IF I WIN PRESIDENT'S RACE, CORPORATIONS LOSE

The passage of 35 years has changed little in Ralph Nader -- style or
substance. Still intensely focused on grass-roots reform, he is ever the
policy wonk, defying hideous odds to challenge, in his eyes, insidious
powers thwarting the average American.

Long as the odds have been, he has a record of success. This time, he's
running for president, taking on the entire national political
establishment, Democrats and Republicans, and what he reckons are their
corporate masters.

"They are basically one corporate party with two heads, wearing different
makeup," Nader said Thursday while visiting Orlando.

Corporations, bent on molding government to their own benefit, have come to
so dominate the U.S. political process as to put it almost beyond the reach
of the average citizen, Nader says.

As a 31-year-old lawyer, Nader burst onto the American scene in 1965 with a
book, Unsafe at Any Speed, that took on General Motors over safety. The
popular, little rear-engine Corvair was the No. 1 target of the book. GM
halted production four years later.

More books and a career of reforms ranging from consumer product safety to
fighting discrimination against women followed.

There are many things in America that he says, "a strong democracy wouldn't
tolerate." Among them: "This massive poverty in a time of prosperity."
Strip mining that blows the tops off mountains. Out-of-control pollution.
And "restrictive labor laws" that result in historically low union membership.

As for the booming economy, it's very good for the top 10 percent, he said.
With the growing disparity in wealth, "the top 1 percent of the population
have wealth equal to the bottom 95 percent."

"The corporate government is taking over the political government and
turning it against the people," he said.

He was in town to address a meeting of the National Agricultural
Biotechnology Council.

In his speech, Nader preached the virtues of industrial hemp, as everything
from a potential source of energy to a substitute for synthetic textiles.
The crop is banned in the United States because, Nader said, the government
confuses it with marijuana.

Nader also talked to reporters about his campaign for president as nominee
of the Green Party. He was the party's nominee in 1996, too, but this time
he means it.

"In '96, all I did was put my name in. I said then, 'I'm not going to
campaign. I'm not going to raise money.' "

This year will be different. "This is the first time I've campaigned," he
said. And he has a full-time staff geared up.

Nader's primary goal is not to win, though he doesn't rule that out. With
four candidates, including Pat Buchanan on the right, and access to the
nationally televised debates -- if he gets high enough poll ratings,
"things change very, very fast."

He mainly wants to make the tiny Green Party a player in national politics.
The Greens have a few elected officials across the country, but not much of
a unified national organization.

"The first thing is to build a progressive political party that gets bigger
every two years," he said. With 5 percent of the vote in a national
election, the party would win federal funding for many of its activities.

Also, he wants to persuade the Democratic Party to "shape up or ship out."

The problem with the Democrats is that they define themselves by the
Republicans, he said. When they win elections, Democrats say they've seized
Republican issues. And when they lose, they say they weren't enough like
the Republicans, he added.

"That's the wrong direction."

Does Nader fear that by taking just enough votes from Vice President Al
Gore in a few key states he may end up helping elect Republican George W. Bush?

"No," he answers without a flinch. "There's no difference."