The best Presidential Forum you haven’t heard about.
On Saturday December 1st, 3600 individuals braved the nasty weather in Des Moines IA to attend a forum. This forum was special in the fact that the everyday people would be able to ask five of the Democratic Presidential candidates questions that mattered to them. The Democrats who showed up were: John Edwards, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton and my pick for President, Representative Dennis Kucinich. Only Hillary phoned it in, unable for some reason to attend in person.
The Heartland Presidential Forum has received scant notice, hell NO notice by the MSM…which shouldn’t surprise us, but it should piss us off. This Forum was unique in that the questions weren’t filtered through a cadre of network heads like CNN, MSNBC or Fox Noise. Real Americans asked their real questions and voiced their real concerns to the candidates. The Forum was sponsored by community groups across the nation. It should be noted that the Republican candidates were also invited, but only one of them accepted the invitation. The forum lawyers ruled that to only allow one Republican to attend might appear to be an illegal political endorsement and therefore he was not allowed to attend.
This wonderful forum allowed everyday Americans to address the candidates of their choice directly on the stage, face to face. The entire video of the event can be seen at MovementVisionLab.org or portions can be watched on their YouTube channel. The one MSM writeup I could find was the San Francisco Chronicle. Below are some of the individuals and their stories they highlighted from the event:
Erica Fernandez, a 17-year-old student from Ventura County, spoke eloquently of her community’s struggle against the siting of a liquefied natural gas facility - and asked John Edwards to address questions of environmental justice (the first time I’ve heard the issue raised at the presidential level).
Patricia Divine Wilder, a small business owner from Walla Walla, Wash., spoke to Hillary Clinton, choking back her own tears (and ours) as she struggled through a story of a nephew whose recurrent neck pains went unaddressed because he lacked health insurance. When he finally broke down and saw a doctor, it turned out to be inoperable lung cancer. Clinton responded at length about the arcane details of her health care plan - and was then cut off for exceeding time limits so that she could hear from an undocumented immigrant student. Identified by first name only, she noted that she had graduated at the top of her high school class, is two years away from finishing a B.A. in education, and will never be able to teach. Following her, Larry Ginter, a white family farmer from Iowa, pleaded that “to save our national soul, we have to stop treating immigrants like common criminals.” Echoing the theme, Tam Tran from Los Angeles told Dennis Kucinich her tale: she and her family fled from Vietnam, were rescued by a German boat, and came to the United States when she was 6. Now the United States wants to deport her - to Germany - and agents have followed up by raiding her parents’ mobile home two months ago.
And Barack Obama found himself floored by Dedra Lewis from Springfield, Mass. She recounted her shock when her 10-year-old daughter, Alexsiana, developed a sight-threatening eye condition - and her relief when the State Children’s Health Insurance (SCHIP) program threatened by President Bush’s veto pen had saved her when she lost her job and her private insurance. Alexsiana was there - she and Obama exchanged hugs and quiet words before he went on to outline his health care plan.
There are many more stories like these on the pages of the SFChron writeup as well as the writeup by the MovementVisionLab author Sally Kohn who calls these folks this years swing voters in her article. There were white folks, brown folks and black folks that brought their issues to the Presidential candidates. Many of the stories rang true for me or people I know and love. I would like to suggest you watch the entire presentation, but if you don’t at least watch some of the YouTube video’s of the speakers and the candidates response, it will make you proud to be an American again..at least it did me.
We need more of these types of events for the candidates, where the questions are asked by those who will be voting for our next President. Nothing was canned or phony to me, it was genuine concern based in living a life in these here United States. The American’s were from all walks of life, investors, farmers, undocumented immigrants who have worked hard to make a life here and still fear being deported. Single mothers who worry about making ends meet and feeding their children every day. I could go on and on..but hopefully you get my point dear reader. So watch our Americans in action and how the candidates responded to them.
Do yourself that favor today ok?
Crossposted at Leftwing Nutjob
December 7th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
This is simply an untrue statement and indicitive of why we cannot have substantiative debate in this country.
“- and her relief when the State Children’s Health Insurance (SCHIP) program threatened by President Bush’s veto pen”
No one has every put forth the ending of the SCHIP program. The debate is over the amount of increase and who the target of the program should be.
