[SfN] Forwarded article: High-voltage rally brings Nader a chorus of cheers

[Paul Riismandel]

This article is from today's Tribune.  I also heard a short report on NPR 
this morning during the hourly news wrapup.


>The following article was selected from the Internet Edition
>of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser
>to http://chicagotribune.com/.
>----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding----------------
>
>Article 
>URL: 
>http://chicago.tribune.com/news/metro/chicago/ws/item/0,1308,46649-46513-47406,00.html
>
>
>---Forwarded article----------------
>High-voltage rally brings Nader a chorus of cheers
>
>By Jeff Zeleny <br>and James Warren
>
>Political rallies seldom require the use of earplugs.
>
>But when Ralph Nader came to the Chicago campus of the University of
>Illinois on Tuesday night, with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame in tow,
>more than a few civics-minded Americans who have been following
>Nader's consumer crusade for more than a generation wondered what they
>had gotten themselves into.
>
>Vedder left his grunge rock band behind, though, and strummed on a
>solo guitar to the raucous cheers of an overflow crowd at the
>9,500-seat UIC Pavilion. He told the audience that he'd hoped to craft
>a Nader-specific song but gave up, realizing he could not improve on
>his second and final effort of the evening, Bob Dylan's "The Times
>They Are a Changing."
>
>Nader stormed into the Pavilion to an energized crowd on yet another
>stop of his super-rally tour across America. From Oregon to Minnesota
>to Massachusetts, the Green Party presidential candidate has drawn big
>and enthusiastic, rock-concert-size crowds."This is something we
>haven't seen in this country since the '70s," said Rick Markley, who
>brought his two teenage sons to witness what he wishes was a Nader
>revolution. "This is everything they missed out on, wrapped in a small
>microcosm."
>
>It was part pep rally, part talk show, part revival and part rave. Low
>on money but high on energy, Nader backers got the word out about the
>rally in decidedly retro, unconventional and low-tech ways. One ad was
>scrawled in huge chalk letters Tuesday afternoon on North Michigan
>Avenue. Vedder helped spread news of his own involvement at a Pearl
>Jam concert the night before in Rosemont.
>
>While politicians routinely toss high-bucks fundraisers and dinners to
>raise campaign cash, Nader tapped his backers by charging a modest
>admission. The price per head was $10, but those who claimed to be
>strapped were allowed in for only $7.
>
>Against the backdrop of a giant campaign banner and two thickets of
>shrubbery, Nader called for a universal health care system and an end
>to corporate welfare in America. "It is not extremism for people in
>this country to say no to the hucksters and the corporate child
>molesters," Nader said. "Get off the backs of our children."
>
>While the bulk of the crowd was made up of younger voters, some with
>dreadlocks, some with brightly dyed hair, parents and grandparents
>came, too, to absorb a progressive movement that shuns corporate
>America and the two major political candidates, Democratic Vice
>President Al Gore and Texas Republican Gov. George W. Bush.
>
>"Gore or Bush, what's your choice?" Chicago author and radio icon
>Studs Terkel asked the crowd. "Influenza or Pneumonia, what's your
>choice?"
>
>Nader, who championed the mandatory use of seat belts and other
>consumer issues long before many who came to cheer him were born, last
>week survived a challenge by Democrats, clearing the way for his name
>to be added to the presidential ballot in Illinois.
>
>And on Tuesday, Nader supporters took good advantage of the last day
>to register to vote by signing up scores of new voters at the rally.
>Former TV talk show host Phil Donahue, who has become part of Nader's
>traveling political roadshow, reminded the crowd that America has been
>surprised before by politicians. "They wouldn't let Jesse Ventura in
>the debates," Donahue said, referring to the Minnesota governor.
>"Suddenly, the wrestler was governor. That's what we want in this
>campaign."
>
>The concert/rally climaxed a hectic half-day in Chicago for Nader, who
>arrived in mid-afternoon from Detroit and a series of local and
>national cable TV interviews before hustling to the Northwest Side
>studio of WTTW-Ch.11 to tape "Chicago Tonight." He also squeezed in a
>small Greektown fundraiser and an MTV interview with Vedder.
>
>Then it was off to the headquarters of Teamsters Union Local 705 near
>the United Center, where he addressed about 100 members of the
>20,000-member local whose main employer is the United Parcel Service.
>
>His remarks to the unionists focused on his harsh critique of federal
>labor law and the current impediments to union organizing. He was the
>only presidential candidate to accept the local's offer to speak to
>members; the national union has endorsed Gore.
>
>Many of those in the crowd at UIC cared little about endorsements or
>the political establishment. Mark Campbell, 23, came to see Nader
>after hearing Vedder make passionate pitches for the Green Party at
>Pearl Jam shows.Campbellhas not decided whom to vote for, but he said
>Vedder's politicking might hold some sway. "I don't know if I would be
>here if I hadn't seen Pearl Jam and if Vedder hadn't talked about it
>so much," Campbell said.
>
>The ideological perspective of many in attendance was summed up by
>filmmaker Michael Moore, one of the speakers, who declared, "a vote
>for Bush is a vote for Gore, and a vote for Gore is a vote for Bush."
>
>Indeed that was the case for Jen Jensen, 27, a corn and bean farmer
>from Kankakee
>
>"I'm extremely open politically but the Libertarian Party doesn't have
>much of a stand on education, and that's why I'm looking at the Green
>Party," Jensen said. "So I'm very interested to hear what Ralph Nader
>has to say."
>
>Sitting with his two sons, Markley has heard all talk from Democrats
>that a vote for Nader is tantamount to a vote for Bush. That, he told
>his sons, is not democracy.
>
>"It's not about whether you vote for someone who will win," he said.
>"If you go into the voting booth and pull the lever for someone you
>don't believe in, that's wasting your vote."
>
>  Tribune staff writer Noah Isackson contributed to this report.
>
>