New York’s Next Senator

Howie Hawkins for SenateThe mid-term elections are real; the United States will do its best to keep up the pretense of democracy this fall, if only to satisfy the UN inspectors and to show the world we still know how it’s done. We’re 0-2 (keep messing up the clean landing) in the last two and our much-(self)-vaunted efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq have failed to impress.

The midterms are so called because they come in the middle of a presidential term and offer only senators and congressmen instead of the big kahuna. For most, the list of names on mid-term ballots is a confusing combination of biblical first names mixed with Mayflower last names; they make about as much sense as the list of district court judges that fill out the presidential ballots. It is because of this that mid-term elections have notoriously low voter turnout in a country already notorious for low voter participation rates. Only England—where Blair was elected by about 20% of eligible voters in the last election—comes even close in this democratic limbo contest.

That’s about what is expected for these elections as well and, honestly, who can blame the American people? Granted, they’re mostly disinterested in national politics anyway, but, in this case, they’ve chosen wisely. As discussed elsewhere (earthli.com), gerrymandering has taken the democracy out of most congressional races, with many incumbents running unopposed—or practically unopposed, as their only competition is either someone’s cat or is otherwise too disorganized or out-of-touch to even have a web page.

The US media is trying hard to make this an election for the ages, sticking to the issues that really interest people—like Foley’s sexual harassment or Hastert’s obesity—to pump up interest. Exactly the kind of make-or-break issues we’ve come to expect from our fourth estate—ones that help make real differences in people’s lives, unlike health insurance or better wages. In fact, there is talk that the Republicans are sure to lose the half-dozen or so seats needed to cede control of the house and senate to the Democrats. This would indeed be a watershed moment in US history, as the current democratic party is such a lean, mean, organized and on-message machine that it would take that majority at least an extra ten minutes of debate before they rubber-stamped whichever issue the President had nosed across their desks. Six of one, a half dozen of the other? Honestly, why even get out of bed on that Tuesday?

The Vote in New York State

Out-of-state voters get their absentee ballots early and the New York state ballot has two entries on it: one for the Senate seat currently occupied by Hillary Clinton and the other occupied by unopposed congressman, Gregory W. Meeks[1]. Against Hillary is arrayed a whole flotilla of Senate hopefuls, none of whom really stand a chance. According to the latest polls (Electoral Vote)[2], she has a commanding 53% of the vote, with Republican John Spencer garnering only 28%.

Regardless of rumor, reputation or anything else, every voter should spend at least a little time trying to find out what the different candidates stand for—or don’t. The internet makes this type of basic research a snap; often it takes only minutes to determine whether a candidate’s platform lines up at all with one’s own. Let’s play that game with the New York State Senate race, shall we?

John Spencer

First off, browse to John Spencer’s ® home page, which weighs in at almost 2MB, making it easily accessible to the poor with their government-subsidized high-speed broadband connections. From there, hover over John Spencer on the left, then choose Issues from the menu. The issues list is a little sparse, but takes a stand on the following:

• He’s anti-abortion. Being “against partial birth abortion” is Republican code-speak for “I want to eliminate abortion”.
• He is against gay marriage.
• He was in the military for one whole year almost 40 years ago and is just proud as hell about it. It made the top six of things he wants to tell you about himself.
• He thinks that getting elected to public office comprises a philosophy. This interesting take occupied slot one of the six things he thought you should know about him.

Scrolling below the fold reveals an exposé of Senator Clinton’s “votes to delay and weaken the Patriot Act”, which indicate that Spencer is a staunch supporter of said act and all of its ramifications.[3] He toes the republican line on immigration, and has paragraphs of text supporting the second amendment and banning abortion.[4] Selecting Compare & Decide from the John Spencer menu reveals another short list detailing the inner workings of John Spencer, the man: he’s anti-immigrant[5], pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-flag-burning.

You can determine for yourselves whether he’s representing the issues that matter to you.

Hillary Clinton

On to the next! Hillary for Senate is the one-stop shopping center for all things Hillary. On the left side is a menu with On the Issues under Stay Informed. Hillary’s list of issues is a good deal longer than Spencer’s, with summaries and links to further information for all of them. Typical democrat—nothing but boring facts. Quickly scanning the list reveals the word “security” three times, “safe” three times, “terrorism” but once and Iraq not at all. Hard to believe she doesn’t mention how pro-war she is and how she’s a staunch defender of “seeing it through”. Under the heading, Securing our Civil and Constitutional Rights, there is no mention of the Patriot Act—perhaps because she voted for it in 2001 and 2006.[6] Likewise, the topic Women’s Rights are Human Rights manages to avoid using the words pro-choice entirely (because she isn’t), though she mentions that she thinks that abortion “should be safe, legal and rare”.

Briefly, here are some other issues:

• She wants to maintain status quo on Social Security, acknowledging that it works just fine the way it is.
• Pro-farming, including increases of subsidies, which go under the name of “market loss assistance”.
• Immigration needs reform, but not to get harsher, since there is “the reality that too many employers are using undocumented workers today”. It’s relatively clear that her obligations are to the businesses that depend on cheap labor.
• Champion of the environment, although her response to the EPA/9/11 debacle was lukewarm, at best.

All in all, Hillary’s presence online is incredibly managed and bespeaks huge investment. She’s funded like almost no other senator, which means lots and lots of special interests, which shines through on every page of her issues list. There are a lot of important issues that are either not mentioned or just blend in with the wall of pol-speak that makes up the majority of the site. Read any of the issues and watch in amazement as she cancels out simultaneously held, directly opposing opinions in a nihilistic implosion.

Howie Hawkins

And last, but not least, is Howie Hawkins for U.S. Senate, the Green candidate. At the top of the menu to the left is a link to his Issues, which, though much longer and more detailed than either of his opponents, is also far more digestible. It’s much easier to be concise when you’re not trying to fool people into thinking you hold two opposing opinions at once (I’m looking at you, Hillary). Below is a summary of his positions:

Domestic

• Universal medial care[7]
• Abolish the electoral college and adopt instant run-off voting
• End death penalty
• Fully supports woman’s right to choose[8]
• Raise the minimum wage
• Improve mass transportation and increase incentives for smaller personal vehicles
• Repeal the Patriot Act
• Fix the tax system to “[m]ake corporations and the rich pay their fair share”
• Competitive bidding on Medicare drugs[9]
• End funding for the missile defense shield
• Public financing of elections (for campaigns that reject private funding)
• Redistricting done by “proportional representation in legislative bodies” to undo gerrymandering

International

• Stop occupation of Iraq
• Stop supporting Israel
• “Legalize, regulate, and tax drugs”
• Fix the tax system to “[m]ake corporations and the rich pay their fair share”
• Reform the UN; abdicate veto power for all nations
• Repeal NAFTA, withdraw from WTO
• Sign the Kyoto agreement, sign the ICC (International Criminal Court)

He’s endorsed by Ralph Nader (big surprise there) and has a whole slew of position papers on a wide range of issues as well as press statement and questionnaires with a lot more detail on his positions.[10]

It’s honestly a crying shame that, of these three candidates, Howie Hawkins is the one who has no chance whatsoever at gaining office. The two-party system—with one-party’s worth of policies between them—has a headlock on the voting public. At this point, the best we can do is to just vote for the person that best matches our own opinions and hope for the best. For now, you’ll be “throwing your vote away” (as Kodos or Kang from the Simpsons famously noted), but what other choice is there? If Clinton or Spencer really speaks to your ideals, then by all means vote for them; if you find Hawkins meets your needs better, don’t be afraid of voting for him. What have you got to lose?