My premise has always been that there are many whose passive opinion is seriously left but who lack hope that they can make a difference. Evidence of this is hard to come upon. Campaigns that are vividly to the left of "progressive" might be one such way of counting noses.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of David Green Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 11:45 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [lbo-talk] My campaign for U.S. Congress
I am running an insurgent campaign for U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic Party primary, IL-13: Urbana, Champaign, Bloomington, Normal, Decatur, Springfield, and Edwardsville. The election is March 18th.
(IL-13 is, among other things, the district of Carrol and Jan Cox, C.G. Estabrook, Robert Naiman, and perhaps others who contribute to this list; the Cox's graciously hosted a house party for me last November.)
On February 20th I will be debating my two opponents, and it will be locally televised, recorded, and available on the internet. We will each be allowed two minutes to introduce ourselves before answering questions. My introductory remarks will be read as follows:
"I enter this race in opposition to the power brokers of the national Democratic Party. They have chosen a candidate for you. They expect you to offer up your vote for nothing in return. Now the base of the Democratic Party—those who are taken for granted by its leadership—has the choice it deserves. "As a Jewish child I learned to love social justice. As a young man I learned to hate war. For 17 years I have actively opposed Israeli apartheid in Palestine. I actively and publicly opposed our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. I do not tolerate being lied to, and I will not allow you to be lied to. We need to bring our troops home and shut down our 700 foreign military bases. We need to stop killing other nations’ children, and our own, in unjust wars. "I have studied public policy for 35 years, and I am an expert on how for four decades policies have been used to rob income from working families and add it to the wealth of a criminal financial class. Public policies have determined that labor unions have been undermined, that workers’ wages have stagnated, that working families are in debt, and that many are driven to food pantries in order to survive. "The federal government, as it did during the New Deal in the 1930s, needs to create millions of jobs, quickly, for all who need one; living wage jobs that meet our social needs in infrastructure and services. We need to move quickly to a $15 per hour minimum wage. "My deep understanding of this forty years war on the working class has long since made me angry. It’s not news to me that you are angry too. But with truth, honesty, compassion, vision, and perseverance, we can gain social justice. The corporate, financial, and political masters of this country have been fighting a one-sided war against you and your families for a very long time. It’s time we recognize that, untie our hands, and begin to fight back." David Green, a social policy analyst at the University of Illinois, is running for U.S. Congress in the Democratic Party primary, IL-13. He can be reached through his website, www.davidgreenforcongress.com. ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk