At long last, the Abel Collins campaign sent me the YouTube code for his response to the questions posed WPRI posed to the other two CD2 candidates in the Tuesday night debate that he was excluded from.
It’s only 20 minutes long, and if you’re a voter in the Second Congressional District or a fan and/or pundit of politics (state or national, actually), it is well worth a watch. Collins may not be the most viable candidate in the race, but his ideas have great merit.
Here’s a link to WPRI’s debate, to compare and contrast.
Mr. Collins deserves to be heard. His lack of participation in the debate is shameful! However, he seeks a seat in the House of Representatives which is currently led by Republicans and barring a tidal wave election will continue to be led by Republicans. Many in the GOP caucus currently do not believe in Global warming, calling it a hoax by scientists, many do not even believe in evolution. My question to Mr. Collins is how does he expect to be able to accomplish anything in a legislative body dominated by people who may not even be sure the earth is round?
Rather than blaming the Collins campaign, which has to fight what Stephen Cobert calls the politico-industrial complex and produce their own debate responses, have a little heart and see what Abel Collins has to offer.
If you watched the Fox Providence WPRI “Debate” that I saw, it should take it’s title from Shakespeare’s comedy- “Much Ado About Nothing.”
It was less a serious discussion on what needs to be done to fix our flailing economy or other pressing issues, and more a display of the partisan the gridlock that has stymied Washington- a six term congressman who can’t point to accomplishments and a challenger who doesn’t bring any realistic plans.
They should have included Abel just for the ratings- this was obnoxious and boring.
In between the partisan sniping, it would have been refreshening to hear something substantive.
If either of these two are elected, be prepared to repeat of the recent or distant past.
What Fox Providence edited out was some real alternatives to consider, so if you believe in democracy as a way good ideas can lead to good government, I encourage you to listen to the video attached to this post.
First, WPRI knew Abel would qualify using the usual polling standard, so they censored him “because they can”-since corporations are people, they have the right to express themselves by limiting your choices and veto a candidate representing 10′s of thousands of Independents- the largest voting block in CD2.
Since freedom of expression is a cherished value for liberals and libertarians who usually populate this blog, as is the corrupting influence of money in politics, I would think every reader here would agree with this point and watch as a civic duty.
At some point, if the election is to have meaning, it needs to be about actual plans not gaming the election system, and it is here Abel shines.
When asked about addressing the deficit, Congressmen Langevin rambled in his usual circular logic managing to say very little- he seemed to imply that he will keep approving whatever the Democratic party wants while arguing for more conservative austerity positions but who can tell?
Riley was at least clear, he wants to return to the Guilded Age of monopoly capitalism and bring back the Gold Standard or a commodity based standard.
In contrast, Abel offers a plan to reform the Federal Reserve, that controls interest rates and sets monetary policy, presently in the interest of too big to fail banks.
Rather Collins would make “the Fed” more accountable to the public needs when setting rates by strengthening regionally controlled Fed boards, giving regional Fed public board members more power.
This pattern continued when talking about taxes, again with Abel offering the only forward looking change- making sure that corporations pay taxes and not hide profits off shore while simplifying the code by closing loop holes to make the progressive tax system work better.
On the question of why the recovery is taking so long, I saw the best illustration of broken politics.
Langevin defended the status quo incremental approach- he exaggerated the effectiveness of the toothless Dodd-Frank legislation which is part of why the recovery is taking so long and the lacked any shift in priorities- the other reason for the current slow growth.
Riley’s solution was predictably more deregulation which of course is started the crash.
Abel instead states that it is because we did nothing to address underlying problems,and goes beyond the need for real banking reform and takes on our dysfunctional trade deals.
Trade policies based on the NAFTA which ships jobs over seas caters to corporate profits and needs to be amended to support domestic growth.
Abel states we need trade policies that build strong local economies by increasing small scale manufacturing through Fair trade agreements that level the playing field by requiring other countries to come up to our pay and environmental standards as a condition of trade.
From the perspective of the 1%- everything is going swimmingly and having both party representatives proposing the partisan gridlock arguments is the icing on the corporate controlled election cake.
From the perspective of the 99%, where 47% are working poor, it’s not, and Abel has plans to address this, a level of leadership missing in Washington.