Election not just between Bush and Kerry

Due to the immensity of this election, it is hard to believe
that there are still a large number of undecided voters. This may
be due to the fact that neither candidate is willing to touch upon
the issues that Americans hold closest to their hearts. President
Bush and Sen. John Kerry are afraid of alienating voters, and more
importantly, alienating big contributors and political allies
within their respective parties.

Only one presidential candidate calls for free college tuition.
Only one candidate also calls for health care for all, a living
wage of at least $10 per hour, and the elimination of federal
income tax for Americans who earn below $50,000 a year. This same
candidate calls for withdrawal from the illegal war and occupation
in Iraq.

A recent Los Angeles Times article stated that 19 percent of
Californians do not have medical insurance. Bush’s plan: give
seniors money for medication. Kerry’s plan: cut premiums, cut
prescription drug costs, and decrease certain taxes.

Ralph Nader’s plan: universal health care. Every American
has the fundamental right to necessary health care. It should be
provided to all U.S. citizens, not just 80 percent of them. Private
businesses have shown that they are not able to provide adequate
health care (remember the grocery worker strikes).

Bush is telling us that he is creating fair and stable
democracies out of the “terrorist havens” in Iraq and
Afghanistan. This is just not true. Outside of Kabul, the same
warlords are running their opium businesses just as before. The
death rate in Iraq has more than doubled since the war officially
ended. Kerry says he would have fought the war differently,
possibly at a later point in time.

Nader consistently recognizes this war for what it is ““ a
neocolonial power grab in which the death and destruction in Iraq
cannot possibly outweigh the benefits to the American people, let
alone the Iraqi people.

Finally, the activities of our corporations are kept most quiet
of all. Pensions are being taken away and people are becoming
unemployed or kept in poverty. Many of the corporate criminals
responsible should be locked up behind bars.

Bush and Dick Cheney are likely allowing no-bid contracts to go
to Halliburton. Kerry claims that increasing taxes on corporations
that outsource labor will solve the problem, but we need to be
realistic. The benefits of cheap labor will always overcome any tax
burden we can place upon them. There have been a lot of budget cuts
at UCLA over the past years and it is important to realize that we
are in part responsible as voters. Too many people blindly listen
to what the two main political parties in this country tell
them.

People believed that an ex-bodybuilder and actor had the talent
and vision to rectify the problems of our state economy. People
believed Ronald Reagan when he told them of his vision for
California. And now we have a rampant homeless problem, budget cuts
to some of the finest public universities in the country, and
tuition hikes.

This is largely the result of the Republican party, but the
basic structure and method of electing candidates in both parties
is the same; the issues are not. We are hand-fed candidates whose
greatest quality is their ability to convince an elite few that
they can win the election.

Now the Democrats are telling you that somehow casting a vote
for Nader is the same as casting a vote for Bush. The worst of it
is that the greater part of the voting population is buying it.
They bought it last time, and Nader ended up losing votes.

An article published shortly after the 2000 election in the
Dartmouth Review stated, “Exit polls showed that about half
of all voters who voted for Nader would have voted for Gore.”
This means that the other half of those votes would have gone to
Bush or other third party candidates. The reason that conservative
third parties were not brought into the limelight is that the
Democrats were unhappy with the fact that they could not defeat the
obviously weaker candidate, Bush.

This year’s campaign is about fear. The Republicans want
you to fear the bogeyman that they have created and labeled
“terrorist.” The Democrats want you to fear four more
years of Bush.

Nader wants to encourage a government that gives the American
people something to look forward to. If reading this makes you
think twice about your vote, please take the time to look at the
facts, not the rhetoric.

California is in all likelihood going to end up voting for
Kerry. If Nader represents your views more clearly than Kerry, you
should not let politicians pressure you into thinking that voting
for him will keep Bush in the White House. Only a vote for Bush can
keep Bush in the White House.

Martin is the UCLA campus coordinator for the Nader 2004
presidential campaign.