WASHINGTON — Ralph Nader made a last-minute pitch for votes for his protest campaign Monday, calling the Republicans and Democrats "out of gas" and in big need of a push to make them more responsive to voters.
"The two parties need a jolt. They need a civil jolt and they need a political jolt, and the Green Party intends to give them that jolt on Election Day," he said during a news conference before heading to campaign stops in New York, Massachusetts and Maine.
Nader expressed confidence he would get at least 5 percent of the vote Tuesday, which would ensure his party federal campaign money for the 2004 elections. He also dismissed as "foolish talk" claims that a vote for him would be a "wasted" vote that would spoil Democrat Al Gore's chances of winning.
"It's very disrespectful of the voters. When the voter votes for a candidate, the voter votes for a candidate," he said. "I think it's very arrogant for Al Gore and his surrogates to run around the country disrespecting voters who want to vote for a viable third party."
Nader hovers just below 5 percent in national polls, but support for him is higher in states where the race between Gore and Republican George W. Bush is close, including Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, Washington state and Wisconsin. His role as a potential spoiler to Gore has put the longtime consumer activist under increasing pressure from Democrats who fear he is siphoning votes that otherwise would go to the vice president.
Despite the low poll numbers, Nader said he considered "very encouraging" the attention and support his campaign has received despite its limited budget, lack of media coverage and exclusion from the presidential debates.
"What do we expect from our votes tomorrow? We expect people will help build a viable third party, a Green Party that will put the politicians' feet to the fire and make the two parties more honest or more responsive," he said. "And if that doesn't succeed, then those two parties will shrink in future elections and the Green Party will field thousands of more candidates at the local and state level."
A day earlier, Nader concluded his series of arena rallies in the nation's capital with a bevy of celebrity friends.
"A vote for Nader is a vote for Nader and none other," shouted rock music icon Patti Smith.
Filmmaker Michael Moore was more direct. "If you don't win on Tuesday, Mr. Gore, it won't be because of Ralph Nader," he said. "It will be because of you."
Roughly 8,000 people paid $10 apiece to hear Nader speak Sunday at his final "super rally" at the MCI Arena. Similar events also have attracted crowds by the thousands in Boston, Chicago, New York, Seattle and other large cities.
"A vote for your hopes, a vote for your dreams, a vote for a higher expectation level of what our country can become and what it means to the world — those are the votes that you need to register, not the lesser of two evils where at the end of the day, you're still left with evil," Nader said.
He did not respond to appeals for him to drop out, instead focusing on favored topics, including corporate influence in government, universal health care and helping the working poor.
He did single out the Democratic Party, however, calling it a "hollow party" that tells labor unions, minority groups and its progressive members "you've got nowhere to go because we're not as bad as the Republican Party."
The sharpest attacks against the Democrats came from Nader's celebrity friends, including former talk-show host Phil Donahue.
"To our friends in the Democratic Party who wish we'd just go away, we have this question: When can we run?" he said, adding later: "Why are you telling Ralph Nader to go away? What are you afraid of?"
Moore said it hurt him as a friend to hear the assaults against Nader "from people we thought were our allies." He challenged the crowd to name any legislation by either Gore or Bush that "made this country a better place to live in."
Because of Nader, he said, the nation has federal laws on auto seat belts and other auto safety features and, as well as those that improve the air, water and the environment.
Other celebrities lending support included actor Danny Glover, rock star Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys and Harvard University professor Cornel West.
Nader also used the rally to promote statehood for the District of Columbia, which has more than 500,000 residents but lacks full voting representation in Congress.