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Speaker 1: here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio

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Speaker 1: and welcome back to Coast to Coast. Ralph Nader with

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Speaker 1: us how the Rats re formed the Congress of Fable Ralph.

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Speaker 1: Knowing you over these years, I know that there's a

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Speaker 1: method behind everything you do. What's the message you want

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Speaker 1: people to get about how the Rats reformed the Congress?

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Speaker 1: The message is, basically, it's easier. We think it never

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Speaker 1: takes more than one percent of the people in congressional

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Speaker 1: districts organizing spending as much time as they do on

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Speaker 1: a regular hobby like collecting stamps or coins or whatever,

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Speaker 1: and reflecting majority opinion. So the answer is it's easier,

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Speaker 1: and we think, how do you do it? So rather

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Speaker 1: than write, you know, a five hundred page tome that

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Speaker 1: people can fall asleepover, I wrote this fable to get

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Speaker 1: people in. So the mighty rat invasions spark a national

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Speaker 1: news frenzy which people begin to pay attention to, and

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Speaker 1: the derision from tens of millions of people about how

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Speaker 1: the members of Congress can't stamp out this rat invasion.

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Speaker 1: They're trying to cover it up, and the derision gets

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Speaker 1: people's attention and they start paying attention to Congress. So

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Speaker 1: activists sees on this burgeoning story, organize for a popular agenda,

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Speaker 1: and spontaneous rallies break out everywhere. The activists see the

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Speaker 1: rats upending business as usual routines on Capitol Hill as

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Speaker 1: a symbol against the lobbyists and their corporate dominated Congress.

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Speaker 1: And then it really gets into strategy technique and the

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Speaker 1: battles with the Wall Street moguls and the big trade

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Speaker 1: lobby trade association lobbies in Washington, and how they think

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Speaker 1: they're going to wear down the people, they're going to

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Speaker 1: overcome the people. But millions come to Washington. They take

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Speaker 1: relays all around Congress bellowing out their demands with loud speakers,

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Speaker 1: and so it's a very exciting thing. What's important about this, George,

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Speaker 1: is that it deals with real life problems, because I

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Speaker 1: always believe if you talk about problems where people live, work,

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Speaker 1: and raise their families, a lot of this ideology conservative

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Speaker 1: liberal dissipates. So you ask people, regardless of whether they

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Speaker 1: label themselves conservatives, liberals, progressives, libertarians, you want good schools,

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Speaker 1: you want good roads, you want clean air, you want

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Speaker 1: safe healthcare, affordable healthcare. You want fair enforcement of laws

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Speaker 1: to the rich and powerful and the mighty, cramping down

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Speaker 1: on corporate crime. You want criminal justice reform, and more

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Speaker 1: and more in state legislatures, conservative liberal legislators are pushing

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Speaker 1: out criminal justice reform. And a lean defense is the

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Speaker 1: best defense. A huge, wasteful, bloated military budget, it isn't

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Speaker 1: even auditable, is full of corruption with what Eisenhower, President

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Speaker 1: Eishar warned us about the military industrial complex. So on

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Speaker 1: the back of this book, and you can get this

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Speaker 1: book by going to Rats Reform Congress dot org. Just

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Speaker 1: Rats Reform Congress dot org. And by the way, you'll

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Speaker 1: like this, George. We have five of these paperbacks for

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Speaker 1: fifty bucks total, and they can send three of them

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Speaker 1: to the two senators representatives. And it's very powerful when

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Speaker 1: a citizen back home sends a book like this and

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Speaker 1: asks the center and representatives to write them a letter

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Speaker 1: back home about their reaction. Now here's what happens. The

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Speaker 1: staff in Congress gets this book. We've already distributed some

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Speaker 1: of it around the Capitol Hill. They get this book,

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Speaker 1: and basically you back home are telling them, I know

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Speaker 1: how you guys operate. I know who runs you, I

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Speaker 1: know who tempts you. I know how you turn your

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Speaker 1: back onto people. I know what you don't do that's wrong.

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Speaker 1: I know what you do do is wrong, like on

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Speaker 1: Wall Street and corporate bailouts, chrony capitalism, government waste. When

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Speaker 1: they know that you know, you immediately have power over them.

