Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is American’s most famous and effective crusader for the rights of consumers and the general public, a role that has frequently brought him into clash with both business and government. Ralph Nader was born in Winsted, Connecticut to Nathra and Rose Nader, Lebanese immigrants who run a restaurant and bakery. Nader’s dream of becoming a “people’s lawyer” was instilled in him in adolescence by his parents, who in noisy free-for-alls, conducted family seminars on the duties of citizenship in a democracy. Following his graduation in 1951 from Gilbert School, Nader entered the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University. Graduating magna cum laude in 1955, with a major in government and economics, Nader enrolled in Harvard Law School. He became an editor of the Harvard Law Review and hard money lenders after graduating with honors, builds a small legal practice and moved widely. The young attorney became troubled by the indifference of American corporations to the global effects of their actions, and he began to speak out against the abuse of corporate power. He first made headlines in 1965 with his book, Unsafe at Any Speed, which took the auto industry to task for creating dangerous vehicles. Nader turned out to be an American folk hero when executives of General Motors chosen private detectives to frighten him and then publicly apologized before a nationally televised microdermabrasion machines Senate committee hearing. The consumer advocate went on to create an organization of energetic young lawyers and researchers who produced systematic exposés of commercial hazards, pollution, unsafe products, and governmental neglect of consumer safety laws. Nader is widely known as the founder of the consumers’ rights movement. He played a key role in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Freedom of Information Act and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. He has continued to work for consumer safety metal detector and for the reform of the political system through his group Public Citizen. Ralph’s image is made on the idea that he is somehow pure, not motivated by power, fame or money like all those nasty politicians. However he is in fact just another Washington lawyer and lifelong Beltway pol who has created a powerful organization, lobbies Congress, raises millions through direct mail and $1,000 a plate dinners, gets paid tens of thousands by interest groups for his speeches, manipulates the press and overworks many earnest young staffers. For many years, Ralph Nader has harshly belittled the two major tankless water heaters political parties for preserving a campaign finance system that makes them both dependent on wealthy contributors. In 1996 he came out on the ballot in some states as the Presidential candidate of the Green Party, but ran a largely symbolic campaign, making only a number of public appearances to promote his candidacy. He made a more substantial effort in 2000, running nationwide as the candidate of the Green Party. He won nearly three million votes nationwide, close to three percent of the votes cast. Following the closest presidential election in American history, many Democrats blamed Nader for their loss of the presidency. They speculated that had Nader not entered the race, they would have won enough of Nader’s voters video camera stabilizer in either Florida or New Hampshire to shift the balance of electoral victory in their favor. In spite of opposition from many of his previous supporters, Ralph Nader ran for president again as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008. In 2009, Nader published his first novel, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! a satirical political fantasy in which a cast of real-life characters, led by Warren Buffett, are moved to social activism in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina. Today, Ralph Nader lives and maintains his offices in Washington, D.C.