Salon Interviews LaDuke

Salon.com , which has been most consistently even-handed about covering the major third party political races, gets the first interview with Harvard-educated economist, author, activist, and Green Party (news - web sites) vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke (news - web sites) that we've seen in a relatively major media outlet.

Are you saying that four years of Bush is something you could tolerate in order to move the debate forward on some issues that are getting overlooked?

Not quite. I would not say "tolerate." I would totally detest four years of George W. Bush (news - web sites). What I'm saying is that the difference between the two [candidates] and what we need for America is pretty substantial. Those two do not actually address the root causes of what is wrong with America. And it's not about a theoretical state, it is about systemic change in a country with this vast amount of resources where there is no reason for all those children to be in poverty, for all those people to be in prison, and there's no reason for this level of environmental degradation. And, in order to heal our country and reconcile our country, we have to ask for and demand that our leaders do better.
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What is the first thing you would do as vice president?

I'd pardon Leonard Peltier (news - web sites), but I guess I couldn't do that as vice president. I'd ask Ralph to do it. He's a victim of COINTELPRO (news - web sites) [the FBI counterintelligence program that infiltrated leftist American groups from 1968 to 1971], and I think it's wrong that he's still in prison. People all over the world have been asking for his release for years. [The Rev.] Desmond Tutu (news - web sites) even wants him out. The Clinton administration released those Puerto Rican activists, and I think that was the right thing to do. After years, Geronimo Pratt (news - web sites) was finally let out of jail, too. It's time to end the COINTELPRO era in this country and release Leonard Peltier.