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Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Bradley Porterfield, left, a University graduate student, is Lane County’s Green Party campaign chairman. He spoke with support
ers of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader at a Eugene rally in mid-August.
Green Party supporters rally
interest in Nader alternative
■ Voters weary of the
two-party system organize
efforts for presidential
hopeful Ralph Nader
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Supporters of Green Party presi
dential candidate Ralph Nader
may not be a very big bunch, but
they are generating a lot of noise
and expressing in <Jear terms their
disappointment with the current
political conditions.
“The two-party system feels like
one body with two heads.” Nader
backer T.K. McDonald said during
a mid-August rally at Alton Baker
Park in Eugene. “There’s no real
alternative ... Both of them piss
me off!”
(( We can’t have a
democracy if we don’t
participate, so participate.
Get out and do something.
Don’t just eat your M&M’s
and watch action films.
Bradley Porterfield
Lane County Green Party
campaign Chairman
McDonald joined about 150 oth
ers who were out in force to help
kick off the Lane County Nader
campaign season. August was the
month for planning, said Ken
Grimsley, chairperson for the Lane
Victory 2000 Political Action
Committee Supporting Ralph
Nader for President, while Sep
tember and October is the time for
the group’s big push.
Nader spoke in Portland on
Aug. 25 and he outlined his per
spective on the differences be
tween himself and the two major
party candidates, Democratic Vice
President A1 Gore and Republican
Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
“Every vote [Green Party vice
presidential candidate Winona
LaDuke and 1] get is a vote of re
buke of corrupt politics of the two
party system, and a positive vote
for public financing of [political]
campaigns, a strong environment,
universal health care insurance,
an end to corporate welfare, a
crackdown on corporate crime,
fraud and abuse, and the facilita
tion of unionizing by low-income
workers ... and I think those all
resonate all over the country,”
Nader told the crowd of approxi
mately 10,000 people in Memori
al Coliseum, as reported in an
Aug. 26 article in The Register
Guard.
The Eugene rally was the kick
off event for the Lane County cam
paign for Nader. Grimsley said
that the organization is thriving
thanks to a grassroots effort led by
a cadre of volunteers.
“This year, more people, all the
way from [Sen. John] McCain-style
Republicans clear to far-left pro
gressives are learning about Nader,
his deep democracy, his civic
democracy, his stance to end cor
porate control, and they are com
ing on-board,” Grimsley said. “So,
I think that Lane County is going to
be an amazing turnout... and we’d
like to deliver it to Nader.”
In 1996, a mostly invisible Nad
er won 4 percent of the vote in
Oregon, his best showing in the
nation. Now that the longtime
consumer advocate is running a
more serious campaign, Nader is
attracting dedicated followers.
“He’s very capable, he’s shown
us that, his record shows us that,”
said Bradley Porterfield, a Univer
sity graduate student in communi
ty and regional planning. “He’s
worked his entire life in the pub
lic interest, protecting consumers
and holding corporations and gov
ernment agencies accountable.”
Porterfield is Lane County’s
Green Party campaign chairman
and he, similar to other attendees
at the Alton Baker rally, said that
the two major parties aren’t offer
ing him a future he desires. He
also said that students shouldn’t
just watch the November election
come and go.
“From my point of view, stu
dents should look at the world as a
huge opportunity, not to step on
people, but to help people, to make
the world a better place,” he said.
“That’s what Nader offers — it’s a
mobilized citizenry. We can’t have
a democracy if we don’t partici
pate, so participate. Get out and do
something. Don’t just eat your
M&Ms and watch action films.”
A lot of debate has arisen over
Nader’s run for the presidency,
mostly stemming from Democrats
who say that a vote for the 66
year-old Princeton and Harvard
Law School graduate with no fore
seeable chance of winning the
2000 race is in essence a vote for
Bush. But at least two registered
Democrats at the rally said that
Nader is the only “hope for the fu
ture” and their vote will go to him.
“I’m here because Bush and Gore
make me want to Ralph,” Eugene
resident Craig Miller said. Miller
stood with McDonald, who also ex
pressed her irritation with Bush
and Gore in regards to race issues.
“Neither one of them are repre
senting me,” McDonald, an
African-American, said. “They
give lip service to [race issues], but
they’re not on my side.”
Nader also does a better job of
addressing feminist issues, said
Heather Jones, another University
graduate student in community
and regional planning. She said
that as a volunteer worker she sens
es a lot of enthusiasm for Nader.
“Working in this campaign ...
the energy I feel is much stronger,
much closer to the heart — it’s
about people’s ethics and morals
and what they feel deep down,”
Jones said. “It’s not just this
grandiose political party, it’s about
people’s true intimate feelings for
what they want for this planet and
its future.
“I [also] feel that Nader really
understands eco-feminism and
what that’s all about. It’s not about
demanding equal rights so much
... it’s more that there is equality
amongst all people.”
Grimsley said that even if Nad
er doesn’t win this time around,
the groundwork is being laid for a
stronger attack in 2004 on the
powerful two-party system.
“In four years, Bush would make
a very easy target for Nader and the
Green Party; in four years, Gore
will be a good target, but a slippery
one because he puts on a clever
face to try to pull in the moderates
and Democrats,” he said. “Either
way, in four years, when Nader’s
Green Party qualifies for $15 mil
lion in public funding, the White
House will be severely challenged
by this third party.”
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