By John Nichols.

• Position: Book review

When the real history of the post-World War II era in the United States, it will be recorded that Ralph Nader contributed substantially more to the health and welfare of the United States than a number of Presidents.

Today, Nader is more than an "elder statesman"; he is our steadiest advocate for a set of values and ideals that are deeply rooted in the American experiment. Yet Nader does not speak with the lofty rhetoric of one who has disengaged from the struggle. He is idealistic, yet he is also specific--wading into the fights of the moment and offering proposals that ought to be considered. Unfortunately, much of the media and most of the political class neglect Nader, as he reveals in a remarkable 2015 book, Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015 (Seven Stories).

The dozens of letters contained in this book run through the issues and challenges faced by the United States during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and it is chilling to read them individually. On issues of war and peace, inequality, corporate abuses, and human needs, they are not just thoughtful and often visionary--they form the outlines of an alternative history where we might have gotten things right.

Read as a whole, however, Return to Sender is something more. It is a powerful and necessary indictment of what Nader refers to as "the disturbing trend of non-responsive and discourtesy to citizens extends to many cabinet secretaries and agency heads." Nader is right when he argues that this "indifference" represents "the degradation of an elementary relationship between the citizens and their elected officials and those agency heads appointed by those elected officials."

Every 2016 presidential candidate should be asked...