We’re joined live by Ralph Nader political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney. Nader is a five-time candidate for President of the United States, having run as a write-in candidate in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic primary, as the Green Party nominee in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008.
His new book Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015, is out now from Seven Stories Press.
In letters addressed to presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, Ralph Nader provides incisive critiques of more than a decade of American policy decision and indecision. With his signature dry wit, Nader holds these presidents to their campaign promises. He also boldly points to the ignoble and sometimes heinous decisions made in pursuit of party platforms and misguided policies. Covering a range of topics—the Iraq War, torture, the Crimean annexation, the minimum wage, worker’s health legislation, and corporatism, to name a few—these letters were ignored by the president who received them. Here they are reproduced to reclaim the spirit of a true and healthy democracy.