Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter
What I Want to Know
By Joan McCarter, 1-15-08
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Politics isn’t beanbag, they like to say. The post-New Hampshire Democratic primary has more than proven that old saw. But for what? Here’s one political junkie that could use a break, or at least would like to see a little bit more fighting over substance and a lot less warring among proxies over guaranteed attention-getting flashpoints. One could say that I’m a pretty mad voter at this point, because there are a few things I want to know about these candidates, and so far I’ve not heard the answers I need.
But as I prepare for a quick trip to Las Vegas to witness tonight’s Democratic candidates debate, I’m not setting my expectations too high. For one thing, this is the gazillionth debate, and the track record of tonight’s moderators, NBC’s Brian Williams and Tim Russert in going for the most predictable and prosaic lines of questioning in the “he said, she said” vein, is less than promising. We’ll get more of what they did, what they said, how they voted, what they said about how the others voted. At this point, all of their records are tainted--they’ve all made idiotic mistakes and they’ve all done laudable deeds. That ground has been thoroughly covered.
The main combatants, Clinton and Obama, have finally called a truce on the flinging of racist and sexist stinkbombs, but what do you want to bet that the media giants they’ll be facing tonight just won’t be willing to let it all go? Let’s hope our candidates can maintain their tenuous above the fray positions, and talk about some stuff that matters. It would be a refreshing change tonight to hear about what have they learned from their pasts, and where do they want take the country based on that. Because we’ve got some major challenges ahead, and some key unanswered questions are still hanging.
They’ve been out there for a while. Five long years ago, on March 15, 2003, Howard Dean galvanized the Democratic base and ignited a movement with a speech at the California State Democratic Convention. The ”What I want to know” speech is the single-most referenced moment in time people tell me about when they talk about getting passionate about politics.
What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting the President’s unilateral intervention in Iraq?
What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting tax cuts, which have bankrupted this country and given us the largest deficit in the history of the United States?
What I want to know is why the Congress is fighting over the Patient’s Bill of Rights? The Patient’s Bill of Rights is a good bill, but not one more person gets health insurance and it’s not 5 cents cheaper.
What I want to know is why the Democrats in Congress aren’t standing up for us, joining every other industrialized country on the face of the Earth in providing health insurance for every man, woman and child in America.
What I want to know is why so many folks in Congress are voting for the President’s Education Bill-- “The No School Board Left Standing Bill"-- the largest unfunded mandate in the history of our educational system!
In the five years since Howard Dean stood in front of that electrified crowd and started asking those questions--finally!--so many of us had, we still don’t have answers to most of them. What’s more, we have more questions, we have harder questions – questions that the next two or three presidents are going to have to grapple with, questions that our traditional media just won’t be asking.
So here’s a few things that I want to know. I want to know why, five years later, is the substance of all of Howard Dean’s questions still unanswered?
What I want to know is that you will renounce preemptive war.
What I want to know is that you will get our troops out of Iraq before the end of your first term in office, without leaving permanent bases.
What I want to know is that you will make finding Osama bin Laden and destroying al Qaeda the number one national security priority of your administration.
What I want to know is that you will take care of the men and women who gave their all for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, how you will end the shameful lack of funding, services, and treatment these brave men and women face when they come home, and how you will ensure they get the help that they not only need, but deserve.
What I want to know is that you will unequivocally renounce the use of torture and will agree to abide by the Geneva Conventions and international treaties on the treatment of prisoners of war.
What I want to know is how soon after you take office will Guantanamo be closed down.
What I want to know is that you will end the warrantless and illegal surveillance of American citizens by our intelligence agencies.
What I want to know is that you will hold any corporation that aided government in illegally spying on American citizens accountable to the rule of law.
What I want to know is that you will restore the position of the Attorney General as the chief law enforcement officer of the U.S. and not the chief lackey and fixer for executive wrong-doing.
What I want to know is that your Vice President will be subject to the rule of law, just like everyone else.
What I want to know is that you will respect Congress as a co-equal branch of government.
What I want to know is that you are going to break the stranglehold of dependence our country has on foreign oil.
What I want to know is that you are going to undo the damage that has been done to our country’s reputation abroad, and that you will undo the distrust and the disdain the American people have for their government.
What I want to know is that you see and understand just how massively off-track our country has gone, and that you have some idea about how to right it.
Ultimately, what I want to know is that you are capable of taking on the massive job that you are applying for. I want to know that you are smart enough, serious enough, and patriotic enough to do what is right, not what is easy.
I want to know that you will be willing to tell the American people what we need to hear, not just what we want to hear.
I want to know that you can be a leader.
I doubt that any of these questions will end up on the moderators’ lists for tonight’s debate, and that’s a pity for us all. Don’t get me wrong, the ultimate winner of the Democratic nomination is going to get not just my vote in November, but my commitment to his or her election as well. I’d just feel a lot better about giving it if this is what they were talking about.
Editor’s note: Joan McCarter’s weekly blogs are part of NewWest.Net/Politics’ “Diary of a Mad Voter” feature, a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post’s Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the ‘08 election cycle. For more columns check in with www.newwest.net/madvoter. And for more information on each of the bloggers, click here.
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Comments
Regarding your second question about tax cuts. Recently Bill Richardson spoke out in favor of them because he saw how they stimulated his onw state's economy. On the federal level, I believe the Treasury is taking in record revenues similar to Richardson's NM. The problem is not necessarily revenue growth but attention to revenue outflow. That never seems to happen at the federal level.
Excellent column.
