The Nader Rally
This rally was a reprise of the "Open the Debates" Super Rally held in Denver during the dem convention. Alas, I was exhausted by the time we got to the rally in Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall, so this won't be much of a report. Fortunately, video of much of both rallies can be found on the Nader/Gonzalez site.
There was a large crowd but by no means was the auditorium filled. The lobby, of course, had lots of t-shirts, books, bumper stickers, etc., plus petitions to get Nader/Gonzalez on the ballot in Minnesota.
Speakers: Cynthia McKinney's running mate, Rosa Clemente, was a very good speaker, very forceful. One striking thing she said was how offended she was at the repub's diss'ing of community organizers! She also offered an interesting hip-hop perspective on political engagement. Singer-songwriter Nellie McKay was her usual hilarious entertaining self. Jesse Ventura spoke and again was very electric, although not as thunderous as in his talk at the Ron Paul rally. Matt Gonzalez, Nader's running mate, was very impressive. He almost became mayor of San Francisco, which is quite a feat. Like Rosa Clemente, he will clearly be a force in some way or other in national politics in the coming generation. Oh...and he looked a bit like Emilio Estevez! :-)
Nader was pretty much his usual serious, intelligent, forceful self. Given his resume, he is really the candidate with the most sheer gravitas of any of them. His message is largely one of corporate domination of politics and government in this country. He feels that large corporations now largely run the country through politicians from both the dems and repubs. In fact, he proposes a Constitutional amendment to take prevent corporations from having the same rights as human beings.
One very interesting thing he announced was that next week he and Ron Paul and Bob Barr would be holding a joint press conference to talk about some beliefs they hold in common, and to demand a place in the coming debates.
Both Gonzalez and Ventura stressed how much their participation in debates during their respective runs for office helped their polling numbers. This, of course, was the point of the rally. Ventura, in particular, complained about the role of the Commission on Presidential Debates, formed in 1987 by dems and repubs, in locking out all but the major party candidates. The debates had previously been run by the League of Women Voters. A history of the debates can be found on the Open Debates website.
There was a large crowd but by no means was the auditorium filled. The lobby, of course, had lots of t-shirts, books, bumper stickers, etc., plus petitions to get Nader/Gonzalez on the ballot in Minnesota.
Speakers: Cynthia McKinney's running mate, Rosa Clemente, was a very good speaker, very forceful. One striking thing she said was how offended she was at the repub's diss'ing of community organizers! She also offered an interesting hip-hop perspective on political engagement. Singer-songwriter Nellie McKay was her usual hilarious entertaining self. Jesse Ventura spoke and again was very electric, although not as thunderous as in his talk at the Ron Paul rally. Matt Gonzalez, Nader's running mate, was very impressive. He almost became mayor of San Francisco, which is quite a feat. Like Rosa Clemente, he will clearly be a force in some way or other in national politics in the coming generation. Oh...and he looked a bit like Emilio Estevez! :-)
Nader was pretty much his usual serious, intelligent, forceful self. Given his resume, he is really the candidate with the most sheer gravitas of any of them. His message is largely one of corporate domination of politics and government in this country. He feels that large corporations now largely run the country through politicians from both the dems and repubs. In fact, he proposes a Constitutional amendment to take prevent corporations from having the same rights as human beings.
One very interesting thing he announced was that next week he and Ron Paul and Bob Barr would be holding a joint press conference to talk about some beliefs they hold in common, and to demand a place in the coming debates.
Both Gonzalez and Ventura stressed how much their participation in debates during their respective runs for office helped their polling numbers. This, of course, was the point of the rally. Ventura, in particular, complained about the role of the Commission on Presidential Debates, formed in 1987 by dems and repubs, in locking out all but the major party candidates. The debates had previously been run by the League of Women Voters. A history of the debates can be found on the Open Debates website.
posted by Your_pops at 10:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home