cannabisnews.com: Activists Plan To Counter The Conventions 





Activists Plan To Counter The Conventions 
Posted by FoM on July 03, 2000 at 09:05:34 PT
Wits, reformers target traditional party fare
Source: Boston Globe
It's an unconventional approach to presidential politics, but that's the idea. Dismayed that the Republican and Democratic national conventions have become ''coronations,'' a loose coalition of political activists, religious leaders, and social satirists has decided to hold its own. In Philadelphia and again in Los Angeles, the plan is to talk issues during the day and party into the night, to make Americans think hard about certain issues and then make them laugh out loud.
The Shadow Conventions will feature mothers barely making ends meet, real people with real problems, mixed in with multimedia presentations intended to inform and amuse. US Senator John McCain is slated to speak on the East Coast, ''Politically Incorrect'' host Bill Maher on the West. Academy Award winner and presidential tease Warren Beatty is also expected to put in an appearance.Celebrities aside, the emphasis will be on what convention planners view as the government's failed drug policy, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the need for serious campaign finance reform, as well as the possibility of taking the nation public by selling stock in America. The nonpartisan hosts plan to carry the shadow conventions live on the Internet, enabling anyone with a computer to participate in the discussions and possibly allowing them to vote, via ''bozometer,'' on the usually long-winded speeches at the major party conventions.''We are saying that the other conventions are going to be scripted events addressing themselves to a shrinking audience, a shrinking voting public, a shrinking engaged public,'' said political columnist Arianna Huffington, who helped galvanize the shadow conventions. ''Ours are going to be substantive, not satire driven. Celebrities are only going to be included if they have a real position on our issues. But we're also going to have fun.''Part politics, part performance art, the shadow conventions will run in August on the same days as the traditional conventions. But the upstarts hope to get a jump on the nation. Their substantive sessions will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., before the major parties get going and, organizers hope, before national ennui sets in. Delegates to the Republican and Democratic conventions are invited to attend the shadow events, which will be held nearby.''Our aim is that in the morning we'll put on some of our headliners and have some new people speaking out and that in the evening we'll focus much more on providing entertainment,'' said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy institute and another of the conveners. Between the comedy and concerts, of course, the conveners have some points to make. Charging that the major parties are too timid or too political even to address issues of concern to many Americans, organizers promised that they will not shy from tough discussion. Instead, funded by foundation grants, the shadow conventions are intended to hark back to the days when national conventions were about debating issues and setting agendas.While the major party conventions feature success stories, shadow convention organizers say theirs will emphasize the people left out of the economic recovery, among them former welfare mothers now working for minimum wage and small business owners struggling to meet their payrolls. According to high-tech wizard Peter Hirshberg, who conceived the shadow conventions with Huffington at a California technology conference, impoverished youngsters and other children will be invited to tell their stories, as vans carrying the latest in video equipment roll out across the country.''The conventions will highlight people who have done well; we'll have the people who haven't done so well,'' said Jim Wallis, editor in chief of Sojourner magazine and head of Call to Renewal, a faith-based coalition that has made the elimination of poverty a priority. ''Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore want the support of our members. We're saying, `If you want us at the table, you have to put poverty on the agenda.'''Another emphasis at the shadow conventions will be the disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics serving lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, as well as the failure of the nation's drug policy as a whole. The third focus will be the campaign finance reform that conveners said neither Republicans nor Democrats have shown any real interest in bringing about. One day will be devoted to each of the three issues.''The conventions today are glorified money drives and showcases for coronations,'' said Scott Harshbarger, the former Massachusetts attorney general who is now president of Common Cause, a national organization that advocates for campaign finance reform and is a convener of the Shadow Conventions. ''It's obvious that they're working very hard not to deal in any way with issues that are controversial,'' Harshbarger said. ''We'll provide a stark alternative, not liberal or conservative, left or right, just willing to do what conventions used to do, and that's to be a forum for debate, discussion, and also for proposing solutions.''Conveners said they realize that they first have to grab the nation's attention, in an era when even the major television networks see no reason for gavel-to-gavel coverage of the conventions and barely half of all eligible voters bother to cast a ballot in presidential elections. So after the Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks, after the workshops conducted by academics, policymakers, and political activists, after, in a sense, the medicine goes down, the poetry readings and cultural events will begin. Anyone can participate. They can even run for president themselves, complete with campaign commercials and offers to sell out for big bucks.The idea for the shadow conventions came about at a breakfast where Hirshberg had just unveiled an Internet game that pokes fun at the political process. Called Ipocracy, and expected to launch shortly before the Republican National Convention, the game involves a mock public stock offering in the US government, with the proceeds used to help pay down the national debt. Would-be candidates have to pick their political affiliation, from Nikita S. Khrushchev on the far left to Regis Philbin in the middle to Benito Mussolini on the far right. ''Ipocracy just got us talking about the reform movement that McCain kicked off,'' Hirshberg said. ''We were talking about how the energy would be lost soon and how the conventions would be same old, same old. ... It occurred to us that there had to be an alternative.''In both Philadelphia and Los Angeles, the alternatives get underway the night before the traditional conventions open. But the greater the success, the less likely there will be a second set of shadow conventions in four years. As Huffingon explained, conveners hope that their unconventional conventions will force the major parties to rethink their own conventions next time around.''We hope to make ourselves unnecessary very quickly,'' she asid. ''If the two parties address our issues seriously, we'd be happy to be rendered redundant.''By Lynda Gorov, Globe StaffLos Angeles, CaliforniaPublished: July 3, 2000© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company. Related Article & Web Site:Shadow Conventionshttp://www.shadowconventions.com/Arianna Onlinehttp://www.ariannaonline.com/Overthrow The Governmenthttp://www.overthrowthegov.com/The Lindesmith Centerhttp://www.lindesmith.org/Common Causehttp://www.commoncause.org/Unconventional Politicshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6275.shtmlCannabisNews Justice Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 03, 2000 at 22:08:03 PT
Happy 4th of July Everyone
Hi dddd,I sure hope this turns out as good as it could! To celebrate The 4th of July I went and got a few fireworks! Click the link and Enjoy!Peace, FoM!PS: How precious freedom is!http://pub3.ezboard.com/fdrugpolicytalkhowtomakewebpages.showMessage?topicID=68.topic
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Comment #1 posted by dddd on July 03, 2000 at 13:25:01 PT
Yay!
 This is the most exciting and encouraging things I've ever seen hit the political landscape. You can bet that Dem/Rep are squirming at the horrifying thought of this bullshit cutting event,that has the potential to upstage their useless conventions. The networks will not be able to resist covering this,although there will be corporate reluctance,and pressure to minimize coverage,since big money owns the present two parties. This is gonna be good....dddd
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