Nader Can Fix Politics

I am deeply disappointed with the political leadership of America. The Iran-contra affair and the Savings and Loan scandal have shaken my confidence in the ability of the Washington establishment, as currently constituted, to give America the leadership it deserves in the 1990s.

The problem is exactly as Ralph Nader describes it: "Too much money and power in too few hands, greedily and wrongly used."

While 90 percent of incumbents in Congress are reelected, 30 percent of American children live in poverty. While our congressional representatives vote themselves a $23,000 pay raise, many Americans are struggling to make $23,000 a year. Politicians are the problem, not the solution. That's why I urge you not to waste your vote in the Massachusetts presidential primary by voting for a politician. Instead, cast your vote for Ralph Nader, and help bring the government back under the people's control.

Ralph Nader is not a politician. He is the nation's most effective consumer advocate, a Harvard Law School graduate who has been fighting evil corporations and special interest groups in Washington, D.C. for the past 30 years. His platform includes a repeal of the congressional pay raise, term limits for elected public officials, a binding none-of-the-above option in all elections and campaign finance reform. He has hosted Saturday Night Live.

In addition, Nader calls for giving taxpayers and consumers more control of public monopolies such as utilities and cable television. If corporations are to rake enormous profits from such monopolies, don't they owe something to the taxpayers and consumers who truly own public lands and the airwaves?

Bill Clinton is a politician to the bone, as shown by his refusal to resist the draft out of concern for his "political viability." Paul E. Tsongas has been through the revolving door, serving as a corporate lobbyist. And Edmund G. Brown is a suspiciously recent convert to the "outsider" fold.

Ralph Nader is none of the above. I urge you to cast your vote for him on the Democratic ballot, and, in so doing, to send a message that the American political system needs the structural reforms Nader is talking about.