Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiAre the Presidential Candidates in Touch with America?
Ironically, the things that matter most to our country are not the things that matter most in politics today. Politics has become a playground for the wealthy elite, with lobbyists, corporate CEOs and big donors holding more sway than regular people. Meanwhile, in towns and cities across the United States, community organizing groups work with regular folks to identify shared problems and work together for solutions. Even back in the 1800s when de Tocqueville defined democracy in America, he said these local associations are the heart of our political tradition. But in the lifeless, corporate politics of our nation today, politicians can't seem to find America's pulse. During elections and in between, we hear more about the politics of elites than the politics of the people.
With their fingers in the wind instead of on the pulse of our democracy, politicians can't find our true values. Americans in every corner of the map believe we're all in it together and share community values of compassion and shared responsibility, knowing that we all do better when we all do better. Yet politicians and the media continue to represent fringe Right wing ideas of isolation, hyper-individualism and us-versus-them competition as the only values in America. Politicians and media allow the phrase "values voter" to be defined by that fringe minority --- rather than the community values the vast majority of us share.But we, the people, know better. We know that the politics of our hearts, our homes and our communities are more important than corporate lobbyists. We know that the community values that we all share are the real values of our nation. But are the candidates listening?
On December 1st in Des Moines, Iowa, over 5,000 grassroots leaders from community organizing groups across the United States will join five of the leading presidential candidates for a conversation about real issues and real values with real people. At the Heartland Presidential Forum, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich and Chris Dodd will take turns sharing the stage with everyday Americans dealing with the consequences of inadequate health care, immigration raids, sub-prime mortgages and the loss of family farms. Organized by the Center for Community Change, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the national Campaign for Community Values ---supported by over 300 grassroots organizations from Maine to Hawai'i and everywhere in between --- the Heartland Presidential Forum is an historic, one-of-its-kind event this election season to finally hold the candidates accountable to the people.
At the Heartland Presidential Forum, real people will ask real questions, not just about nitty gritty policy proposals but the broader moral vision each candidate would bring to the Oval Office. Does our future president believe we're all in it together? If so, what is the role of government in meeting our shared needs? How do we value communities on both sides of the border? How do we create economic opportunity for all of us? How do we put people back in charge of our democracy?
This is no dog and pony show. And the real people in this presidential forum won't be pumped in through the internet. They'll be standing live, next to the candidates and asking them the hard questions we all want to hear about the values we all share.
This election, we can change the conversation. Already, all across the United States, people are joining together in local community organizations because they share a vision for a nation and a world that values all of us. The politics of division are finished. The politics of the people are the politics of connection. Are the candidates listening? On December 1st, join us to find out!
Sally Kohn is director of the New York-based Movement Vision Project, working with grassroots organizations across the United States to advance our shared values of family, community and humanity. She has interviewed progressive leaders across the country on their vision for the future.
19 Comments so far
Show AllThe candidates have never and will never be in touch with the common man. They are only in touch with padding their investments and making contacts with the influentials and powerfuls. When it comes to any across the board health care, they fumble and make up stupid health reforms that won't help at all. And they don't even touch upon jobs being outsourced, or pensions being scrapped. The candidates are a part of the elite and expect to keep the wealthiest at the top and free from taxes. Humbug
It just gets better and better!
Is this the same Sally Kohn who wrote "Sex in the Sixth Grade? OK in My Book!" for the Huffington Post?
Can she really sell "the Heartland" on the idea of sixth-graders having sex in the schools at the Heartland Presidential Forum?
Is this one of the values that we all share?
Harharharhar!!!
Did someone already email this article to Tim Russert? There's a great question for the Democratic candidates!
Do you advocate sex in the schools for sixth-graders like progressive spokesperson Sally Kohn?
The Heartland is already cheering!
I love the folksy collectivism!
"We know that the community values that we all share are the real values of our nation."
Let's ask "the hard questions we all want to hear about the values we all share."
Is this The Mind of the Beehive?
Or just a lot of buzz-words?
No. They will say the right words but what it comes down to is that the power brokers in the country will select the candidates. We the people will not really have a choice.
There will be no accountability for their actions. Consider all the laws that Bush has broken. Yet impeachment is not on the table. Nothing will change at the national level.
The only hope is to change at the state and local levels. Just as now, the states can take up issues and work against the federal government. Slow and inefficient but the only way.
Statement like this always make me laugh "Politics has become a playground for the wealthy elite, with lobbyists, corporate CEOs and big donors holding more sway than regular people". "As become". Like it as at sometime in the past, been something different?
