular vote, it's a free vote for you.
It is voting for Bush or Gore that becomes a wasted vote.
It's the vote for Nader that's not wasted. The vote that's registered as a meaningful protest. A demand for campaign finance reform. For returning American democracy from the corporations to the people.
You can do it.
Don't blow this historic opportunity.
Vote for Nader and win back your country.