Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is an American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and four-time candidate for president of the United States, having run as green party candidate in 1996 and 2000, and as independent candidate in 2004 and 2008.

Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government. with grassroots democracy civic actions, green politics and left-wing politics, he is a reputed populist, harking to 19th century American populists and movements like Henry George's Geoism, which he referred to in his 2004 presidential election platform.

Background and early career

Nader was born in Winsted, Connecticut. His parents, Nathra and rose Nader, were immigrants from Lebanon, and his mother was Orthodox Christian. His family's native language is Arabic, and he has spoken it along with English since childhood. His sister, Laura Nader, is an anthropologist.

Nathra Nader was employed in a textile mill, and at one point owned a bakery and restaurant where he engaged customers in political discourse.

Ralph Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and Harvard law school in 1958. he served in the United States army for six months in 1959, then began work as a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut. Between 1961 and 1963, he was a professor of history and government at the University of Hartford. In 1964, Nader moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for assistant secretary of labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He also advised a United States senate subcommittee on car safety. Nader has served on the faculty at the American university Washington College of law.

Nader's first consumer safety articles appeared in the Harvard law record, a student publication of Harvard law school, but he first criticized the automobile industry in an article he wrote for the nation in 1959 called "the safe car you can't buy."

In 1965, Nader wrote unsafe at any speed, a study that revealed that many American automobiles were unsafe. The first chapter, "the sporty corvair"-the one-car accident, pertained to the corvair manufactured by the Chevrolet division of general motors which had been involved in accidents involving spins and rollovers. There were over 100 lawsuits pending against gm in connection to accidents involving the popular compact car. These lawsuits provided the initial material for Nader's investigations into the safety of the car.

A 1972 national highway traffic safety administration safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that the 1960-1963 corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporaries in extreme situations. Gm executive John Delorean, asserts in on a clear day you can see general motors (1979) that Nader's criticisms were valid.

In early march 1966, several media outlets, including the new republic and the New York Times, reported that gm had tried to discredit Nader, hiring private detectives to tap his phones and investigate his past, and hiring prostitutes to trap him in compromising situations. Nader sued the company for invasion of privacy and settled the case for $284,000. Nader's lawsuit against gm was ultimately decided by the New York court of appeals, whose opinion in the case expanded tort law to cover "overzealous surveillance."

Nader's advocacy of automobile safety and the publicity generated by the publication of unsafe at any speed, along with concern over escalating nationwide traffic fatalities, contributed to the unanimous passage of the 1966 national traffic and motor vehicle safety act. The act established the national highway traffic safety administration, and marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety from the consumer to the manufacturer. the legislation mandated a series of safety features for automobiles, beginning with safety belts and stronger windshields.

Ecology

Nader spent much of 1970 on his campaign to educate the public about ecology. Nader said that the rivers and lakes in America were extremely contaminated. He said that "Lake Erie is now so contaminated you're advised to have a typhoid inoculation before you set sail on some parts of the lake."

He also added that river contaminations affect humans because many residents get their water supply from these contaminated rivers and lakes. "Cleveland takes its water supply from deep in the center of Lake Erie. How much longer is it going to get away with that?"

Nader told how some rivers are contaminated so badly that they can be lit on fire. "The buffalo river is so full of petroleum residuals, it's been classified an official fire hazard by the city of buffalo. We have the phenomena now known as flammable water. The Cuyahoga River outside of Cleveland did catch fire last June, burning a base and some bridges. i often wonder what was in the minds of the firemen as they rushed to the scene of the action and pondered how to put—put this fire out. But we're heading in river after river: Connecticut River, Hudson River, Mississippi river, you name it. There's some rivers right outside of Boston, new Hampshire and Maine where if a person fell into them, I think he would dissolve before he drowned."