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Speaker 1: They immediately know they cannot fool you, flummox you, and

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Speaker 1: flatter you. They can't brush you off with a nice

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Speaker 1: form letter. And so just by sending them this book,

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Speaker 1: you can establish a connection with them, and by doing

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Speaker 1: it with some of your neighbors, then they pay even

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Speaker 1: more attention to you. And then you get into a

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Speaker 1: real key in this book. The website, by the way,

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Speaker 1: Rats Reform Congress dot org. It's not only where you

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Speaker 1: can get this book and I've got all autographed, it's

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Speaker 1: ready to ship, but it also as a free website

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Speaker 1: that gives you one detail after another about how to

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Speaker 1: organize Congress watchers groups, how to send a citizens summons

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Speaker 1: to the two senators and representatives, signed by your neighbors,

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Speaker 1: your co workers, your friends, and summoning them to your

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Speaker 1: own town meetings with your own agenda about how to

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Speaker 1: make this country great again, and how to redirect and

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Speaker 1: redirect your taxes back home to rebuild your public services

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Speaker 1: what they call the infrastructure. So it's rot to Reform

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Speaker 1: Congress dot org. And you can get five copies for

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Speaker 1: fifty dollars. A paperback single is twenty, a hard back

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Speaker 1: is third. Either all autographed. And I can't wait to

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Speaker 1: go up on Capitol Hill and walk into one center's

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Speaker 1: office after another and watch the staff say, Hey, what's

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Speaker 1: going on here. We're getting these books. We're getting them

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Speaker 1: from Toledo, We're getting them from Albuquerque, We're getting in

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Speaker 1: from Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, at Los Angeles, Saint Louis. What's

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Speaker 1: going on? And you know what I'm gonna tell them

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Speaker 1: what's going on, is you better shape up or you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be shipped out. People are waking up people. And

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Speaker 1: when you talk about Congress, you're also talking about the Senate.

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Speaker 1: They're not exempt from this, are they They're not at all.

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Speaker 1: And you know what people don't know about the Congress.

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Speaker 1: I mean, look, the Congress comes in in the Poles

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Speaker 1: lower than any time since Poles. They come in under

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Speaker 1: twenty percent approval. That's both conservatives and liberals being pulled

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Speaker 1: under twenty percent. Some polls went twelve percent. Never mind

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Speaker 1: used card dealers than the poor use card dealers. They

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Speaker 1: usually come in pretty low. They're coming in low. This

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Speaker 1: is a dangerous time for our republic when we don't

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Speaker 1: trust five hundred and thirty five men and women who

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Speaker 1: are using our sovereign power and abusing it. And I

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Speaker 1: say in the back of the book again and again

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Speaker 1: congressional majorities, because there's some good people in Congress, so

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Speaker 1: I always use the word. Congressional majorities have paved the

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Speaker 1: way for draining away America's critical necessities and giving huge

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Speaker 1: money to the corporate freeloaders, corporate welfare bailouts, handouts, giveaways,

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Speaker 1: subsidies going on every every day, and the bigger the corporation,

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Speaker 1: the more they don't have to ever go bankrupt. When

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Speaker 1: they fail the market test, they go to Washington for

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Speaker 1: a bail as Wall Street was bailed out. So, but

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Speaker 1: here's what people don't don't know about Congress. It's itself

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Speaker 1: is the concentrated tyranny of self privileged secrecy, exclusionary rules

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Speaker 1: and practices, avoiding key public hearings like on the tax bill,

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Speaker 1: on the healthcare bill, on the Access to Justice under

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Speaker 1: Tort Law bill. They didn't even have public hearings the

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Speaker 1: Republican This is unheard of. They just in fact, there

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Speaker 1: were times when they wouldn't even let the Democrats see

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Speaker 1: the wording in the draft legislation that they sent to

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Speaker 1: the Senate and House floor for a vote. That's how

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Speaker 1: bad it was. And they don't they don't oversee the

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Speaker 1: executive branch. They don't want to see how our taxes

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Speaker 1: are miss spent and wasted. And they're always shutting out citizens.

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Speaker 1: Are you called Senate office now or a representative office?

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Speaker 1: They often have what's your name and they get your name?

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Speaker 1: Your back calm, you're a constituent, and they see whether

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Speaker 1: you've given a donation, and depending on whether you've given

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Speaker 1: a donation or not given a donation, or the size

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Speaker 1: of donation depends on whether you're going to get through

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Speaker 1: to your senator, representative or just a staffer or maybe

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Speaker 1: a college in turn. And the secrecy is staggering as well.

