After U.S. President Joe Biden’s stumbling and unconvincing performance during the debate with former President Donald Trump last Thursday, it is no exaggeration to say that the future of our planet may depend on a decision he must make.
Does he want to go down in history as the man who was responsible for the disastrous consequences of a second Trump presidency? Will he join others whose lifelong efforts to do good were undone by their refusal to put the public interest first?
For progressives like me, Ralph Nader was once a hero. His first book, "Unsafe at Any Speed," was a devastating expose of how the American auto industry put profits ahead of safety. Nearly 50,000 people were killed on roads in the United States in 1965, the year it was published. The book spurred a crucial public debate that led to legislation to improve road safety. By 2011, the death toll on U.S. roads had fallen to 35,000, and, on a per capita basis, was less than half what it had been 45 years earlier.