Why I have no further plans to investigate Nader

Last week, an old Kucinich compadre emailed me to ask me how I felt about Nader. I don't really feel much about him and I'll admit that, in the past, I'd fallen prey to the "Independents/Choose-your-own-parties only exist to take votes from Democrats." This way, I didn't have to spend time learning more about them.

Having been a big Kucinich supporter (and I still believe that the only way we have "hope" for real "change" is through a progressive candidate and none of the current frontrunners are progressive), I decided that it couldn't hurt to investigate Nader.

I really only did some light research before deciding that delving deeper would be a huge waste of time.

I was thoroughly impressed with Nader's record of public service and the sense of justice he seemed to have. Clearly, he has the average American at heart in the things he tries to accomplish, especially economically. I was happy to hear that he reports that, despite his worth, his cost of living is only about $25K annually and he doesn't own a car or real estate. He reminded me of my dear, sweet, long-lost Dennis.

Except there's more to being president than caring about doing justice by the American people. One needs to have policy proposals and plans! He doesn't really have any, at least not that I could find. I couldn't find any record of what his agenda is on social issues that matter to me, like abortion and gay marraige. I couldn't figure out what his policy would be for Iraq. He's certainly very critical of our homeland security and the money we waste, which is a step in the right direction, but what's he going to do about it? I certainly couldn't find any clear answers. If those answers aren't readily available on his website, why should I look any further?

The clincher for my distaste was in his "money situation." His job appears to be his involvement in his many non-profits and he lives off of his investments. While he doesn't own real estate, he lives in rather wealthy quarters deeded to his sister. If she purchased the home with her own money, the fact of the matter is that she doesn't live there. The investments he lives off of are stocks in companies like Halliburton and ExxonMobil (the very lecherous type of company he wants to protect American citizens from.

It just left a bad taste in my mouth.