VOA常速英语2007-Ralph Nader Says American Democracy Needs Wake-u

By Rosanne Skirble
Washington
10 October 2007
 

Welcome to American Profiles, VOA's spotlight on notable Americans who have made a difference in how we think, live and act. Today: Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, whose controversial bids for the White House have stirred public debate over the future of the two-party system. 

"For a nickel [five cents] you got a cup of coffee and 10 minutes of politics when you went to Nader's Restaurant," says Ralph Nader, who grew up in a small town in Connecticut talking politics at the dinner table and at his father's diner.

"It was the ultimate expression of free speech.  No matter what political view anybody had they never got a stern look from my father because he liked dissent¹. He used to tell us: everything we have in this country we like, originally started with dissent."

Nader's parents were Lebanese immigrants.  He says his father's idea of patriotism² was to try to improve the country and the lives of others.

"And then he would turn the question on them and ask, 'Do you love your country?' [They would answer,] 'You're darn right I do.'  They would pound the counter.  Then he'd say, 'Why don't you spend little more time improving it?'"

Nader says his parents's taught him how to listen, and to think critically.  He says those family values led him to become a lawyer and to fight injustice³.

In 1965 Nader published a book called "Unsafe At Any Speed."  In it he argued that the U.S. automobile⁴ industry was knowingly building dangerous vehicles. He specifically targeted a General Motors car, the Corvair. He said the Corvair had design flaws that could lead to accidents.

GM attempted to discredit⁵ him and investigated his personal life. Nader sued the company -- and won. And Nader used the settlement money to fight consumer battles for safer cars, food, homes and workplaces. 

He hired young advocates who became known as Nader's Raiders. 

One said, "Everybody worked until two in the morning or so and then we just collapsed⁶ and would get up at eight and start working again."

Another added, "We were there 24-7 [24 hours a day, 7 days a week]. It was just ridiculous." "Maybe if we started talking about civic⁷ globalization instead of corporate⁸ globalization, the world will move forward."  

In 1996 and 2000, Nader ran as a presidential candidate for the Green Party, shunning⁹ the policies of both the Democratic and Republican Parties.  He announced his bid for the White House again in 2004 as an independent. 

"Presidential politics has been broken for a long time.  The two parties have been broken. They need a wake-up call.  They need somebody to hold their feet to the fire," he says. 

President George W. Bush won re-election in 2004.  Many Democrats¹⁰ dubbed¹¹ Nader a spoiler for his refusal, once again, to get out of the race. "How can you spoil a spoiled political system, to begin with, and second: if we all have an equal right to run for political office, then none of us are spoilers or all of us are spoilers of one another."

Nader says today that presidential hopefuls must raise hundreds of millions of dollars to be competitive. "And where do you think they are going to get that money?  They are not going to get that money from the people who harvest our food or the people that clean up after us or the people who do the everyday work in the country.  They are going to get it from the millionaires, the mega-millionaires, the billionaires and the corporations. 

Nader -- now 73 -- says he has not made up his mind whether to make another run for the White House. But one thing seems certain -- as a self-proclaimed public citizen, he will continue to let the American people know where he stands.

1 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

2 patriotism   

n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• They obtained money under the false pretenses of patriotism.他们以虚伪的爱国主义为借口获得金钱。

3 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

4 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

5 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

6 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

7 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

8 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

9 shunning   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My flight was more a shunning of external and internal dangers. 我的出走是要避开各种外在的和内在的威胁。 来自辞典例句
• That book Yeh-yeh gave me-"On Filial Piety and the Shunning of Lewdness"-was still on the table. 我坐下来，祖父给我的那本《刘芷唐先生教孝戒淫浅训》还在桌子上。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

10 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》