The next debate

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While some people may be focusing on the major party debate tonight, I think I've had enough. I'll still watch tonights debate, at some point, but after the second presidential debate I have a feeling it will be more of the same. Pre-planned stump speeches that I have heard time and again.

Since I'm a fan of alternative parties, I am happy to say that there will be a debate this Sunday between 3 of the 4 candidates who also have their names on enough ballots to have a chance at the White House. Independent candidate Ralph Nader, Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and the Constitution Party's Chuck Baldwin will all be on stage at Columbia University in New York. The Libertarian Party candidate, Bob Barr has a scheduling conflict but debate organizers said he only wants to debate Ralph Nader.

According to Third Party Ticket the debate will be broadcast online via Break The Matrix and possibly other internet venues Sunday, October 19th from 7PM to 9PM EST. The Miami Herald article I read said that the moderator will be Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! and recent winner of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel.

I recommend everyone watch these debates, even if you are an Obama-Mama( Dad's too :) ) or a McCainanite. If you haven't heard these candidates talk you will hear fresh perspectives that may inspire you to action. Once we are aware of the alternative, we can all help the major candidates see them as well.

The Vice Presidential Debate

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Since last night was the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, I thought I'd add one more vice presidential voice to your listening. Matt Gonzalez, Ralph Nader's vice presidential running mate. Have I mentioned that he's my favorite vice presidential candidate? ...

Both Rosa Clemente of the Green Party and Matt Gonzalez got a chance to speak about the debate on this morning's edition of Democracy Now!

If you missed the debate here it is compliments of hulu:

Reviewing the Green Party Debate

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Last night, I watched the videos that I posted yesterday of the Green Party debate which occurred on Sunday. After watching the debate I agree with what Jared Ball said, it was more of a discussion than a debate. A discussion makes more sense when the Green Party convenes anyway. Below is my review of each of the candidates as well as a couple of my differences with what I heard in the discussion. ...

I will review each candidate as they appeared on stage from right to left, as that was the order they responded to questions. As a non-candidate I will review Ralph Nader last.

Dr. Jared Ball
Dr. Ball did not speak to me, at least not directly, and that was the point. He is working to get the word out to the community about the Green Party through the hip hop movement. I have always said that if you can get the 50%+ of voting aged American's that do not vote into the polls to vote for a cause you could start a revolution. Ladies and gentlemen, Jared Ball could very well be that revolutionary.

Dr. Kent Mesplay
Dr. Mesplay was very intelligent and put thoughts together well. He was very clear on almost all topics presented to him and it was obvious where he stood with each. He was a little subdued throughout the discussion but I did see some fire from him in his closing arguments. He was a great counterpoint to Dr. Jared Ball whose answers he followed in the debate.

Cynthia McKinney
As a six-term former member of Congress from Georgia( the first black congresswoman from that state ), she definately has the most high level political experience in the group of candidates. All of her responses showed that experience as many of the issues she had already dealt with on the congressional floor and in committee. I don't really need to say much about her as she speaks for herself, and quite well.

Kat Swift
What were you doing ( or are planning to do ) when you were 34? Were you running for President of the United States of America? The fact that she is running for President speaks volumes to her courage. Unfortunately she had to follow Cynthia McKinney for most question all night and that had a spotlight on her inexperience in high level politics. However, she did make a run for mayor as a Green Party candidate in the state of Texas and received 30% of the vote with 1/20th of the budget. Perhaps her strategy of speak the truth and people will vote for it works.

Jesse Johnson
Technically he is not a candidate, as he stated in his opening statement. That is based on the fact that he is the chair of the West Virginia Mountain party and is not allowed to hold or seek political office. That is really not important, as he was a great speaker to have at this event. His acting experience combined with his passion give his words a tremendous amount of power. He has presence.

Ralph Nader
While it is very clear that Ralph Nader isn't a candidate at this point, it was important that he was at this event. His opening statement was a powerhouse. In many ways it reminded me of the way Bill Clinton speaks. He doesn't tell you what to think directly but rather inspires you to think about what he is saying. It even had a dash of humor that garnered some laughs with the line, "there are people who really get angry about that." It is obvious why the Green Party wants to draft Nader as a Presidential nominee.

My Arguments
While I can agree with almost everything I have 2 points of contention with statements made last night.

1. Be a politician
I heard a few of them say that they were not politicians and I can understand why. The word politician has some nasty stuff associated with it, but that is not what it means at its core. I liken it to when I was in sales. At first I hated being called a salesman because of the negative connotations associated with the word, and I did poorly. At some point I saw that it was possible to be a salesperson and hold on to my personal values and take care of the customer the way I wanted. When I accepted the fact that I was a salesperson and sold to people based on my personal values I excelled as a salesperson. We must accept that it is possible to be a politician who acts from their personal values. Be the shining example of what is possible. Be the reason people need to wake up and start voting for Green Party( or any third party ) candidate. You aren't business as usual. You aren't a Democrat. You aren't a Republican. You are a Green Party politician and you don't act like the politicians people are used to.