I can’t help but notice that the overwhelming theme here is “what is the government going to do for me”
I do not wish to sound as if I do not believe in helping those less fortunate but you have to weigh in the fact that any help the government gives to someone comes at the expense of someone else. I think that the entity (government) had better do a damn good job making sure that those that claim to need help really do need help before they give away someone elses money. If you think there aren’t many currently receiving tax dollars that are not really entitled then you are wrong. You have to understand that a working poor family that is asking for no help from the government but is struggling to get by is still taxed in order for their money to redistributed. Sometimes to someone who does not need the help as much as they do.
The Dems talk about oversight a lot and social programs are a huge area lacking sufficient oversight.
Lets see a candidate talk about making sure that tax dollars are spent on the truly needy or about getting the government out of the charity business and let the private sector deal with it. Churches and other charities probably help more people for less money than the the government. I have no statistics on this I am only speculating. I can already hear the howls of “sleazy con” from JMJ or that I’m a typical republican that doesn’t want to help anyone, but this is not what I am talking about. I’m telling you from first hand experience (limited to my own dealings with welfare recipients) that the scammers know how to get the max dollar out of the government and crowd out those really in need. It would help the most needy if the government would/could crack down on those taking government funds that don’t really need it.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
manapp.. Christ, we send BILLIONS to other countries who spit on our nation and our beliefs, yet you complain about our own people needing govt assistance. I fail to understand how you can disapprove of individuals that need government help when the need arises by pointing out that SOME FOLKS are getting something they don’t deserve.
Your general comment about scammers reeks of rightwing bs in my opinion.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
And another thing..we waste more in one day then any of the scammers get in a year..think of federal contractors who get anything they want when they sign on the dotted line..those are the folks that need to be watched more closely imho.
December 8th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Dusty, I have no problem with review of the billions we send to other countries or watching the contractors more closely and am not faulting the help we give to those that need assistance. I was assailing those that receive assistance that do not need it. This detracts from giving to those that do. As with all aspects of life, I find that many who need assitance do not ask for it and that those that ask for it often times do not need it.
I know that my experience with the social assistance programs is limited however my married family has more than half of it’s members on one kind of assitance or another and there is not one of them that is not there through faults of their own. The only one I know that truly needs the help is my mother in law who was denied food stamps after her husband died due to the equity in her home and has to pay a premium for here medicare program. My step daughter died as a result of an overdose on drugs she got free by scamming the medicaid system. Much of my interaction with social services has lead me to the understanding of how screwed up the “help delivery” system is here. The individual social workers I have known are generally good caring people that will tell you that their hands are tied by endless bureaucracy. You do not have to look far to find a jaded social worker.
My recurrent theme is that the government may be well intentioned (though I am not entirely sure about even that) however they are not able to deliver due to sheer size. The best way to help people is not from the federal government. There is just too much government between them and the people. Break it down as close as you can to the problem if you really want sucess. Even large charities do not do good job of getting a good bang for the buck due to administration. When SPCA sends a blanket or a T-shirt to my wife who gives regularly, I have to wonder how many animals they could have helped with money they are spending on trinkets sent out to entice you to give.
Asking those who are running for office what they intend to do to help me is just the opposite of what I want from government.
If we are really about helping people we would do far better to take care of the lady down the street that just lost her husband and has 4 kids to feed. Set up a local charity or just give the money you would send to the feds to one that is already set up. There are millions.
check out this website if your looking for one.
http://www.lic.org/search/findset.asp
December 8th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
manapp, your libertarian leaning is showing
Look, you and I will not agree on this point so it’s not worth banging my and your head against the wall over..
I think there is corruption and/or waste in anything that is done on a grand scale by any organization or government entity. That doesn’t mean we should not expect local, state or federal governments to help those that need it the most. If you read through either of the articles I linked to, there are several individuals that have thanked the government for helping them when they needed it, and they turned out great by anyone’s standards.
I would rather see our tax dollars helping people than going into the pockets of federal contractors or corporate welfare..I think that is one of the fundamental uses for our tax dollars, whether you believe that way or not sir.