Nader Hopes for 5 Percent Vote

There was more to Ralph Nader's final pre-election day appearance last night than a plea for votes.

There was a Harvard professor (the Medical School's David Himmelstein), who said the nation's healthcare system was "fucked up." There were political party staff members wearing open-toed sandals. Speakers quoting from Abbie Hoffman.

So much more--and so many people spoke at Boston University's Armory before the candidate that many in the audience began to wonder.

Was Ralph actually there?

An hour after the event began, Nader took the stage to a standing ovation.

As he began to speak, a sign-carrying George W. Bush supporter walked up and down the isle to a chorus of boo's.

Nader responded quickly, calling Bush "a corporation disguised as a man."

A visibly amused Nader quickly skipped ahead to the part of his stump speech where he criticizes Bush and Vice President Al Gore '69, calling them different heads of the same monster.

Nader was emphatically opposed to increased military spending, which both of the major party candidates support.

"We've got enough of an arsenal to blow up the world 200 times and make the rubble bounce. Let's spend some of the money on our school's, communities, and universal healthcare."

Nader continued, imploring young voters to "stand tall to the injustice the way your forebears did."

He spent the most time attacking the belief that a vote for him is a vote for Bush.

At least one BU student was swayed.

"I think he brought up a lot of points that are often overlooked," said B.U. first-year Leslie Cook, who voted by absentee ballot. "I didn't vote for Nader, but I wish I had."

Corey Eastwood, the national student coordinator for the Green Party said he agreed with Nader.

"A vote for Nader is a vote for progress," said Eastwood. "If Al Gore can't defeat one of the least eloquent, intelligent candidates in American history that just shows that he has lost the support of the people."

Nader concluded his speech with a quote from Gandhi, and exited to another enthusiastic standing ovation from a crowd comprised mostly of young people.

"I think he's actually listening to us," said B.U. first-year Nathan Barber.

Barber, along with many other members of the crowd, believed that Nader will reach the 5 percent mark in tomorrow's election, which would entitle the Green Party to at least $7,000,000 in federal campaign money in 2004.

It was only fitting that Nader should wrap up his campaign with a stop at B.U. Throughout his presidential run, he has spent a great deal of time in Massachusetts--and perhaps even more time working to gain the student vote.

Nader has made a particular point of wooing the Harvard vote.

A 1958 graduate of Harvard Law School (HLS), Nader spoke at the HLS Forum over a year ago--on Oct. 29, 1999--even before the official start of the campaign season.

On Oct. 3, as the Democratic and Republican candidates prepared to debate at UMass-Boston, Nader was speaking at HLS again.

In June, Nader named Native American activist Winona LaDuke '80-'82 to be his running mate--making the Greens the only party in the presidential race with a Harvard connection at both ends of the ticket.

Nader's relationship with Harvard is an odd one. On one hand, he constantly blasts HLS for what he sees as a propensity to create corporate attorneys rather than socially conscious lawyers.

"Watch out. They'll make you sharp, but they'll make you narrow," Nader warned HLS students last month.

"The word 'justice' was almost never used at Harvard Law School," Nader told an MIT audience in May.

But in HLS students and others like them, Nader sees many of the 12,000 people who paid $10 to hear him speak at the FleetCenter in September.

With most labor unions and prominent environmental groups backing Gore, Nader has turned to idealistic college students as the base of his support.

He has fed this idealism in his speeches, exhorting students to get involved in politics, telling them that they can make a difference.

Nader is fighting the odds with this strategy. College students are simply not reliable voters.

But for Nader, who professes participatory democracy as a core belief, this is precisely the reason to pursue such a strategy.

It remains to be seen whether Nader will get enough college students and other supporters to come out to the polls today to give him five percent of the national popular vote, which has been his stated goal throughout the campaign.