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Speaker 1: The Freedom Information Act, which we got through in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy four, the best one in the world, giving people

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Speaker 1: right to get government files, meet and poultry inspection, nursing

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Speaker 1: home inspection reports, food and drug and they still hold

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Speaker 1: back things wealth don't. They exempted Congress from that. They

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Speaker 1: exempted Congress so you can't get like when they settled

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Speaker 1: for these sexual assaults using taxpayer money to settle with

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Speaker 1: a woman who accused a member of sexual assault or worse,

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Speaker 1: that was secret. That was when they are playing the

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Speaker 1: stock market using inside information. You couldn't get the information

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Speaker 1: because they exempted the Congress from the Free Information Act.

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Speaker 1: So this is designed to give you power of people.

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Speaker 1: I want to give you power. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: ever hear you say whatever it will be, will be,

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Speaker 1: will be denied healthcare when we've paid our premiums, we

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Speaker 1: can't do anything about it. We can't get good public

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Speaker 1: transit to get the work on time if we're cleaning

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Speaker 1: houses in the suburbs and people in the inner city.

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Speaker 1: We're paying gouging prices for drugs that are often subsidized

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Speaker 1: by taxpayer research as the nationalists who savout and given

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Speaker 1: to these drug companies, and then they they price it

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Speaker 1: the highest price in all the world. They charge Americans

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Speaker 1: the highest price, and that's where the drugs are developed

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Speaker 1: with your taxpayer dollar, and on and on, and why

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Speaker 1: do people take this Because they don't think they have

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Speaker 1: the power. And this book, this book, The Rats Reformed

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Speaker 1: the Congress, is designed to give them that power. And

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Speaker 1: you're very astute, Rolf, because one of the reasons our

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Speaker 1: show was so successful. We cater to people who live

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Speaker 1: at night, they work at night, they're everywhere. And you've

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Speaker 1: noticed this, and you've pointed something out that not a

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Speaker 1: lot of people have pointed out, and that is most

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Speaker 1: candidates when they run for office, seem to forget about

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Speaker 1: what we call a third of the nation that lives

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Speaker 1: at night. That is unbelievable. In fact, just before this

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Speaker 1: last election in November, a few weeks before I sent

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Speaker 1: out letters to a lot of people running for the Congress.

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Speaker 1: I said, look, do you know the tens of millions

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Speaker 1: of people in this country worked the midnight shift. They

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Speaker 1: keep the society going by while the rest of us

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Speaker 1: are sleeping. And these are the people who are in

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Speaker 1: the hospitals and nursing homes, firefighters, police, these are people

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Speaker 1: who are the night cab drivers, you name it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know all night restaurants, drug stores, tollkeepers, the people

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Speaker 1: who repair our infrastructure, on and on and never you

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Speaker 1: never connect with them. So why don't you announce you're

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Speaker 1: going to be a midnight campaigner several times? And you like,

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Speaker 1: you start the campaign in front of a shift, a

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Speaker 1: midnight shift for a large hospital, and you go to

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Speaker 1: all these different places and you respect them and you

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Speaker 1: recognize them and you urge them to vote. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's amazing how they ignore midnight the midnight shift workers.

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Speaker 1: But now some of them are starting to do it. Converson,

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Speaker 1: Jamie Raskin did it in Maryland and a couple others.

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Speaker 1: But I couldn't get Beeto O'Rourke to do it, even

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Speaker 1: though he went into every county in Texas. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: get Senator Bill Nelson to do it. He lost. Had

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Speaker 1: they done it, they might have picked up some extra vote,

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Speaker 1: without a doubt, without a doubt, because the midnight workers

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Speaker 1: do not meet the candidates, and they feel ignored and

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Speaker 1: they feel out of it. And suddenly someone recognizes their

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Speaker 1: work and their value and meets them and shakes hands

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Speaker 1: with them and talks with them, and then the word spreads.

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Speaker 1: So you're right. I used to do the Larry Kingshaw

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Speaker 1: a lot, you know, from one to three, one to four.

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Speaker 1: I love the people who stay up late at night

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Speaker 1: and we get their calls. But this book, I wrote

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Speaker 1: it for you, the people. I don't care what your

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Speaker 1: label is. Most people have a sense of justice, they

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Speaker 1: have a sense of fair play, and if they don't

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Speaker 1: let the politicians divide and rule them. With these slogans,

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Speaker 1: we're going to turn this country around. Listen to more

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