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JIM LEHRER: Now, another in our ongoing series of campaign speeches
by the leading presidential candidates. Tonight: Green Party nominee
Ralph Nader speaking Monday night at Stanford University in California.
RALPH NADER: Let's examine these two candidates briefly. George W.
Bush's motto is "Leave no child behind," which is about all
he's done in Texas. Second highest - (applause) - second highest child
hunger and highest toxic pollution exposure to Texas of any state in
the nation. He's turned over a pollution control force to the polluters
in return for huge campaign contributions. He's a great corporate welfare
king, turning his $600,000 borrowed investment into a $14 million profit
in the Texas Rangers' baseball team after his corporate buddies got
the city of Arlington to build a new stadium with tax dollars. Inflated
the team's value, he sells out for fourteen million bucks -- his only
business success.
Al Gore is a more interesting character. (Laughter) On any given day
I can't figure out whether he's the great impostor or the great pretender.
You look at all his promises and insights in his book, "Earth in
the Balance;" you'll never meet a politician who's broken more
of them or turned his back on more of them. Blind ambition - just no
-- no doubt about it. He will go with the power flow. Here's a man who
wanted solar energy; he's never made a speech on it in eight years.
That really takes guts, you know -- ( Laughter ) to make a speech for
renewable energy? Solar and renewable solar thermal, and wind power
-- such political fortitude -- (Laughter) -- go down as one of the profiles
of courage in American political history. (Laughter )
You can be part of a very exciting, very productive political effort.
At this stage, you'll be pioneers and there are some people who are
pioneers, some people who are not. We're going to get millions of votes
on November 7th as a launching pad for expanding this political movement
in future elections. But right away, we have won in a variety of ways.
We have tens of thousands of people coming in progressive political
activity, including many, many thousands of young people on college
campuses. We want to appeal to the idealism of youth, for one reason.
-- for the idealism of youth that has been turned off by a political
system the young people say is nothing more than all about money and
lying -- money and lying. 34% of 18 to 24-year-olds voted in 1996. That's
the lowest since eighteen year olds got the right to vote almost 30
years ago. We want you back into the political movement. If you ever
hear a fellow student say, "I'm not turned on politics," give
that student a history book, because if you don't turn on politics,
down to the air you breathe, the water you drink, the racial profiling
you detest, the health insurance many people don't have, and on and
on. If you don't turn on politics, politics will turn on you in very
disagreeable ways. (Applause )
One million Americans offering 100 hours-a-year of volunteer time and
raising a hundred dollars, given the depth and breadth of this Green
Party platform out of the Denver convention in June, will make this
party a majoritarian contender in a very few years. All kinds of talent
is coming out of the woodwork because of this campaign. All kinds of
people of all ages who had given up, given up as part of the peace movement,
or given up as part of the environmental movement, or given up as part
of the inner-city revitalization efforts, they're not giving up. They're
coming in. We don't want future generations to look back on this and
say, "ours was a generation that refused to give up so little in
order to achieve so much." This may be the last generation that
has that indulgence. We want future generations to look back on us and
say, "here is a generation that utilized its time in an important
fashion; applied its talent in a productive fashion; and defined justice
as the great work of human beings on earth. Here is a generation that
stood tall, a generation that brought the world environmental justice,
peace, disarmament, democracy, and the opportunities of all people to
make the most of their lives. Here is a generation that looked destiny
in the eye and said we're going to meet it." Thank you. ( Applause
)
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