I read that daily politics "chats" on the Washington Post website because it is one of the few places that the media can be held slightly to public accountability. So many people write in and complain to their star reporters that issues aren't covered. The standard response is along the lines of:
"We did so cover health care. There was an in-depth article on the issue in the Saturday edition of the paper back in August. It was wedged in between the 2,000 word column on how much Edward's hair hates poor people and the 1,500 word article on whether the anonymous e-mails claiming Obama is a muslim are true or not. It's not our fault that you don't pay attention!"
So basically they think that since they might have covered an issue at some point in the past, they have fulfilled their obligations and can now do all the "horse race" coverage they want.
This is a newspaper's take. I think it is safe to say that TV is an issue free zone if you are covering politics (perhaps this is for the best...in those few cases where they have dealt with an issue, they have generally misrepresented it).
The Politico website which is a big new player in pushing political news recently wrote a mea culpa about their coverage of the race to date that addressed their lack of issue driven coverage. I haven't had the guts to see if they have changed after their critical assessment. I doubt it.
Blaming the candidates for lack of discourse on the issues is condemning a symptom and ignoring the cause. The media drives the discourse now, and its practitioners focus on trivialities, personalities, mind-reading, and the like at the expense of substantive subjects like the issues. Accordingly, the candidates are reflexive to our deteriorating level of political discourse, but ultimately the media controls (and is destroying) it.
Perhaps your employment with the Denver Post blinds you to this obvious fact.
Perhaps some reading comprehension skills are need here.
Of course you don't, because by the time this very impressive feat filtered down through our media all we heard was that she cried, and like all emotional females she was probably unfit for public office.
Our media are terrible...though I have to say I was impressed by the way they were able to shift their assessment of Clinton from her being a cold, unemotional, b****, to her being a crying emotionally unstable baby machine that is unfit for public office. They pulled that jujitsu off without missing a beat.
[btw, I don't support Clinton in the primary, but it does piss me off when she is treated worse than every other Rudy Saint McRomneybee]
How about a 15% reduction in foreign aid to countries that simply line the pockets of their leaders with it? Or how about across the board cuts to everyone? And why do we give aid to Saudi Arabia?
Where do many Canadians with fully provided health care come? To the US because you could die before you get your treatments in Canada. Why don’t we just get rid of health insurance except for catastrophic illness? Remember when you would go to the doctor once or twice a year and pay your $110 for the office visit right there. That is a lot more cost effective then the $400/month your employer pays for your insurance. Take that money and put it in your salary.
Why doesn’t Congress have to partake in Medicare like everyone else?
Why does Congress get to tack items onto legislation that have nothing to do with that bill?
Why is Obama the “black” candidate when he is 50% white? Why is it ok to have the Black Music Awards? Isn’t that discrimination too?
Why do government employees retire with up to 80% of their salaries as income forever? No wonder the government is broke.
Why don’t American companies have to abide by American pollution laws when they operate in foreign countries?
Why does China still think it can demand the “West” (meaning the US) give them pollution control technology for free when their economy is the third strongest in the world? It just passed Germany. Why are they allowed to tax emissions credits so now pollution is a source of government revenue? Not much incentive to reduce it when they can sell the credits, and then tax them.
Way are we still mad at Cuba?
Why won’t the government adequately police the border? Partially because the republicans want cheap labor (illegal labor will work for next to nothing so it drives down the wages for everyone) and democrats want to pander to the Hispanic voters.
Why don’t candidates have to identify their 3 or 4 top aides they will appoint should they get elected? That would tell us a lot about the influencial people they intend to surround themselves with and give a good look at what they really believe.
After that essay, please expect to get a write in vote for US President from here in Denver.
I intend to write you in for Mayor (Denver), Governor, US House, and US Senate as well.
Don
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/16/king/index.html
Not only are they lazy and pompous (and mostly not very bright), they are whiny as well.
We were supposed to be having fun, but my heart was heavy. Then I caught a clip of the Dean speech on the motel TV. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Here was someone ready, willing, and able to cut through the crap and ask what the hell we were doing. After more than a decade away from political activism, I signed on with the Dean campaign. Five years later, his bumper sticker is still on my car.
I arrived at your post via a link from thereisnospoon's diary at Kos, Goodbye to Howard Dean. As we know, in 2004, the Beltway forces prevailed and kept Dean from getting the nomination. They want to do it again. If the DLC wins the Democratic nomination this year, I will have just about had it with my party.
Definitely worth reading, for other Democrats who haven't seen it:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/16/131157/380/507/437830
Julie, I thought about posting this at Daily Kos yesterday, but the primary wars have so poisoned that well that I wasn't sure I wanted to suffer the slings and arrows of wounded candidate partisans. Funny that it ends up back there!
It helps, every now and then, to watch it again.
IF NOT THEN YOU SHOULD LET EVERY PRIME MINISTER CONTROL THERE OWN COUNTRY NOT U.S. BECAUSE YOU WON'T EVEN HELP SOME OF THESE COUNTRIES GIVING THEM MONEY AND FOOD, WE HAVE ENOUGH MONEY WITH ALL THE TAXES YOU TAKE FROM US. I FEEL BUSH,RICE, AND THE REST OF THE CONGRESS SHOULD US WORRY ABOUT ARE COUNTRY.THE PROBABLY WHY WE HAVE A WAR NOW BECAUSE BUSH WAS WORRING ABOUT SADDAM, AND BIN LADIN THEY WAY THE WAS RUNNING THERE COUNTRY. WHICH WE SHOULDN'T HAVE GO IN VIEL