The man who shook up American politics in 2000 -- and is doingso again in 2004 -- returns to hold both parties' feet to the fire with his straight talk about Bush, corporate government, and the whole political charade. Ralph Nader -- relentless activist, brilliant visionary -- may also be the most honest man we've got left in politics. And yet from the moment Nader declared his presidential candidacy on Meet the Press, he's faced relentless opposition, mainly from Democrats fearing that competition from an inspiring independent could dent their voting block "as it did in 2000." Even his old pals at The Nation joined in the party panic. Now, in The Good Fight, Nader swings back harder than ever at those who "want to block the American people from having more voices and choices" and have lost touch with the concept that votes must be earned, not inherited or entitled. He takes on corporate-occupied Washington and the government's daily abuse against ordinary citizens: "Corporations are sayingno to the necessities of the American people. They're saying no to health insurance for everyone, no to a living wage, no to tax reform, no to straightening out the defense budget, which is bloated and redundant, no to access to our courts." And most of all, he urges a speedy return to stronger civic motivation. If fed-up citizens don't actively join the fight for improvement, then ultimately we have no one to blame but ourselves for the inadequate checks on the erosion of our civil liberties. In an era when politicians sell us rhetoric and then sell out our principles, Nader stands as a crucial voice of candor. The Good Fight is a call to awareness and action that will captivate readersof all political stripes and help us define what we must do to shape the brightest future for our nation.

The Good Fight
Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap

Chapter One

Failure of Isms and Those Left Behind

My father had a pithy way to make a potent point. He describedthe two basic economic systems as follows: "Socialism is governmentownership of the means of production, while capitalismis the business ownership of the means of government."

A small business restaurateur, he felt an aversion to concentratedpower—whatever its garb. To him, limitless greed for wealth andpower was the downfall of any system. He would often say that "capitalismis the freest economic way if only we can control it."

Controlling what is now corporate capitalism in all its varietiesand contradictions is the task of organized civic values, law andorder, quality competition, shareholder power over executives, consumerinformation, judicial remedies, and environmentally benigntechnologies. These checks, along with self-restraint by businesses(out of what used to be called "enlightened self-interest"), areneeded to keep capitalism in its proper place so that a democraticculture can flourish toward the greater purposes of life for presentand future generations. We have an ongoing debt to the Earth fargrander and more expansive than any myopic corporate calculus.For the necessary independence that furthers civic values—democraticprocesses, civic voice, health, safety, a decent standard of living, peace, and yes, truth and beauty—we need to start with the Earth,its peoples, its flora, and its fauna.

By most measures, the Earth is not doing well. It is stalked toomuch by war and anarchy, by the exercise of concentrated, corruptpowers, poverty, disease, illiteracy, and environmental devastation.Dictators and domestic family violence, state and stateless terrorismfurther afflict the anxious mosaic of ordinary life. Giant corporationsroam the Earth, pitting societies against one another in searchof the lowest costs from serf labor and other exactions from authoritarianregimes while pulling down standards of living in moredemocratic countries. This downward drift is accelerated bytransnational, autocratic systems of commercial governance knownas the World Trade Organization (WTO), the North AmericanFree Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the African Growth and OpportunityAct (AGOA).

Three billion people try to survive on one or two dollars a day,hardly enough to deal with hunger pangs and chronic debilitationfrom bacteria, viruses, and toxins found in their putrid water, theirair, food, and soil. With the failures of state-imposed communismand bureaucratic socialism, the large multinational corporation, supportedby the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the WorldBank, becomes the remaining visible vehicle of economic growthand development.

One gauge of the global corporate model is whether it is diminishing,ignoring, or increasing the severity of the most obvious problemsin the world.

Environment?

Fossil fuel and nuclear industries, petrochemical and mining companies,forest-cutting and pesticide firms, dragnet ocean fishing corporations,biotechnology (and soon nanotechnology companies whose speed of deployment is far ahead of their science) fail to behave asgood stewards of the Earth.

Tyranny?

The global corporation has no problem dealing with dictators, inreturn for lucrative contracts, concessions over raw materials, andfree reign to exploit people (in exchange for customary kickbacks).

Lethal Arms Trafficking?

These modern "merchants of mayhem" privately export deadlyweapons to odious regimes with our taxpayer subsidies totaling billionsof dollars a year. These sales fuel an arms race that increases thedemand for more arms sales, corrupting more officials, starving nonmilitarybudgets, and spreading poverty.

Disease?

That is what the tobacco industry and its addictive product create: thespread of cancer, heart, and respiratory sickness. Big tobacco finds newways to addict its victims earlier and faster with seductive promotionsand advertisements directed to tens of millions of youngsters in SouthAmerica, Africa, and Asia. One out of four of these young people willdie prematurely from tobacco-related disease. Inhumane indifferencealso characterizes the attitude of the heavily tax and research-subsidizedpharmaceutical industry, which is so focused on profits that it barelyspends research dollars on infectious diseases like malaria or tuberculosis.Drug company executives know that vaccines rarely produce bigprofits. Just big life savings. Drug companies prefer to sell drugs thatare taken daily, or the lifestyle drugs that purport to reduce obesity orenhance potency.

Hunger?

The giant grain exporters like Cargill are expert at reducing spoilagefrom rodents, fungi, and pests that take a huge toll in third-worldgranaries. Yet, the Cargills rarely lend a hand there. Processed foodgiants promote products plump with sugar and fat and erode more nutritiousindigenous diets in developing countries. Deceptively promotedsoft drinks replace natural fruit drinks. Studies are alreadyshowing the harmful effects of diets that turn tongues against brainsthrough seductive associations with modernity in flashy advertisements.Mother's milk is a threat to infant formula sales, so modernityads instill fear and anxiety in maternal circles. Mothers respond. Infantformula then sells, costs poor families too much, is diluted formore volume with contaminated village water, and infant fatality ratessurge. UNICEF in 1991 estimated 1.5 million deaths a year from thissequence and still the western infant formula giants continue to taketheir profits to the bank.

Capital and Credit?

Less-developed countries are full of potential entrepreneurs who lackcredit to start local businesses. Multinational banks and other financecompanies turn a deaf ear to them. They prefer to finance giantprojects, like dams and pipelines, with suitable government guaranteesor subsidized loans from the Export-Import Bank. The appropriatetechnologies for community needs, so well described by E. F. Schumacherin his pioneering book Small Is Beautiful, published in 1973,are not bankable in the West. Small credit needs for production anddistribution are off the radar screen for the likes of Citigroup. Suchbanks prefer to start a credit card economy in a country like China tostretch the debt of the upper scale consumers and collect high interestrates. But the big loan money goes to third-world governments, as in Africa and South America ...

The Good Fight
Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap. Copyright © by Ralph Nader. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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