Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader speaks at the JFK Jr. Forum at the Kennedy School yesterday evening. The College Dems occupied the front row of the crowd, wearing matching t-shirts and disapproving scowls.

It was barnyard politics at the packed JFK Jr. Forum last night, as activist Ralph Nader faced a rowdy crowd while defending his third-party candidacy in the upcoming presidential election.

While Nader asserted that the current presidential administration was to blame for the “utterly shameful” state of the nation, he directed the brunt of his criticism at the Democratic Party for ignoring the interests of its constituencies and allowing Bush to pursue his agenda unopposed.

“This party’s depths of decadence and surrender have not been thoroughly plumbed yet,” he said.

Though introduced by Assistant Professor of Government D. Sunshine Hillygus, Nader took shots at his host institution, calling Harvard’s Law School—from which he graduated in 1958—“nothing but a high-priced tool factory for corporate law firms.”

A longtime consumer and labor activist, Nader continued his anti-corporate theme by bashing both parties for their ignorance of workers’ issues and allegiance to corporate influence. He said Americans are “prisoners” of an institutionalized two-party system in which parties feel that “they own the voters,” and rely on “hereditary” party loyalty. He defended himself against repeated accusations that he was playing a spoiler.

“You cannot spoil a more spoiled political system,” he said.

Later in the evening he directed his criticism squarely on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry for what he said was an ambivalent stance on the war.

Nader’s rhetorical style was not exactly fiery, but it galvanized portions of the crowd, at times eliciting loud applause.

He repeatedly castigated the “liberal intelligentsia” for failing to question elements of Kerry’s platform or sufficiently challenge President Bush.

“This country is full of liberals incapable of any social indignation,” Nader said. “It’s full of liberals who have attained their own status in life and feel pretty comfortable about it.”

At one point, Nader painted himself as a victim of “big lies” spread by Democrats about receiving financial and logistical support from Republicans.

But the evening’s most contentious moments came following Nader’s prepared remarks. A phalanx of Harvard College Democrats was lined up at the microphones before the applause had died down.

The first question set the confrontational tone for the evening, as Christopher Crisman-Cox ’08 asked, “How do you feel knowing that over 1,000 people died in Iraq because you ran for president?”

The question was met with a chorus of boos, but Nader, unfazed, immediately snapped back.

“Do you take courses in government here?” he asked the freshman.

“Well, not at the Kennedy School—” Crisman-Cox began.

“But you take them, right?” Nader said.

“Well, not right now,” Crisman-Cox stammered, as the crowd roared in laughter.

Nader went on to answer that not only had Gore won the election, it was the fault of the Democratic Party that the election had been so close in the first place.

“He’s a very good speaker to audiences he’s presenting to,” Crisman-Cox said later, adding that he was unsatisfied with Nader’s response. “I think he knows how to sidestep questions to appeal to this audience.”

When Harvard College Democrats President Andrew J. Frank ’05 confronted Nader on environmental issues, Nader challenged him to name the five major forms of solar energy. When Frank stopped after several to say that the question was beside the point, Nader chastised him.

“Read up on it,” he said.

Afterwards, Frank said he made a mistake by asking the question, but maintained his position.

“On the merits of the issue he was very clearly wrong about it,” Frank said.

Nader’s question-and-answer session was frequently interrupted by interjections from the floor, as some audience members shouted accusations and questions at the candidate while he spoke.

The final three minutes of the session were chaotic. A group of supporters of former presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche began chanting a song mocking Nader.

“He’s trying to destroy our constitution! Don’t you see, people?” yelled Tory Harrison, a member of the LaRouche group.

“Stop closing your brain down!” Nader retorted.

Many of those in attendance said that though they agree with many of Nader’s positions, they were frustrated by his decision to run.

“I loved what he had to say,” said Noah Hertz-Bunzl ’08, who worked for Nader in 2000 and is currently a Kerry supporter. “I’m so disappointed that he’s running in a situation where we have two parties and he’s going to swing the election to Bush.”

Asked at a press conference afterwards if he was surprised at the hostile questions, Nader was nonchalant.

“Harvard’s always been like this,” he told The Crimson.

—Staff writer Michael M. Grynbaum can be reached at grynbaum@fas.harvard.edu.