Guest Blog: Jason Call for Congress

This is a guest blog by Jason Call, who's running for the Democratic nomination for Congress in NM-01:

Dear DFNM members,
Allow me to introduce myself, for those who have not yet either met me or heard me speak. My name is Jason Call, and I’m a citizen-activist, high school math teacher, and candidate for US Congress in CD 1.

I would first like to thank Barb Wold for kindly allowing me the time and space on the DFNM blog to present myself to you. I worked for the Howard Dean campaign for nine months in the last election cycle, and I am now proud to call myself a Dennis Kucinich supporter.

We need a Democrat in Congressional District 1, that much is clear. I have been a lifelong registered Democrat, though I have on occasion voted outside the Democratic Party (I have never cast a vote for a Republican.) However, I have lost faith in the Democratic leadership. I have lost faith in Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel. I have lost faith in Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. My faith in some of my past heroes, such as Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer, is slipping. The reasons are plain and simple: These Democrats are not listening to the American people on some of the most important issues of our time. I have come to a point in my life as an American citizen, who believes desperately in the inherent goodness of our foundation – the US Constitution - where I have to ask whether the Democratic Party under its current leadership in Washington DC is serving the American people as it should.  And if the answer to that question is ‘no’, then what can I do about it?

I want to help bring the Democratic Party back to its senses. Here are a few of the things I want to ask you, the members of DFNM, about the Democratic Party.

Jason Call speaking at last Saturday's DPNM SCC Meeting

1)  We all understand that money is a corrupting influence in politics. Why do we stand idly by and let candidates essentially ‘win’ seats based on how much campaign money they can raise? Why haven’t we, as a citizen body, demanded campaign finance reform and public financing of elections? Shouldn’t a candidate’s position on issues be held in higher regard than fundraising ability? Can we ever truly trust a candidate who has big-money donors? Why have we allowed the media to make such a spectacle of fundraising (it seems to be the only issue in the Democratic presidential primary race.)

2)  We know that we were out-and-out lied to by the Bush administration about the Iraq War. We know that they are lying to us about Iran and its nuclear capability and intentions. Why is the Democratic leadership resisting impeachment of both Bush and Cheney, when clearly it is what the American public wants? The Bush administration has violated, repeatedly, both U.S. and International law. Their actions have caused almost 4000 US troop deaths, tens of thousands of the most heinous life-altering injuries, and untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths. I would see them stand trial not only for impeachment, but in an International Criminal Court, to face charges of crimes against humanity. Can we not say this without fear of reproach from not only political adversaries, but those who we are supposedly allied with? What has happened to us when we cannot speak plainly in our political sphere about what is clearly reality? Since we are there illegally (and always have been), then any vote to further fund military action is both pro-war, and a vote to continue a criminal course. There is no “we broke it, we need to stay and fix it.” There is only “Get out now.” Not a graduated withdrawal. The Iraqis don’t want us there, and we have no right to be there. Go. Now.

3)  Why have we allowed our leadership to cave to such nonsense as the Patriot Act, and warrantless wiretapping? What have we become, as a nation, when security (and false security at that) is more important than liberty? What happened to “Live Free or Die” and “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”? Are we so wanting in our understanding of history that we cannot look to the past and see where this path leads? Why do we not dare to call it what it is? It goes beyond merely ‘unconstitutional’ and has broached the realm of totalitarianism. We all talk behind closed doors about what is happening to our freedoms – why do we fear to stand up publicly and call a spade a spade? Didn’t we cringe when Nixon said, “When the president does it, it’s not illegal”? Then why does our Democratic leadership stand for such tripe as signing statements, as if they were in agreement that ‘yes, the president is above the law’?

4)  Why do we continue, at all levels of government, to allow such nonsense as electronic voting to continue? These voting machines are the death of democracy. Unauditable. Hackable. Run using covert proprietary software written by partisan corporations. And we expect clean elections? How absurd. The evidence is overwhelming that the 2004 presidential election was stolen and the 2000 election was caged. Yet we only had one Senator (Boxer) and a handful of Representatives who stood up and said “something is wrong here” after November 2004, and a candidate who folded like he had a bad poker hand, because the DNC didn’t want to put up a fight. 

