But this leaves the question, When determining a Candidate for the office of President, what principles must a candidate have to either support, or in the case of proving a lack of the principle, do you dissent? Read More »
How would you feel if for no fault of your own, you were being denied a voice in that process? ie; You registered, showed up and voted on voting day like you always had before. But this time, after the election was over, your vote, your voice, your time and efforts where ignored and you were made to feel like you had no right to vote at all.
How would you feel?
This is a simple question and has nothing to do with any candidate, so please no soapboxing or grandstanding about anyone's pros or cons. Simple question, simple answrs please. How would you feel?
On Monday, March 3, Hillary will answer Texans’ questions in an unprecedented program, “The Stories of Texas: A Texas Sized Town Hall,” giving voters in the Lone Star State the chance to make their voices and stories heard.
View my question posted on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiaCPpTVyDs
Read More »Enclosed is an excerpt from a CommonDreams article on how to "stop conservative frames" or deframing the question and framing it with a progressive perspective.
Published on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
To Catch a Wolf: How to Stop Conservative Frames in Their Tracks
by Christina M. Smith
Wolf Blitzer often pretends to be a neutral broadcaster while framing his questions and his news using conservative frames. During the second Democratic debate on June 3, he was caught, and Barack Obama caught him. Wolf’s “question” was:
BLITZER: I want you to raise your hand if you believe English should be the official language of the United States.
Obama refused to take the bait:
OBAMA: This is the kind of question that is designed precisely to divide us. You know, you’re right. Everybody is going to learn to speak English if they live in this country. The issue is not whether or not future generations of immigrants are going to learn English. The question is: How can we come up with both a legal, sensible immigration policy? And when we get distracted by those kinds of questions, I think we do a disservice to the American people.
We applaud Senator Obama. Every progressive should refuse to answer such “when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife” questions. Obama’s words: “This is the kind of question that is designed precisely to divide us” could be a polite but effective mantra.
Why, exactly, does Blitzer’s question evoke a conservative frame? The “official language” movement is jingoistic, discriminatory, and sometimes downright racist. As Hillary Clinton pointed out, there is a difference between a national language — the language mostly spoken in a country (which English is) — and an “official language,” (which would disallow public funds to be used for ballots in other languages and hence deny citizens the right to vote). An “official language” would also not permit funding for translators in hospitals, thus denying health care (and possibly creating public health risks). And it would rule out funds for bilingual education classes, often necessary as immigrants learn English, thus denying education to those who need and deserve it.
At the same time, it seems innocent on the surface, as if it were asking whether immigrants should learn English, a very different question. To accept the question and say yes is to accept the implicit racism, but to say no sounds like you don’t think immigrants should learn English. The only response is to reject the question and tell the questioner what a reasonable question should be, just as Obama did.
Source: CommonDreams
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