Real Choices, Suppressed Voices.

• Position: Ralph Nader, Presidential candidate of the Green Party, and of David McReynolds, Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, U.S.A.

There are two candidates running for President this year who are genuinely dedicated to progressive principles. Neither is named Al Gore, and neither is receiving the media attention he deserves.

But both are carrying on, tirelessly campaigning for a more just, peaceful, and democratic country. They both take on the twin evils of corporate power and militarism, and they both demand universal health care and an end to poverty. In the process, they are helping to keep in general circulation some of the crucial ideals for transforming our nation.

We speak of Ralph Nader, Presidential candidate of the Green Party, and of David McReynolds, Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, U.S.A. Of the two, Nader's campaign shows more promise, as he has galvanized the grassroots in a way unseen since the days of Henry Wallace and Norman Thomas and, before them, Robert La Follette and Eugene Victor Debs.

On August 25, 10,000 people showed up in Portland, Oregon, for the biggest political rally of the year to date. It was not for Al Gore, who was coasting down the Mississippi. Nor was it for George W. Bush, who was floundering. It was for Ralph Nader. You may not have heard about the Portland event because it was not mentioned in The New York Times except in passing a week later in an article that ironically noted Nader's dearth of media coverage. What made the crowd even more exceptional was that people paid $7 apiece to attend, and Nader still packed them in.

"People must realize if we never vote for the people we want, we're never going to elect the people we want," Nader told the exuberant crowd, which clamored for him to be allowed in the Presidential debates.

On military issues, Nader has become increasingly outspoken. He is for stopping the production of nuclear weapons and for deep cuts in the Pentagon budget. He is also for ending sanctions on Iraq and withdrawing military aid from Colombia. On The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on June 30, he was asked by Lehrer: "How would you decide when to use this great military force that we have in the United States?"

Nader: "Well, first of all, I would set a priority of waging peace.... If we abhor the use of violence, except as a last resort of self-defense, we will be seriously focused on how to deter it and how to prevent it. And, by the way, global infectious disease is a weapon of mass destruction, malaria, tuberculosis, mass poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. So let's have different attentions to different styles of violence that need to be prevented."

Nader, who has won the endorsement of the California Nurses Association, the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, and AFSCME Local 1108 in Los Angeles, is also a much...