Ralph Nader Speech now on-line

This speech is a masterpiece that sums up everything that Nader and his campaign are all about.

Unfortunately, the audio is extremely poor.

Despite the bad audio, the speech is worth listening to for the sake of getting a feel for the cadence and emphasis of Nader's words. His words and message are magnificent-- and should endure for study and as an important historical record. The transcript that is provided at the linking website is very helpful.

Ralph Nader here explains precisely why he runs-- the agenda he is promoting-- and his hope for the future.

The themes are quintessential Nader-- probably delivered extemporaneously as an amalgamation of numerous other speeches he has delivered. This speech is probably one of his most passionate-- and unsettling. He declares that his campaign did not set out to flatter his listeners.

Nader speaks unvarnished truth to power. He reveals his election opponents as convenient corporate stooges coddled by a media that, with it, specialize in triviality and seeking their own self interests-- at the expense of the American people.

Perhaps the most interesting part of his speech for me was how Nader decries the offshoring of jobs and the deceptiveness of "free trade" as it is almost universally promoted. Rather than villifying workers in China who labor in a horrid state of virtual slavery... he extols their will to survive... and instead villifies our unpatriotic corporations that unjustly exploit them while destroying our own economy.

(Few people know that Ralph Nader studied the Chinese language at Harvard.)