Ralph Nader Opens A Tort (Yes, Tort) Museum in Winsted, CT
By Jamie Larson
Storied public safety crusader, polarizing third party candidate and Winsted, Conn. local Ralph Nader has finally opened the doors to the American Museum of Tort Law in his home town. If a museum dedicated to the history of personal injury law and consumer protection doesn’t sound like the most thrilling way to spend an afternoon, museum co-founder and president Nader says that’s only because you haven’t seen it yet.
“It’s a museum that relates to people’s daily experiences," Nader says. “These are issues that impact the safety of our air, our cars, our water, our medicine…"
Inside the stately former bank on Saturday, Sept. 26, the museum held its convocation, featuring guests notable in the world of tort, including U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, and a performance by Patti Smith, a longtime supporter and advocate of Nader's causes. Nader downplays the museum as a temple to his legacy, pointing out that a lot of the legal cases currently featured in the museum are not ones he championed. A notable exception is the museum’s largest exhibit piece, a beautiful red Chevrolet Corvair, the dangers of which Nader famously cataloged in his 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed.
“[The Museum] is about the people, but nothing is enduring without an institution," says the 81-year-old Nader, adding that the fruit of his labor has always been the institutions he established to help educate and safeguard the public, including the national network of Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) and now the museum, which he began planning in 1998.
Aside from the Corvair and a few other artifacts, such as some of history’s most egregiously unsafe children’s toys, the museum is filled with large, nicely produced boards that outline famous cases. Frankly, there’s a lot to read in the Tort Museum, but Nader says the examples don’t just dump information on you but provide “points of thought to challenge the visitor."
Nader says it’s important that the museum convey the value of personal injury law not just as history but as an ongoing fight between regular people and corporations that have done some unspeakably terrible things. Through negligence, penny pinching or lack of ethics, corporations have and continue to maim and murder Americans with a regularity Nader finds alarming. He also feels that those in favor of tort reform are spreading misinformation (like inflated false injury claim statistics) in an attempt to allow corporations to avoid paying what they owe to the people they hurt.
“Media propaganda gives the impression [tort law] is abused," Nader says, his passion for the issue still raging behind his distinctive gravel baritone. “Less than 10 percent of cases ever reach a lawyer. It is still very hard to negotiate the system."
While Nader’s legacy as a public crusader is still widely discussed in progressive circles and his name will likely be the strongest draw to the museum, one uncomfortable question shadows the Tort Museum; will lingering Democratic animosity over the perception that Nader’s third-party bid for President of the United States in 2000 cost Al Gore the election (making Nader an accessory before the fact to the Bush administration’s actions) impact museum attendance?
“Only the liberal intelligentsia still have that syndrome," Nader says by way of addressing the 15-year-old controversy. “There were ten reasons Gore didn’t win. They wanted to scapegoat me. But it isn’t the rank and file that think that. Working people think everyone has a right to run."
To Nader, issues of tort law are highly political because he sees the vast majority of politicians as subservient to their financial donors in what nearly amounts to a corporate oligarchy. He says there’s much more resistance and animosity towards his museum from the right.
While Nader doesn’t make endorsements when it comes to the current presidential race, he supports a lot of Senator Bernie Sanders’ positions. If former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton becomes president Nader thinks she could be as bad as any Republican when it comes to the issues he cares about, calling her a “Corporatist and a Militarist."
Nader allows that while Republican front runner Donald Trump is waging a campaign based on hateful xenophobic ideas he happens to blurt out off the top of his head and then decides to run with, he’s glad the blunt mogul is in the race.
“I actually say good things about Trump," Nader says, his tone lightening. “Trump is putting forces in all directions and some are good. He’s knocking out [Republican candidates] who are corporate warmongers and calls out hedgefunders. And the silver lining is he galvanizes his opponents [on the left]."
Though he may not be willing to say that the new Museum of Tort Law is how he’d like to be remembered, Nader is more than willing to use it as an instrument, another weapon in his still ongoing fight for the public good. And though tort law may not be the sexiest topic for a museum, there are without a doubt some really important historical issues, lessons and truths thoughtfully displayed throughout the museum worth considering the next time you’re cutting through Winsted. And if you’re still on the fence, heck, Patti Smith thinks it’s cool, so who are you to argue?
American Museum of Tort Law
654 Main Street, Winsted, CT
(860) 379-0505
Hours:
April 1 – December 31:
Wednesday – Monday, 10:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Closed Tuesdays)
January 1 – April 1:
Contact to schedule a private tour.
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