TO THE EDITOR:
Anyone who votes for Al Gore is not "progressive," and any person who thinks there is any real difference between George W. Bush and Gore is mistaken.
Gore's campaign is financed by the same corporate interests that support Bush. Ten of the top 20 donors to both parties are the exact same corporations. As for workers' rights, Gore refuses to repeal section 14b of the Taft-Hartley Act, which harms union organizing, and he also opposes a "living wage."
Gore promised to sign an act that would ensure that a woman's right to choose would not be overturned, but he derailed it. Gore voted for the Hyde Amendment that tried to ban federal funding to hospitals that performed abortions. Gore gave the auto industry an eight-year hiatus from fuel emissions standards, and prosecution of environmental crimes is lower than it was under Bush and Reagan.
Unlike Gore, Nader supports universal health care, clean elections, ending the death penalty, withdrawing from the World Trade Organization and putting people and the environment before corporate profit. Nader fought for the Freedom of Information Act, the Clean Air Act and the Consumer Protection Agency and won.
While votes for Nader are not counted in North Carolina, I will write in Nader. Bush's lead is so great that even if all the Greens voted Gore, Bush would win North Carolina. What the system is really frightened of is the chance that if the Greens get 5 percent of the votes, they will become a real threat to this corporate mockery of democracy.
Harry Halpin
Senior
Computer Science
