In the Public Interest

America’s motorists are less safe today with the passing of their Guardian Angel—engineer/lawyer Clarence Ditlow, the Director of the Center for Auto Safety. The generating force behind the recalls of millions of defective motor vehicles, Mr. Ditlow pressured the federal auto safety agency and the auto companies with meticulous advocacy that was technically deep and…

Are there any silver linings to the tumultuous, degrading, sordid presidential campaign of Donald Trump—a failed gambling czar, corporate welfare king, and supreme hypocrite to his own accusations about others? Yes. Here are seven: New York Times star columnist James B. Stewart, may be right when he writes that bipartisan outrage over Donald Trump’s not…

By Ralph Nader October 31, 2016 Why isn’t the Democratic Party landsliding the worst and cruelest Republican Party in the past 162 years? Just take a glance at their record votes and you’ll wonder why the Republican representatives don’t just incorporate themselves and be done with any pretense that they are real people. A brief…

The following is excerpted from my new book Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think.   When I was a student at Princeton University I learned from my anthropology studies that the concentration of power in the hands of the few is common to all cultures, societies, nations, tribes, cities, towns, and villages. Even…

October 14, 2016 by Ralph Nader If Mother Sun were to select a favorite son on Planet Earth, Ken Bossong would be high on the list. Operating for over forty years on a tiny budget from a tiny office in Takoma Park, Maryland, the unsung solar energy advocate has been a one-man informing and organizing…

October 7, 2016 By Ralph Nader Let’s say you’re inclined to vote for Donald Trump largely because you dislike Hillary Clinton and are fed up with government messing up and serving Wall Street over Main Street. You’ve heard all the things said about Trump and it doesn’t make any difference because he says with absolute…

If there is one glaring omission among the daily declarations of both empty suit Donald Trump and hawkish Hillary Clinton, it is the strategy for peace. They’ll tell us they want to do more than President Obama is doing to go after ISIS. They’ll tell us they want a more robust military without calling for…

Are the people ready for democracy? This question was leveled by monarchs, despots and authoritarian rulers post-World War II when stirrings for freedom in less developed countries blossomed. We often heard apologists for the western colonial powers—the British, French, Portuguese, etc.—say that the Indians, the Arabs and the Africans were not “ready for democracy.” By…

By Ralph Nader September 19, 2016 To have a democratic society that brings out the best in its citizens, people have to show up—to vote, to attend city council meetings, rallies, marches, and other serious gatherings that reflect the public interest. They also need to support progressive candidates and run for office. Showing up is…

Fifty years ago this month (on September 9, 1966), President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety laws that launched a great life-saving program for the American People. I was there that day at the White House at the invitation of President Johnson who gave me one of the signing…