Response to the Grimes-McConnell Debate By Kris Smoot, Executive Committee Member After tonights Senate debate that included Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes and Republican Mitch McConnell (but excluded Libertarian David Patterson), I can safely say that I do not feel as if the state of Kentucky has a candidate that will truly fight for the well-being of the working class or even the middle class. Grimes blamed gridlock and McConnell claimed he was looking for bipartisan solutions. I feel that they are both right. The gridlock creates an environment where nothing that could benefit less-wealthy Americans can get done. The two parties only work together when they are looking for a solution that will help the private sector and those politicians in debt to the private sector or when they want to spend government funds bombing another country overseas. The Green Party will fight to make sure that government funds are spent to help those who arent wealthy, diverting funds from costly wars that we dont need. Alison Grimes cannot claim to stand for the state of Kentucky if 72% of her campaign funding is coming from out-of-state sources. The more corporations and PACs who fund your campaign, the more big interests you will be indebted to once you get to Washington. You will leave Kentucky in the dust just as Mitch McConnell and his 81% out-of-state funding have for thirty years. The Green Party does not take corporate donations. We only take donations from individuals who are actually people. We want to be indebted to the people. You all are the backbone of this country, so it only makes sense that you would support a party that has your back. It is easy to mislead the state of Kentucky with lies and false promises if you have a population that lacks an educational system that teaches critical thinking. Instead, we tie our education funding to performance on state testing scores, thus preventing teachers from being able to make much of a difference in terms of higher-level thinking. The Green Party stands for a drastic increase in K-12 education funding and making sure that teachers are paid well for working as hard as they can. Alison Grimes tried to distinguish that she was a Clinton Democrat, not an Obama Democrat. We agree with Mitch McConnell when he says that theres not a dimes worth of difference between the two. Both Clinton and Obama Democrats support pro-war and pro-big business policies that neglect the interests of the working class while trying to steal your vote from a candidate who might actually make a difference for voters. Help us get a Green on the ballot in 2016 so that we will have someone who will not only stand up to the establishment and Tea Party Republicans, but also the Clinton and Obama Democrats who do not truly have the interests of Kentuckians in mind. Mitch McConnell is clueless when it comes to how to help the working class. The private sector has proven time and time again that it is not committed to helping workers maintain a good standard of living. The government has the potential to lift workers out of poverty, but not when its politicians are so tied to the interests of big business that they are unwilling to give workers a fair shake. The Green Party is not beholden to these interests and can make this government work again. Alison Grimes is right when she says that we need to raise the minimum wage. However, the $10.10/hr minimum wage for which Democrats advocate is still not enough to lift Kentuckians out of poverty. We agree with the 15NOW campaign and advocate for a $15/hr minimum wage. I believe that the government should incentivize cooperative enterprises and give tax credits to firms that operate cooperatively. We cant just keep bailing out big CEOs and expect things to magically get better. We need to take a bottom-up approach instead of the top-down approach weve taken and failed with for so long. We need to put wealth in the hands of the workers so that they can start their own cooperatives and not have to depend on the wealthy to live. Conservatives like to criticize government dependency, yet their policies continue that dependency. Enable the workers to depend on themselves. One in four children are in poverty because their families cannot afford to support them adequately in modern society. Kentuckians and the rest of the United States deserve affordable health care. While the Kynect program has taken steps to insure more Kentuckians, it does not go far enough. Not everyone is covered. Greens advocate for a single-payer healthcare system where the government pays doctors so that we dont have to have steep costs just to survive. A healthy population is a productive and politically-active population. The less we spend on defense, the better off our population will be. We can also even afford to enact the Green plan for tuition-free higher education, which would help curb the student loan debt problem that neither candidate at the desk could adequately attempt to fix. Alison Grimes also notably tried to distance herself from Senator Warrens student loan debt bill, proving once again that Grimes has no desire to represent those of us who are left of center. Let the Green Party fill this void so we can help push this country and this state back towards the center and beyond. Again we saw the two candidates at the desk pander to the coal industry. Neither Mitch nor Alison will protect Kentucky coal workers. A profitable coal industry only reflects the pocketbooks of the coal bosses. For over a century, coal workers have been left out to dry and we for too long have been content with preserving the fledgling coal industry instead of looking forward to newer, cleaner solutions such as wind or solar power. Mitch McConnell mentioned how Germany is lagging behind in their coal industry. Well, theyre compensating by leading the world in solar energy production. You know who has higher solar energy potential than Germany? The state of Kentucky. We have so many built-in resources that were refusing to utilize because were content with padding the bank account of Big Coal CEOs. We need to take these resources and allow coal workers to work in safer, cleaner conditions. Coal workers deserve jobs, but everyone deserves clean air and water. We need to cultivate the western and eastern parts of our state and invest in their futures. There are plenty of citizens that are capable of doing great work. Lets give Kentuckians something to work for. All in all, it seems as though, no matter which of the two power parties control the White House and the two houses of Congress, the people of Kentucky suffer. Its time to try something new. Help us build a viable alternative to the empty rhetoric and policies of the Democrats and the harmful, tone-deaf policies of the Republicans. We have two years to build a viable party that can actually stand up for not just the left, but for any Kentuckian who has a family to support; for any Kentuckian who is trying to make their way through college or the workforce and cannot; for any Kentuckian who has a desire to change the world. Kentuckians are amazing, hard-working people. Its time we had politicians who actually reflected that. #GreenIn2016
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 03:19:44 +0000
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