In the Public Interest

By Ralph Nader December 26, 2018 Dear America: Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare. No health insurance system is without problems but Canadian-style single-payer— full Medicare for all— is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal. In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months. There were no websites.…

Here are some of my favorite, frugal, effective non-profit citizen action organizations that you may wish to favor with your tax-deductible generosity. They need your support, because few are doing their kind of important work. Veterans For Peace(VFP): Composed of veterans from World War II to the present, VFP takes strong stands, including peaceful demonstrations and…

By Ralph Nader December 12, 2018 In November, about 25 progressive Democrats were newly elected to the House of Representatives. How do the citizen groups know whether they are for real or for rhetoric? I suggest this civic yard stick to measure the determination and effectiveness of these members of the House both inside the…

By Ralph Nader December 7, 2018 It’s tough to be an engineering student these days, with so many new developments in modern technology and technological knowledge. The course curricula are more crowded than ever and the impact of emerging technologies is monumental. Some engineering professors worry that their students’ busy course schedules prevents them from…

By Ralph Nader November 28, 2018 Following the mid-term elections, progressive citizen groups have to advance an agenda that makes Congress work for all Americans. The first step, however, is to acknowledge that Capitol Hill has walled itself off from the people, on behalf of corporate autocrats. Currently, Congress is open for avaricious business, not…

By Ralph Nader November 20, 2018 Let’s get down to the all-important matter of Congressional performance. No matter how pollsters ask the question – “do you approve of Congress…?” or “do you have confidence in Congress…? – less than twenty percent of people respond positively. Four out of five Americans disapprove of what Congress has…

By Ralph Nader November 15, 2018 The Republican Party lost ground in the Congressional and state elections earlier this month, but they continue to triumph in the all-important contests over words. Republicans have been winning the “war over words” for years. First, the hard core political right wingers symbolically claimed the Bible and the American…

By Ralph Nader November 5, 2018 Let’s face it. Most politicians use the mass media to obfuscate. Voters who don’t do their homework, who don’t study records of the politicians, and who can’t separate the words from the deeds will easily fall into traps laid by wily politicians. In 2002, Connecticut Governor John Rowland was…

By Ralph Nader October 24, 2018 Decades ago, prominent political analyst Kevin Phillips said that the Republicans go for the jugular while the Democrats go for the capillaries. Today’s national Democratic Party makes Phillips observation seem overly generous. With the polls tightening for November’s Congressional elections and Trump’s weak approval rating inching up to 47%,…