Word: naderism
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Those catch-22 evasions are some of the ways in which about 50 nervous or hostile members of Congress are refusing to cooperate with the most massive and potentially significant survey Crusader Ralph Nader has undertaken. Working through the summer to pin down precisely how Congress, as well as each of its 535 members, actually rather than theoretically functions, about 800 eager, mostly unpaid Nader's Raiders are stalking their prey in Capitol corridors, Washington offices, state capitals and home districts. One major aim is to produce a profile of roughly 20 pages each on about 490 members...
Hope. Never has Nader taken greater care in planning and staffing a study. All of his questions and procedures were analyzed by an advisory board of scholars. The vast team's "field packets" of material were tested for four months in trial interviews and mailings. More than 1,000 people, mainly graduate students, young professors and instructors, applied for the low-paying (at most about $500 for the summer) key research jobs. About 400 took written tests and 80 were selected. To avoid any charge that the study might be biased by relying for funds on tax-free foundations...
Most members of Congress assume, of course, that any Nader study starts from a critical perspective, and they worry about the findings. Nader is trying to reassure them that he is sympathetic. "Most Congressmen," he says, "work their ass off." Moreover, he finds Congress far more amenable to improvement than either the Executive or Judicial Branches of the Government. "Nothing remotely compares with the Congress as the hope of reclaiming America," he insists. He wants to analyze the "internal and external pressures" that have made Congress what he calls "a continuous underachiever." The aim is to help it "live...
Complaining on Mr. Nader's level may help in the long run. But in the mean time, griping in the supermarket is like griping in the Army: the louder you shout, the worse it gets...
...Ralph Nader, another frequent guest, made Cavett one of his innumerable causes. "There are," said Nader, "a lot of people in this country who have a lot of valuable things to say for whom the Dick Cavett Show is a principal opportunity for expression." Meanwhile the ABC mailrooms have been deluged with 30,000 letters from viewers around the country. Last week one of ABC'S affiliates, WMAL-TV in Washington, ran an ad in the Washington Post urging viewers to write in giving their reasons why the Cavett show is "too important to be canceled...