Today is the 80th birthday of Ralph Nader, who is perhaps the most effective civic reformer of the past 50 years.
When he was in law school, some of his friends had been hurt in automobile accidents and his gut told him that it might not have been their fault– it might be the fault of the cars themselves. He set about investigating and eventually produced Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-in Dangers of the American Automobile. The book was a sensation and eventually led to the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which shifted the onus of automobile safety from the consumer to the producer and the government. The seatbelts, airbags, and safety standards that arose from his efforts have been credited with saving tens of thousands of lives.
While this was happening, General Motors sent goons to discredit him. They couldn’t crack him and he sued, resulting in the largest invasion of privacy award at the time. He used the money to double down on his consumer protection efforts, growing a force of mini-Naders — eventually deemed “Nader’s Raiders” — to repeat his methods with automobile safety on dozens of other issues. The Raiders, at their peak, are pictured here on the steps of the Capitol.
His method was genius:
- Get energetic young people to research a topic and publish a “Nader Report”;
- Use his fame to generate buzz from the report, usually through appearances on the Phil Donahue show;
- Switch gears from research to activism, lobbying Congress and federal agencies to act on the newfound research; and
- Found an organization to build on legislative victories.
Lather, rinse, repeat, all the while producing a new generation of civic reformers.
The result, legislatively: the Freedom of Information Act; the Wholesome Meat Act; the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act; the Clean Air Act; the Occupational Safety and Health Act; the Consumer Product Safety Act; the Safe Water Drinking Act; the Clean Water Act; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; the Mine Health and Safety Act; the Whistleblower Protection Act and much more.
The result, organizationally: American Antitrust Institute, Appleseed Foundation, Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, Aviation Consumer Action Project, Buyers Up, Capitol Hill News Service, Center for Auto Safety, Center for Insurance Research, Center for Justice and Democracy, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Center for Study of Responsive Law, Center for Women Policy Studies, Citizen Action Group, Citizen Advocacy Center, Citizen Utility Boards, Citizen Works, Clean Water Action Project, Congress Project, Congress Watch, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, Corporate Accountability Research Group, Critical Mass Energy Project, Democracy Rising, Disability Rights Center, Equal Justice Foundation, Essential Information, FANS (Fight to Advance the Nation’s Sports), Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights, Freedom of Information Clearinghouse, Georgia Legal Watch, Global Trade Watch, Health Research Group, Litigation Group, Multinational Monitor, National Citizen’s Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest, National Insurance Consumer Organization, Ohio Public Interest Action Group, Organization for Competitive Markets, Pension Rights Center, Princeton Project 55, PROD – truck safety, Public Citizen, Retired Professionals Action Group ,Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest, Student Public Interest Research Groups nationwide, Tax Reform Research Group, Telecommunications Research and Action Center, The Visitor’s Center, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.
This is all without mentioning that he hosted SNL, was selected by the Atlantic as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Americans, was asked by George McGovern to be his running mate in 1972, sang a song about consumer advocacy on Sesame Street (see minute 3:30 of this clip), and is the namesake of the “Nader Bell” which is the horn that beeps when big trucks back up.
I am personally inspired by him because he embodies this lost art in American politics, which is “the reformer.” The reformer is pushing no burn-it-all-down revolution; the reformer need not be culturally libertine; the reformer is not inspired solely by sticking it to the Man. Rather, the reformer, from a position of deep care for the community, looks at public problems, develops solutions and speaks Truth to power until the system is reformed so that the problems are a bit meliorated. And the best reformers have a vision of how problems are interconnected so their work is not made of one-off band-aids. Some lived the 
1960’s counterculture — the push for individual authenticity and broad-based political participation — by dropping acid at Woodstock. Ralph Nader did it by founding public citizen groups that wielded facts, beat the system, and saved tens of thousands of lives. He’s in a category with Fred Rogers, who took the call for more authentic lives in the 1960’s and founded a television show that helped children develop in a healthy and natural relationship with their own feelings. These are my heroes: those with radical lives, not just radical lifestyles.
Nader’s a living embodiment of his quote: “Almost every significant breakthrough has come from the spark, the drive, the initiative of one person.” And when asked what he wants to be known as, he responds, “Full-time citizen.” Amen.
For more information, I highly recommend the documentary about his life, “An Unreasonable Man,” which is streaming online.