Less than 24 hours after renowned feminist Gloria Steinem delivered her "top ten reasons not to vote for Nader" to an overflowing Balch auditorium at Scripps, Green Party Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader arrived two hours late at Big Bridges Auditorium on Pomona's campus to argue his case. Preceeding Nader, Senate hopeful Medea Benjamin spoke and answered questions about the Green Party, her campaign, and her hopes for the future of American democracy.

After a brief invective against General Motors for contributing to his present tardiness, Nader delivered a prepared speech about the problems of the current political system, and the alternative policies that he and the Green Party propose. Topics covered a range of popular issues, including prescription drug prices, health care, and campaign finance reform. A recurring theme of Nader's speech was the over-corporatization of political life. He sees the problem of excessive corporate influence of politics as a source of many of the other issues currently plaguing our country. His speech targeted a number of problem areas, all of which might be seen to come together in the claim that "cash register politics has turned over government 'by and for the people' to 'by and for the corporations'."

"Corporations are planning our futures," he said, affecting education, transportation, energy, social security, and more. "The corporatization needs to be shot down," he argued, pointing out the backlash against anti-corporate movements such as Prohibition received in the past. Even the magazine Business Week recently claimed that there is "too much corporate power," leading Nader to laud the publication as being "way more progressive than the Republicans or the Democrats."

Following Medea Benjamin's lead detailing what is wrong in America, Nader transitioned from his attack on General Motors to the dismal living conditions of today's workers. He noted that the majority of workers currently make less in real dollars than their counterparts did 20 to 25 years ago.

"47 million people are making a non-living wage, despite working full time," he said.

Campaign finance reform has been a major issue for Nader, as indicated by the "he does not accept soft money" slogan heading his web page. Campaigns are "too much in the hands of corporations," he said in his speech, and "politicians spend too much time fundraising." A brief statement on his website reads, "We must end the dominance and corruption of our political system by the influence of big money. We need public financing of public campaigns, and free radio and TV time on the publicly owned airwaves for qualified candidates."

In an attack on the liberal status of the Democratic party, Nader cited a list of issues the Democratic National Committee turned down, including "universal health care, tougher international trade, greater health care for prisons, a moratorium on the death penalty, and punishments for companies that pay low wages," all policies that Nader supports. With respect to health care, he discussed problems with the pharmaceutical industry. Tax money funds drug research, he said, but when new drugs are developed, the government grants monopolies over distribution to single companies, leading to "the highest prescription drug costs in the developed world."

Withdrawing from the WTO and NAFTA is another of Nader's major concerns, though he said little about it in his speech, noting primarily our need to put worker and environmental interests above corporations.

Alongside his condemnations of government for being too corporate-driven and money-oriented, Nader made specific attacks on policies such as military spending, division of communications resources, and the focus on economic growth. Our current military budget is $320 billion, he said, which is higher than it was during the cold war. "We're having to create enemies," Benjamin noted. The money should instead be put into community development, drinking water, libraries, and schools, he said. The issue of communications falls under his general corporate complaint, "Seven companies currently own most of the [television] channels. One company owns 100 radio stations, when 10 years ago a company could only own 12." Finally, despite our recent economic growth, "25.2 % of California is in deep poverty." Growth is actually having "detrimental effects on the economy and democratic property." And the top 5% of the country holds more wealth than the bottom 75%.

Nader called for "active citizenship," citing the low voting record of young people and warning, we've seen historically that, "if people don't get turned on to politics, politics turns on them." He concluded with comments about the controversy over the Bernard Field Station and Keck Graduate Institute, pointing out that the concerns are really over two separate issues. The second issue, that of the corporatization of education, is what he argues is truly problematic, as the interests of the corporations are often in conflict of those of society or students. Corporate control of educational institutions like KGI might mean their dictation of the research agendas of scientists hired there, also causing students to be unable to do work in fields that do not necessarily have high profit margins.

Nader was brought to campus by the Center for California Cultural and Social Issues at Pitzer, a "relatively new center," that "works with faculty and students to do community-based projects," according to Center worker Sharon Murphy. CCCSI invited Presidential Candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush to speak at the colleges as well, but received a response only from Nader.