National Nurses United

M A R C H 2 0 1 4 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 11 familiar to Americans today. It did, however, not deter him. After winning a landmark auto safety law, Ralph inspired and built a consumer move- ment that led to enactment of the Clean Air Act, Occupational Safety and Health Admin- istration, Environmental Protection Agency, Safe Drinking Water Act, standards for feder- al food safety inspections, and so many other reforms that have saved untold lives through safer food, water, air, cars, workplaces, and virtually every corner of American life. But through four decades of corporate and neoliberal assaults on those consumer protections and public oversight, so many of the reforms Ralph fought for have come under unceasing assault and rollback, and persuaded him that more was needed. "In the past after major failures of indus- try and commerce, there was a higher likeli- hood of Congressional action," wrote Ralph in 2010. "From the time of my book, Unsafe at Any Speed's publication in late November 1965, it took just nine months to federally regulate the powerful auto industry for safe- ty and fuel efficiency. Contrast the two-year delay after the Bear Stearns collapse and still no reform legislation, and what is pending is weak." It's now four years later and little has changed on Wall Street—or in Congress. "Congress, which receives the brunt of corporate lobbying—the carrot of money and the stick of financing incumbent chal- lengers—is more of an obstacle to change than ever," wrote Ralph in 2010. "We've got a real problem here," said Ralph three years later. "It's the control of government by big business. And they control the government and turn the govern- ment to their favor—subsidies, handouts, giveaways, deferred prosecutions, non-pros- ecutions—and against the American people." "Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers," he said on another occasion. "The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust." Or, as Ralph once put it in a more caustic aside, "I once said to my father, when I was a boy, 'Dad we need a third political party.' He said to me, 'I'll settle for a second.'" Confronting that corporate power and its grip on our political, economic, social, and cultural system has become his unceasing dedication, as a Congressional watchdog, builder of consumer advocacy groups, public interest attorney, author, and, yes, political candidate. Achieving social change for the benefit of all people in a genuine democracy requires challenging our broken political system, as well as building a broader movement in alliance with consumers, environmentalists, and working people across the nation. We couldn't have a better ally for that fight than Ralph Nader, R.N., whom I'm proud to salute and call my friend. RoseAnn DeMoro is executive director of National Nurses United. As working people lose more everyday, including their hopes and dreams for the future, I have devoted a lot of thought since the 2000 election wondering if Ralph Nader had become president, what a differ- ence it would have made in our lives. Would he have been able to overcome the huge monied interests that control and pervert our political process and the economic, cultural, and social scaffolding that sustains it? Would we finally have a humane healthcare system based on patient need, not private profit? Ralph Nader would have spoken from every bully pulpit that every patient needs a nurse, and everyone deserves healthcare. Instead of the Bush-era Medicare drug expansion that was intended primarily to enrich the drug companies, or the convo- luted flaws of the Affordable Care Act, we might well have the Medicare-for- all/single-payer approach for which Ralph has fought for years. A system that, as Ralph wrote last fall, means, "Everybody is in, nobody is out. It is far more efficient, allows for better outcomes, saves lives, prevents injuries and illnesses, and relieves people of severe anxieties and wasted time spent figuring out often fraud-ridden, inscrutable computerized bills and allows for the collection of pattern-detecting data to spot harmful trends." One thing we would know, win or lose, Ralph Nader would be standing with us speaking truth to power and fighting with every breath. He does that today as he has every day of his adult life. Because of that, he has been silenced by the major media and shut out of circles of people who should embrace him. Working people of America needs champions like Ralph Nader more today than ever. Ideas that will be marginalized in the future if there are not people in the political process like Ralph Nader who stand with what is good and never give up on us. Sound familiar? Truly an R.N.

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