Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader spoke to a crowd last night in downtown Syracuse about the faults of the two major candidates, and his own goals for the future of the country.

Speaking under the promise of having more voices and choices for the American people, Nader spoke for him and his running mate, Peter Camejo, on their views about what the country needs in the next four years Thursday to a crowd of approximately 300 people at the South Presbyterian Church in Syracuse.

This attendance number – dwarfed by the thousands that attend each George Bush or John Kerry rally – was enough for Nader to exhibit the criticism of mainstream politics and appeals to listeners’ conscience for which he is known.

‘We want to do things like repair the justice system, or should I say the injustice system,’ Nader said. ‘We don’t send nicotine addicts to air. We don’t send nonviolent alcoholics to jail. So why do we send nonviolent drug users to jail when we should be treating it like a disease and using rehab to cure it.’

The majority of Nader’s speech dealt with faults of the two-party system, which he said are being controlled by the businesses that fund them.

‘The two parties are sideshow proxies for big corporations,’ Nader said. ‘Bush and Kerry are in a strained competition against each other to see who goes to Washington to receive orders from their corporate paymasters. We’re trying to get the two parties to respect the needs of the American people, that’s the role of the third party.’

Nader also spoke about his own policies that he would implement if elected president. They included subjects like rapid withdrawal from Iraq, healthcare for all people, crackdown on crime, peace between Israel and Palestine and a living wage for all full-time workers.

‘Most Americans believe that if you work full time, you should be able to feed your family,’ Nader said. ‘Well, many Americans work full time and can’t even feed themselves. We need to change that.’

Nader may be a small candidate, but some supporters believe he can do a better job than the other presidential hopefuls.

John Fusco, a political science major, supports Nader because he feels that neither Kerry’s nor Bush’s plan for America is right.

‘I may not favor all of his policies, per se, but I favor him over more than the other two candidates,’ Fusco said. ‘I feel a major prominent third party would help out the system and it would help out the average American who isn’t represented by the Democrats or the Republicans.’

Chris Dielmann, an economics, political science and German major, also supports Nader, and feels that he not only has good traits as a politician, but also as a person.

‘If you really go out of your way, you can find good qualities in all politicians,’ Dielmann said. ‘You could argue that Bush is a good Christian or Kerry is a nice guy, but it’s not who they are.’

Some were not sure how they felt about a liberal candidate running to become the future leader of America.

‘I think he’s a little too out there, but I like his ideas influencing other politicians,’ said Peter Vicario, an accounting finance major. ‘I’d like to have someone in the middle of him and Kerry.’

With the next presidential election only weeks away, the question of how Nader will swing the vote came up multiple times. In the 2000 election, he received a minimal amount of the votes, but some say that it had helped Nader become better known this time.

‘This election, Nader is a lot more visible than he was last time,’ said Kristin Campanelli, a political science and English and textual studies major. ‘Also, in light of what’s happened since last election, people have been paying attention to politics more.’

But others disagree by saying that people will remember how Nader affected the last election and those who might have given him the vote will now switch to Kerry.

‘He’s got less of a chance because of what happened last election,’ Dielmann said. ‘People are more frightened to give their vote to anyone but the Democratic candidate, even in states like California and New York.’

Julianna Khan, an economics major, worried about the pull her vote for Nader could have, even though she likes some of the things he has to say.

‘I’m kind of against voting for him because of what he would do for the election,’ she said, ‘but I like what he stands for.’

Nader, though, gave advice to every voter out there who worries about wasting his or her vote with a third-party candidate.

‘The only wasted vote is when you vote for someone you don’t believe in,’ Nader said.

Published on October 7, 2004 at 12:00 pm