2. Make distinctions between the office and the office holder
Language is a powerful thing and with great power comes great responsibility. The office of The President of the United States should talked about with respect in all cases, even when the person holding the office is not held in high regard. When you speak down about the office holder it needs to be clear that you are talking about the individual and not "The President." The main reason is that when you finally achieve that position, you do not want people to mistrust you just because you have the position you spoke so poorly of. This goes for all political positions that Green Party members are striving for.

--
Daryl Joseph Ducharme is a proud member of the North Carolina Green Party

Green Party Debate Videos

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I promised I post the Green Party debate videos once they were available to my blog. I had to create a playlist to manage the videos, but that also makes it easier to traverse the debate. I haven't watched it yet, but I am looking forward to seeing a different kind of debate. ...

Green Debate Update

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Last week I wrote about Sunday's Green Party debate hosted by the Alameda County Greens. Well the debate happened yesterday and here is the update from their site: ...

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!

It was a brilliant event! 800 attendees, nearly a full house, in one of the nicest venues in San Francisco, the historic Herbst. All the candidates appeared at their best, and were exceptional on stage. All great spokespersons, and fine examples of the Green movement. The Great Green Debate made the local TV news and newspapers, and will be shown in part on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now this coming week. Thanks to Mike Feinstein’s crew, it will soon (in one or two days) be available in documentary format on YouTube. And KPFA radio’s full 3-hour taping of the event, with Green MC Aimee Allison and political analyst Larry Bensky will air Tuesday night, 7 pm (Pacific Time), on 94.1 FM in the Bay Area, and live streaming for the world online at www.kpfa.org . Listen in and see for yourself what the Green Party can look like, in the proper setting. Superb!

First round of photos can be seen at www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/13/18472234.php

We hope to have a full audio track available on this site by Monday evening, for those who want a downloadable file for rebroadcast. Stay tuned... we are just getting started!

Once the audio file and youTube documentary are available I will make sure to post them here.

The case for debate reform

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One of the things that led me to purchasing the domain name votedifferent.org was that I was fed up with only having two parties to choose from. Sure, some places third parties have access to the ballots and some even get elected( like this guy ). However, for the most part the political machine in the United States of America is set up to only have two parties to elect from. I'll admit, I hadn't been paying attention in 2000 and 2004 when Ralph Nader ran for president so I didn't have any clue about what happened with regards to debates. The following is a clip from a documentary on Ralph Nader called,"An Unreasonable Man." ...

In the past week taking a look at third party candidates, such as Ralph Nader, I've learned about how the presidential debates aren't run by the news media or even the government itself but rather a corporation run by former chairs of the Republican and Democratic national committees. The corporation is called the commission on presidential debates and in 2000 they not only banned him from the debates but they kept him from even being on the grounds where the debates were being held.

We live in a time when we can listen to these third party candidates and share this information easily. Make sure you keep paying attention.

A Different Debate - January 13th

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One of the many things that bugs me about politics in the US is that we focus on such a small group of people who are running. Not only does the media pay most of its attention to the front runners in the Democratic and Republican parties but barely a whisper is heard about anything else. There is something else out there. In fact there are many other parties to look at. I've been looking a lot lately at the Green Party, whose ten key values I can easily stand by. Today I got an email that there will be a debate on January 13th in San Francisco, CA. ...

The scheduled debaters are:
- Ralph Nader
- Cynthia McKinney
- Jared Ball
- Kent Mesplay
- Jesse Johnson
and they are waiting to hear from Kat Swift.

This is pretty exciting except that there doesn't appear to be any live broadcast of the event. I think this would be a great thing for NPR/PBS to be on top of. It does appear that an audio recording of the event will be available at the event's webpage after the debate.

Being that it is in the bay area, you think they could find someone who could videotape it with decent quality and upload the video(s) to youtube( or some other service ) and create a playlist so it could be watchable after the fact. Let's hope that happens as we live in a day and age of visual media. People want to see their candidates.

What's a caucus?

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For a long time we heard about the Iowa caucuses and how important it is to the election. However, I just thought it was another type of election in a booth. Well it's not and I found out more by reading some of the comments on the Bill Richardson for President Iowa Caucuses open thread. In the comments there is a great post titled "From Precinct 1, Boone County Iowa" that describes the process quite well. It sounds very exciting to be a part of that! ...

Here is a taste of the post that really explains how a caucus works. Make sure to check out the actual post.

We quickly got organized, did a head count, and had 39 supporters. WOW! A viable group that would take 2 of the 10 delegates from our precinct.

Now comes the fun part. There are 20 for Biden, 8 for Dodd, 4 for Kucinich and a hand full of undecideds. It's time to get to work.

This is sooooo what a democracy is all about. Thoughtful participation by citizens taking time to have their voice heard. A caucus requires much more time and effort than a primary or general election. You have to want to be involved and committed.