Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader told a packed Lobo Room at the SUB the similarities between the Democratic and Republican Parties tower over the dwindling differences, and he's running to offer a new choice.
Nader said as president he would work to eliminate college tuition.
Like the public education systems in Australia and New Zealand that charge marginal fees for college, American public universities should not charge students tuition, he said.
"We're spending $80 billion keeping our troops in Western Europe and East Asia 60 years after World War II, defending prosperous countries that can defend themselves against nonexistent enemies," he said in an interview. "That would pay for two years and three months of public university tuition for every student in America."
When asked if his campaign will hurt Kerry's chances of defeating Bush by attracting more liberal votes, Nader said his campaign will mostly help Kerry.
"It's simple," he said. "Two fronts are better than one against Bush, especially when our front takes Bush and his government apart much more seriously and graphically than the Democrats are willing to do."
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Kurt Koegler, a voter-registration activist from Texas, said he admires Nader's principled stances.
"I prefer supporting progressive Democrats like Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich," but he will reluctantly vote for Kerry, he said.
Nader said the major parties are using redistricting to consolidate their powers, rendering 95 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives a foregone conclusion.
"There's no choice," he said. "It's just the incumbent party, not opposed or nominally opposed by the other major party, and that means the end of elections. We're seeing the end of even the charade of the two-party system in most districts around the country."
Nader said in 2002 only four incumbents of 435 contested seats in the House of Representatives lost to a challenger.
"This is a revolution in American politics," he said. "This is the end of two-party choices, however converging and similar they may be."
He said his candidacy will cause two main results.
"One, we're going to pull away some measure of Bush voters who are now furious with him" for his fiscal and foreign policies many say are a corruption of conservatism, he said.
And the Independents are a demonstration model on how to take the Bush administration apart on issues that connect with people the Democrats can pick up, Nader said, adding they don't have a patent on the issues.
He said the Iraq war was based on lies and has galvanized Middle Eastern terrorist groups.
"Both candidates have a position of staying in Iraq with no deadline for withdrawal of U.S. military and corporate forces," he said. "The Nader/Camejo ticket has a six-month responsible withdrawal strategy with internationally supervised elections so Iraqis will have their democratically elected government, not a puppet government installed against their will. Mr. Bush promised to free Iraq, not to occupy Iraq."
Nader needs 14,527 signatures to get on New Mexico's ballot. Carol Miller, Nader's New Mexico coordinator, said Nader will exceed the required number by 25,000 signatures.
He has campaigned for consumer rights and protections for 40 years and is credited in part with the establishment of the Clean Air and Freedom of Information Acts, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Automotive Safety, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and many other consumer rights groups.
From Albuquerque, Nader will make his way west before returning to Washington, D.C.