5) Why do we not have a national healthcare system in which all Americans have access to quality healthcare, regardless of income? Isn’t this a fundamental foundation of a healthy society? The Democrats keep tossing healthcare plans back and forth, as if any of them did anything but secure corporate profits for insurance companies. When did it become written in stone that private insurance companies have an inherent right to play a part in our healthcare? I didn’t see it in the Constitution, perhaps I missed it. Yet we, and our leadership, treat the situation as if there can be no other way, or that to remove private insurance from the picture would be too difficult, being that they are so entrenched in the current system. How have we allowed ourselves to be conned into this thinking?  I’ll tell you – because our leadership is funded by private insurance companies. It’s as simple as that. If the insurance companies weren’t dropping fat donations into campaign coffers, we would have national single-payer healthcare now, and it would be more efficient and cost less money than we are currently paying, and it would cover everyone - every man, woman, and child. Clinton: wrong on healthcare.  Edwards: Wrong on healthcare. Richardson: Wrong on healthcare. Kucinich: (like so many other issues) Right on healthcare.

6)  Here’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. 9-11. Did we get a fair and impartial investigation? Why wouldn’t anyone in the Bush administration testify under oath? Why wouldn’t Bush and Cheney testify separately? Why did the Bush administration stonewall an investigation for an entire year, and when they finally caved to the pressure of forming a commission, why did they choose Henry Kissinger – the least credible person on the planet when it comes to telling the truth about the government – to lead the commission?  The list goes on and on. People ask me “Well if the government isn’t telling the truth, what happened?” I don’t know what happened. That’s the point. None of us know. And I want to know. I want to know who knew what, and when, and how. None of us know what happened for sure. But many of us are pretty damned sure that the Bush administration isn’t telling us the truth – not even half of the truth. Will we ever get an impartial independent investigation? Who knows. Probably not. But I believe that the obvious cover-up of events of 9-11 will be one of the blackest stains on this country’s history, and I want you to know that I can be honest about saying that.

So I ask the good people of DFNM – what do you want in a candidate and an officeholder? Are we so far gone down the path of political pandering and posturing that we can no longer expect an honest politician, as I hear from so many people these days? Can we no longer expect a candidate for office to commit to principled stands, such as “No, I won’t vote to pay for this illegal war”? Or, “Yes, I will commit to the fight for single-payer healthcare”? Are politicians so afraid of the media that they cannot speak plain truth?

Here is the reality of the current CD 1 race. A candidate needs 20% of the state delegation’s votes at the primary convention in March in order to get on the primary ballot. I ask you to consider the current field of candidates. Compare our websites. Listen to what we say between now and March. There are some monumental issues that need to be discussed in open forum. Do you want these issues to be debated publicly? If the state delegation crowns a candidate in March, that much needed debate ends. Does ceasing that debate help or hurt the Democratic Party?

I raise the above issues, and others, on my website. I talk about them in detail. I can’t promise a glitzy 30-second television ad in which I use catchphrases like “We need to work together” or “I have the experience to build a brighter future.” But I can promise you open and frank assessments of the problems we face, and what is needed to fix them. I don’t need to be guarded in my speech or my writing, because in the end, I’m not a career politician, and I don’t have big-money donors that I need to keep happy. I’m simply an American citizen, I love my country, and I’m not afraid of speaking my mind. I hope that that is enough to get me on the primary ballot.

Please check out my website at www.Call4Democracy.org. If what you read here and there resonates with you, send me an email and work with me. It is time to not only take our country back, but to change the face of the Democratic Party.

Sincerely, and in Peace
Jason Call

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Jason Call of Albuquerque, who's running for the Democratic nomination for Congress in NM-01. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page. Photo credit: M.E. Broderick.