Nader's Crusade.

I spent three days covering the Nader campaign in the Midwest, and I came away with the strong sense that the media are missing the boat. Not only is Nader addressing fundamental issues that neither Al Gore nor George W. Bush goes near, but he is striking a chord with thousands upon thousands of citizens, many of them young.

Nader's speeches represent the most articulate expression of leftwing politics in America today, a politics he connects up with the populist movement of the late nineteenth century and the progressive movement of the early twentieth century.

No one can hold a candle to Nader when he talks about the crucial issue of corporate power. But he has broadened his message. He talks about the bloated Pentagon budget, nuclear disarmament, the death penalty, and universal health care. He defends abortion rights and gay rights. He decries racism. And he insists that the number one issue in America is "the democracy gap."

Nader began his Wisconsin tour on September 20 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he met with activists of color. "Veterans of many struggles, this election is all about power," Nader said. "The concentration of power in the hands of the few to further the interests of the corporations against the interests of workers, consumers, citizens, and people of color." He said that the United States is being "starved of public investment because of excessive military spending and corporate welfare." And the hardest hit are "low-income consumers," who fall prey to "loan sharks, predatory lending, red-lining, and rent-to-own rackets."

He denounced "discrimination in the distribution of health services," noting that people of color are seen less often and diagnosed less often than other Americans. And he said it's a civil rights issue when "200,000 black children are poisoned every year by lead paint."

Nader then spoke to more than 1,000 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students, with 150 spilling over into the hallways.

That evening in downtown Madison, 2,000 people paid $10 to get into the Orpheum Theater to see the Green Party candidate, who was introduced by Phil Donahue and Michael Moore.

Two days later in Minneapolis, Nader drew 12,000 people. They, too, paid $10 to see him, his Vice Presidential running mate Winona LaDuke, and Donahue and Moore. It was a rousing rally for democracy and justice. As Moore said, you couldn't pay 12,000 people $10 each to see Gore or Bush. But Nader speaks to people's deep feeling that democracy has been stolen from them, and so they turn out for him.

This month, we offer our final insights into the upcoming Presidential contest. William D. Hartung discusses the foreign policy record of Gore and Joe Lieberman. Barbara Ehrenreich goes after Gore for backing the destruction of the welfare system (something he boasted of in the first Presidential debate, offering ominously to take welfare reform "to the next stage"). Michelle Gerise Godwin has fun interviewing Donahue. And Ruth Conniff lets Barney Frank, Nader's nemesis, take his shots and then gives Nader an opportunity to defend himself.

Even Frank acknowledges that it is legitimate to bail out on the Democrats if their candidates "fall below the minimum acceptable level." It's up to you to decide whether Gore and Lieberman have sunk that low.