My campaign is based on a simple - yet, in our political world, utterly radical - idea: It asks people to abandon the classic choice of lesser-of-two-evils and vote from the heart, gut and conscience. We've purposely adopted Paul Wellstone's slogan "Vote For What You Believe In" because we're asking voters to do just that.
For progressive voters who do so, there is a clear choice, for the differences between the incumbent and myself could not be more stark. My positions, available on my website, are very clear. I am a candidate who opposes the war, I believe that real homeland security means bringing the troops home immediately, I oppose anti-worker trade deals that send jobs abroad, I believe that our economic future should not be determined by an authoritarian regime in China, and I support Medicare For All. Unlike the incumbent, I will draw my support from many thousands of people who will volunteer their energy and contribute small amounts, a model that, as the Kos community well knows, is the basis of net-roots politics.
Hillary Clinton has said she supported the decision to go to war in Iraq, and she continues to support the war, with a position that echoes that of George Bush (find a "winning" strategy and, then, withdraw troops on an uncertain timetable). In a recent speech to the Democratic Leadership Council, she praised NAFTA, which cost thousands of ordinary Americans their jobs. She dismissed the idea of pursuing universal health care because she didn't want to take on the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. And she receives mountains of campaign cash from corporate donors, including Wal-Mart (on whose corporate board she sat for six years).
In less than two weeks since I announced my campaign, the response has been amazing. Scores of volunteer-activists have signed up to power the campaign; some of them are already starting, or are ready to start, chapters in New York City (Staten Island, Washington Heights, the West Village) and upstate (Hudson Valley, Ithaca, Binghamton, and Sullivan, Orange and Delaware counties).
I think what we have tapped into two big trends. The first is a general distrust of the incumbent by women, union members, civil libertarians and other liberal/progressive groups. Virtually every constituency believes that Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted to defend core Democratic principles.
Indeed, just a few days after I announced by candidacy, the incumbent jumped on board with Pat Roberts, one of the most right-wing conservative members of the Senate, to co-sponsor an amendment that would criminalize flag-burning. This is a direct attack on the First Amendment. I understand why some people find flag-burning objectionable. But, the beauty of the First Amendment is that it protects the views of the minority even when the majority of our society thinks otherwise.
What is perhaps most appalling is that the legislation Clinton supports equates flag-burning to cross-burning. Why should any African American vote for a politician who can't see the difference between a cross-burning and flag-burning? The New York Times aptly said in an editorial entitled "Senator Clinton, In Pander Mode," that there is no comparison: "Burning a cross is a unique act because of its inextricable connection to the Ku Klux Klan and to anti-black violence and intimidation. A black American who wakes up to see a cross burning on the front lawn has every right to feel personally, and physically, threatened. Flag-burning has no such history. It has, in fact, no history of being directed against any target but the government."
Richard Cohen,writing in The Washington Post, said, "...the flag bill along with other examples of Clinton's willingness to court political reactionaries raises disturbing questions about who, exactly, she is. Consistency is not always to be admired in a politician, but when a supposed liberal is one of only two senators to sponsor a bill to restrict freedom of speech, then we are talking about something basic. If this is a pander, it is in the worst possible taste... Her sponsorship of the flag measure calls for reconsideration all around -- either by Hillary Clinton and her support of the flag bill or by liberals and their support of her."
The second trend is more important. My campaign is meant to be broader than a challenge to the incumbent senator "from the left," as the mainstream media is attempting to frame it. It is meant as a challenge to all of us to reject poll-tested politics driven by political machines funded by corporate cash, on behalf of shape-shifting politicians who may or may not have real core values that guide them as they chart the future of America. This campaign is meant to give voice to the disgust - and desperate longing for something better - that I hear from people wherever I go in the state.
It is also meant as a direct challenge to the entire Democratic Party, which has an opportunity to capture large swaths of the voting public - if it has a spine, an authentic message and the courage to offer something besides an agenda that is Republican-lite. The growing numbers of people who oppose the war in Iraq and are calling for its end are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. They are people throughout New York State who don't want their loved ones killed, and their government throwing away hundreds of billions on an immoral war.
The 45 million people Americans who have no health insurance are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. They have a right to affordable health care for their families; they have the right to be free of the leeches who profit from our corrupt health insurance industry. That's why I am calling for extending Medicare to everyone. Now.
The working people of America are Democrats, Republicans and Independents who face a future of low-wage, dead end jobs, that effectively end any hope of fulfilling the American Dream. I am not anti-business--I am against business as usual, business that has allowed large corporations to dominate our economic life. I am a patriot who thinks it is unpatriotic to pursue a pseudo religion of "free trade," an ideology of corporate protection that moves good-paying jobs to China and other countries that employ human beings in conditions that no person in the world should be forced to accept.
Can I win this race? I go into it with a clear understanding of the huge hill I have to climb, the advantages of my opponent's incumbency, and celebrity.
But I also believe in the power of morals, convictions, ideals - qualities that have been shamefully absent from our nation's political life. Vote for what you believe in. If voters in New York do that, yes, I can win.
Whatever happens, I hope to leave behind a new network of activists in my state, people committed to taking back our country and electing politicians who don't lose their nerve whenever it is time to stand up to abusive corporate power or challenge those who would impose an American empire on the rest of the world.
One final bonus: Wouldn't it be nice, for once, to walk into the voting booth and not have to hold your nose?
We'd love to hear from the Kos community at our website.