Ralph Nader tribute finished

Statue of Ralph Nader--people's hero and terror of the oil industry--holding model of "Unsafe-at-Any Speed" Corvair

Nader's career began in the 1960s with the publication of the book Unsafe at Any Speed--a hard-hitting critique and expose of a small fuel-efficient automobile that was foisted upon the American public in a cynical bid to compete with the increasingly popular yet deadly and fascist Volkswagen Beetle and newer fuel-saving and shabbily manufactured death-traps coming from Japan. He was so successful at this crusade that he nearly single-handedly insured the dominance of larger "safe" automobiles for nearly a decade, largely by establishing in people's minds the simple fact that small=mutilation, horror, and death. Later Nader became a fervent opponent of nuclear energy, a technology irresponsible military-industrialists (who had recently seen the oil-and resource deprived Axis Powers perish in flames!) insidiously promoted as the alleged "way to go" to achieve national energy independence and security. In 2000, despite little chance at success and an otherwise tight election, he ran for President, mobilizing socially conscious voters who otherwise might have wasted their efforts and votes on a less-than-perfect Democratic candidate who was running against a nearly all "oil business" ticket. His wild and woolly supporters, with their highly vocal critiques of outdated American values and ideals, also helped to better define the perceived political opposition in the eyes of those deluded members of the public who ended up voting Republican. According to Prescott Jones, spokesperson for the oil industry, "Virtually all of Ralph's tireless efforts over the last forty years have impacted tremendously on our business!"