| Yet another person is seeking to gain the White House: Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate, said that he will be seeking the presidency as an independent. Many Democrats believe that this move will take votes away from the Democratic candidate and hand election victory to George W. Bush. Nader is unconvinced. He refers to Washington, D.C. as being territory occupied by corporations. He remarked that both Democrats and Republicans are failing to put the needs of individual citizens ahead of corporate interests.
Nader was already an official candidate for the US presidential elections in 2000 from the Green Party, which was formed, in many ways, thanks to his campaigns in 1996. However, according to a former activist of the Green Party, Nader and his colleagues were the main driving force of this campaign and not the Green Party. In these elections Ralph Nader got 2.74% of the votes, however, was much less than the 5 % barrier, which was mandatory for the Green Party to receive federally distributed public funding for next elections - the declared purpose of this campaign.
Nader criticized the actual power of corporations and supported the elimination of corporate financing in elections, environmentalism, public health services, reasonable prices on habitation, free education up to college level, the rights of workers and the legalization of the industrial use of hemp and for amendments in the taxation system with an aim to shift the load from the middle and poor classes onto corporations. He also opposed quota trading on pollution and further privatization of public property.
Winona LaDuke was candidate for vice president when Nader was contesting for President. Winona LaDuke is an environmentalist and representative of the tribe Ojibwe from Minnesota.
Nader obtained less votes from voters than during previous elections worsening the showing from 2.9 million persons (2.74%) to 405 623 (about 0.35%). As a result, Nader, nevertheless, occupied 3rd place, but could outclass the Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik, who was present at bulletins in 49 of 50 states, by a mere margin of 63 thousand votes. Apprehensions that Nader plays the role of "a feather, who can break the back of a camel” were not justified by the Democrats - unlike 2000, in the "critical" states, Kerry conceded more than the percentage of votes, given to the advantage of Nader.
Informal occurrences:
After the 2000 elections, Ralph Nader appeared in the "Simpsons" episode Brawl in the Family, in which, he portrayed a character of a secret member of the Republican Party of Springfield; he was thanked for gratitude for his works in the interests of the Party. Nader participated in the “Ali G Show”, where the anchor Ali G convinced him to try his strength in rap reading. He was also pictured in the romantic novel “Still Life with Woodpecker” by Tom Robbins in 1980 as an object of love for Princess Leigh-Cheri and is remembered as the real character in "Wheel" in Arthur Hailey's novel.
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