I got my first glimpse of the Green Party last February. As Editorial Page Editor of The Hoya, I received a letter supporting Ralph Nader for President in the 2000 election. This wasn’t your average, everyday letter; it came fully equipped with a flyer that read “America: Where the Few Screw the Many” underlined in marker and written in capital and lowercase letters, similar to a ransom note. Needless to say, I didn’t take it seriously. Today, however, is a completely different story.

I am not a politico, and I don’t know all there is to know about the upcoming presidential election. But, like most things in life, I like to take a broad, overall look at things, and, from that perspective, this race is absurd. Neither mainstream party candidate seems to be genuine; they both just want to be president. I don’t see conviction in Al Gore’s eyes when he talks about education reform, and if the only thing George W. Bush knows about tax reform is that you can’t boil it down to “fuzzy math,” then I don’t think he even knows what his own plan is. But I believe Ralph Nader.

The upcoming election is a phenomenon. The Republican and Democratic parties are so busy trying to get elected that they are losing sight of what they stand for. Joe Lieberman for vice president? A man who stood for censorship and corporate tax breaks before the election somehow turned into the great Democratic hope over the summer and now has settled into the background where he belongs. It seems that Gore was so interested in garnering the “middle” voters that he would have chosen a Republican running mate if he could have.

But where does it end? Where does the slide to the middle turn Republicans and Democrats into two groups of white collar political junkies who only hate each other because their parents said they were supposed to, even though their views are virtually identical? When does the battle for votes return to the search for the right man to run our country?

I now take Nader seriously, and so do many others. Here is a man who has fought for the consumer his entire life. He has never tried to merely win people over with charisma or bureaucratic tactics; he rests on his ideas and beliefs. He may not have the right views for everyone, but at least his beliefs are the key to his campaign. Gore and Bush seem to be too busy listening to political advisors who tell them to look smart or distance themselves from the current president to really grasp the things they speak about day in and day out. Need an example? How about the fact that Gore was so busy trying to come off animated and energetic at the Oct. 3 debate that he managed to ignore common courtesy, interrupting and making faces during Bush’s air time.

Nader will tell you that “Big Money” is corrupting both the Republicans and Democrats, but I don’t think he needs to win you over by throwing the current evolution of politics in your face. Sit back, don’t listen to the specifics and see what’s going on. The two parties are killing each other to gain the “undecided” vote, not to strengthen their own party’s support. Both parties are sneaking towards the middle and deserting the previously established beliefs of their party. Do you think it is a coincidence that both Bill Bradley and John cCain, though widely supported, ended up losing to the “Big Party” candidates?

Young people need to look past the media and the mainstream view on things that will affect them. Question everything. And young people have begun to support Nader, perhaps because he is the only genuine voice in this year’s campaign. Tonight at 7 p.m., many big names that traditionally support the Democratic Party will be at a super rally for Nader. This isn’t Nader on MTV in a golf shirt trying to change his image; it is Nader with his biggest supporters getting the word out and putting together an event capable of bringing sufficient attention to a forgotten campaign. aybe Phil Donahue, Bill Murray and Eddie Vedder won’t convince people to vote for Nader, but they may bring enough people to Madison Square Garden to let Nader convince them himself.

The United States has had a two-party system throughout its history, and these parties have begun to meld into one. The evolution of the system is in effect, and the new parties need to begin to establish themselves. A vote for Nader may not get him elected, but it may help put the Green Party where it needs to be in the future. Maybe a few years down the road, the Republicans and Democrats will be forced to focus on the issues – not the votes – by a legitimized third party. The widespread support of third party Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura certainly stems from his appearance as a genuine figure who isn’t caught up in Republican or Democratic bureaucracy. Hey, this time Minnesota might be one step ahead of the rest of us.

Joe Harten is a senior in the McDonough School of Business and Associate Editor of The Hoya.