Green Day

Alex Coolman

Green Party presidential nominee Ralph Nader swooped into Orange

County on Friday, and some of Costa Mesa’s Greens made the pilgrimage to

hear him speak.

The lanky candidate appeared before an overflowing auditorium at

Chapman University in Orange, slamming Republicans and Democrats for

being the pawns of corporate interests that he called craven, myopic and

greedy.

“The only difference between George Bush and Al Gore is the velocity

with which their knees hit the floor when the corporations knock on the

door,” Nader said of the Republican and Democratic nominees for

president.

Taking in the scene with apparent delight were residents Susan

Pallotta and Brian Reynolds, who had made the trip to see Nader with a

group of Newport-Mesa residents.

Pallotta, a business development manager for a software company, said

she planned to vote for Nader in November, having grown disillusioned

with the options offered by mainstream candidates. She said she didn’t

buy the argument that supporting third-party candidates amounted to

wasting a vote.

“Voting out of fear, voting to keep somebody else out of office -- to

me, that’s wasting a vote,” she said.

And voting for either of the two major parties is a waste, Reynolds

said.

“There’s corporate involvement and corporate backing with everything”

they do, he said.

Friday’s event also featured a speech from Green Party U.S. Senate

candidate Medea Benjamin, who called for a higher minimum wage, reforms

in international trade policies and massive defense cuts.

“I think one of the big surprises come Nov. 7 is going to be Orange

County going Green,” Benjamin told the crowd.

Not everyone in attendance was in love with the party line.

Student demonstrators, calling themselves anarchists, set up outside

the auditorium to protest what they called the authoritarian nature of

Green Party politics.

“We’re against all authority, even if it’s fuzzy Green Party

authority,” said one young woman, who gave her name only as “Chinchilla.”

The anarchists had been speaking to attendees for only a few minutes

before police officers arrived and ordered them to disperse.

Inside the auditorium, however, audience and candidates seemed to

agree on a great deal.

Nader dismissed Gore as an environmental fraud and hammered Bush for

his ties to big business.

“[Bush is] nothing more than a giant corporation running for president

disguised as a human being,” he said.

Wouldn’t the prospect of having such a character as president

encourage Pallotta to vote for Gore? Not anymore, she said.

“Election after election, people say ‘I don’t want to waste my vote,’

” she said. “I find the monopoly of power of these two parties more

frightening.”