In the words of the leading framer, James Madison. Political power, he explained, must be in the hands of "the wealth of the nation," men who can be trusted to "secure the permanent interests of the country"—the rights of the propertied—and to defend these interests against the "leveling spirit" of the general public. If the public were allowed to participate freely in elections, Madison warned his colleagues, their "leveling spirit" might lead to measures to improve the conditions of those who "labor under all the hardships of life, and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings."
So folks, you see from the beginning the system was setup to keep the power in the hands of the wealthy, based on the the idea that those that own the country,should run it.
Okay celeb, I agree that DK is more in touch with Progressive America than any other candidate running, but the headline question did not specify "Progressive America" but rarher "America" and the sad and unfortunate truth is that most of "America" is clueless on DK's issues and instead is getting caught up in the "Entertainment Tonight type portrayals of presidential candidates being promoted by the mass media.
What a joke---Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper (two of the biggest TWITS in the history of journalism) are selecting who gets heard, based on what keeps THEM from being bored with actual questions of content....
I've been a pretty political person the past decade or so -- and I've not watched a single debate or speech by ANY of the candidates.
It's clear to me that I won't be represented by whoever is selected in '08. I beg only for mercy: leave the former middle-class alone, leave the X-gen alone, find some way to make real estate cheaper again so some of us can retire early to the country and get out of the rat race. Thank you.
The candidates aren't in touch with reality, let alone some nebulous concept like America...
Poet:
To include Kucinich in your generalized post is reprehensible. You should know that is NOT the case for him!!!
curmudgeon99: "I think Kucinich is borderline"
You are apparently NOT paying attention if you call yourself "Progressive" and give Ron Paul a pass and consider Kucinich borderline."
WAKE UP!
Of course not. ask yourself why anybody would bust their collective asses to raise an estimated 1 billion dollars for the privilige of holding a job that pays much less by comparison. The answer is that those running for president are in love with power and all the influence they can peddle rather than the idea of serving te population of the nation they propose to lead.
The question is, are they dancing with the ones whut brung 'em?
We need someone to set us down and tell it like it is.
Except for the sun shining on our planet, energy is a finite resource. We can fight over what's left and sqander that till its wasted away.
Or we can use it to transision to whatever renewable source we choose in the future.
That choice has a future for everybody; the other a future for a few!
Very poor article--do you really believe, Ms. Kohn, that infernal repetition helps the words "share," "community," and "values" convey anything meaningful? Do "regular" people really believe that "we all do better when we all do better" and that "the community values we all share are the real values of the nation"? And what the hell are the politics of the heart, the home, and the community? The vacuity of your populist pronouncements doesn't bode well for the proposed "summit" between the candidates and grassroots leaders.
And really now, how could a video clip of an odd assortment of "real people" mouthing platitudes, of an even odder assortment of "real people" inexplicably shown mouthing the air, amount to some sort of representation of the "politics of the people"? And what kind of twisted notion of "real people" prompts you to feature four black women with speaking parts? And some extremely strange-looking people with silent parts?
No matter how "progressive" you might think it "to include" people with hard-scrabble looks, so that you, with your organization, can congratulate yourselves on "getting beyond aesthetic stereotypes," or whatever other nonsensical principle of "liberation" has moved you, you might consider the fact that such efforts will DISTRACT "real people," who will find much more to talk about in considering the menagerie of peculiar-looking types in your gallery than in any of the fatuous things they say.
If you really cared about "real people" you wouldn't have placed such a strain on the empty symbolism of racial, ethnic, and gender "diversity" to make an irrelevant point, and would instead have taken the time to represent SERIOUS people speaking INTELLIGENTLY about their personal circumstances, and those of their neighbors, regarding a representative series of social problems and political ideals. As they stand, both your article and your video are insults to people's intelligence and dignity because you've failed really to portray, or even to show you have an adequate conception of, the "America" you think presidential candidates aren't "in touch" with.
I suggest you follow Barbara Ehrenreich's example and, in engaging yourselves with "real people," film them in actual conversation about things that matter, and choose insight over moral earnestness in actually showing these "real people" to the world.
Ron Paul is in touch with America? Surely you jest!
The candidates are no less in touch with America than the other pols who live inside the beltway and the corporations that own them.
3 candidates I will exempt from that statement are, Mike Gravel, Ron Paul, and Bill Richardson.
I think Kucinich is borderline.
"Does our future president believe we're all in it together?"
So does anyone expect any candidate to say anything other than yes? Sorry if it sounds rude but that question above is kinda silly ...
Ok, so there's going to be some lying as an integral part of human experience.
When it becomes superabundant, I for one avoid it at all costs. There's a fine line between falsehood and where you start believing it yourself that gets crossed and this is one of those times. Leading people into a dilemma of delusional hysteria.