Interviews with 75 Politicians and Delegates at the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, August and September, 2008

DEMOCRATIC VOICES, REPUBLICAN VOICES

Two Different Worlds

By Edgar B. Anderson

Website: EdgarBAnderson.com

Reporter for Latvian Newspaper LAIKS

 

Between August 25 and September 4, 2008, I had the opportunity to talk on behalf of the Latvian Newspaper LAIKS with more than one hundred politicians and delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.  This was perhaps the first time that a Latvian publication has ever been represented at the US political conventions.

Below are the transcripts of most of my interviews.  Speaking with Senators and Congressmen, I focused my questions on the Russian invasion of Georgia, a topic of special interest to Latvians, who only in 1991 regained their independence after the collapse of the Soviet Empire.  My discussions with regular delegates and others covered a wider range of matters.  A careful reading of these exchanges reveals that in respect to their attitudes, values, and concerns Democrats and Republicans do indeed live in “two different worlds.”

 

Part One

THE DEMOCRATS

 

Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL, is the home state colleague of Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama.  You know Latvians are very worried – “You should be (he interjected)” – with the Russian offensive in Georgia – “I am too.  You know, I think you’re aware my mother was born in Lithuania, immigrated to the United States, and I have visited the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – many times.  I’m very concerned about the aggression shown by the Russians in their invasion of Georgia, and I think it is a reminder of how important it was to bring the Baltics into NATO so that there is an alliance in an effort to stand together should anyone ever threaten Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia.”  You know that a lot of Obama supporters want to wash their hands of Iraq.  What gives Latvians reason to believe that they wouldn’t do the same for Latvia?  “Well, let me tell you, the difference is that we’re talking about an alliance, the NATO alliance, that includes, of course, the United States but many other European nations that have spoken out about the Russian invasion of Georgia.  So I don’t expect the United States to carry any military conflict exclusively, but I certainly believe through the NATO alliance that we can help make certain that the Baltic States maintain their freedom.”

 

Neil Samuels is a creative director at a marketing firm in Bucks County PA.  Your candidate is who?  “Barack Obama.”  And why?  “I believe that our country is in a crisis, and we’re at a crossroads.  This election is going to be about hope versus fear, and we’ve seen that playbook from the Republicans before.  And we finally have a candidate who’s got the judgment, the intellect, and the courage to lead us in a brand new direction.  We desperately need it.”  What’s your biggest issue, one or two?  “Well, obviously the economy is critical, but I think many of these issues aren’t separated.  They’re interlinked.  For example, our economic problems at home are exacerbated by the trillion dollars that we’re spending in Iraq.  So these things really work hand in hand.  We need somebody who brings a little more intelligence and judgment to the job.”  What should be done in Iraq now?  “Well, obviously even the Iraqis themselves are saying, it’s time for a withdrawal.  They’ve been saying it for a long, we just haven’t been listening, this Administration.  Barack Obama clearly saw this a long time ago and even before that had the correct judgment that we shouldn’t have gone in the first place.  We took our eye off the ball.”  What should be the role of the US, if any, between Russia and Georgia?   “I believe the McCain approach, the saber-rattling, is not ultimately in the interest of the Georgian people or of the Russian people or of the folks who are in the republics.  You know, when our nation immediately turned around and recognized the independence of Kosovo, now you have a very similar situation occurring in Georgia, and now the Russians are recognizing their independence rights, so you see how complex these issues are, and that requires diplomacy, it requires people working behind the scenes quietly, and it means, let’s avoid the saber-rattling.  It doesn’t help the people who are ultimately the ones who suffer in these conflicts.”  Ukraine wants to be part of NATO.  What do you say to that?  “I think that the American government and the Europeans who are in NATO need to be very, very cautious.  It is a serious question what the appropriate future and mission of NATO is since the Warsaw Pact was disbanded.  And so while mutual security is essential, the idea that we need to somehow create this aggressive posture on the borders of Russia is a dangerous recipe.  We need better relations with Russia, not worse relations.  And the Ukrainian people and the other new democracies of Eastern Europe need to be encouraged, they need to be defended, but we also have to be careful that we don’t poke a stick in the eye of the Russians.  There’s no need to move precipitously on these issues.”

 

Sam Hagedorn of Rochester MN is an 18-year old delegate who is just starting college.  “I’m an Obama delegate because I believe that when Barack Obama takes the oath of office and in his inaugural speech says that America is back, the world will believe us.”  What does that mean?  “That means that there once was a time when America was the most respected nation in the world and that over the last, you know, Presidential administration, we’ve seen an exceptionalism and a closed-off, you know, with-us-or-against-us ‘cowboyism’ that has really hurt our relations on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world.”  How did you feel about the US role during the Cold War, particularly, let’s say, during the Reagan Administration?   “The Reagan Administration’s efforts to start, you know, proxy wars all over the world, I think, history will show only dug the conflict in deeper and that, you know, it worked, and the Soviet Union came down, and on the whole things have gotten better in the Iron Curtain countries in the Eastern Bloc, and that legacy is something that’s going to endure.”

 

Shari Malloy of Longmont CO has been a public school teacher for seven years.  Why are you backing Obama?  “I’m supporting Senator Obama because he believes we have a moral, economic, and security imperative to seriously tackle climate change, and quickly tackle climate change, and he has a plan to do so, and that’s the biggest, pressing issue for our whole world.”  What should be done in Iraq now?  “We need to get an exit strategy and be pulling out of there very quickly, so that they can run their own country and have their country back from our occupation.”  What is your view of the proper US role, if any, in the conflict between Russia and Georgia?  “Well, I think the US, you know, with Senator Obama as our leader in taking not a might-makes-right approach, more a diplomatic approach, I think we can earn the respect of the rest of the world and, you know, have a voice in peacemaking, and I’m looking forward to that day.”

 

Senator Jim Webb, D-VA:  What do you think should be the US position in respect to Russia and Georgia?  “I think we should be careful.  I think that if you look at how that particular incident began, it wasn’t as simple as a lot of people are saying that it was, and we need to be very careful in terms of trying to keep a balance with all our relationships over there.”  Do you support NATO membership for Ukraine and/or Georgia?  “That’s up to NATO.  I’m not opposed to it.”

 

Retired fifth grade teacher Lois Pfau of Phoenix AZ is a Hillary Clinton delegate.  You chose Clinton, why?  “I thought that she was a great person.  I followed her career all through the years, and I thought she was a great Senator.  I thought she was ready to be our President.”  What of her policies, if you could name one policy of hers that really resonated with you, one of her proposals, what would it be?  “Well, her health care, of course, that’s the first thing.”  How would that be effected, how would we do this?  “She’s all for universal health care, and it’s time for us to have that kind of thing.  Every industrial country in the world [has that].”  But you’re from Arizona, so you know that there’s a huge problem with people coming illegally from south of the border.  Are they to be covered as well?  “Well, I would think, yes, I think so.  But I don’t say that Hillary Clinton was, I say I think so, yes.”  But we have 15 million people here illegally.  They should all be covered?  “Well, a lot of them have gone home, a lot of them are becoming citizens.  I think, yes, I think they should.” 

 

Hillary Clinton delegate Paula A. Martinez of Carlisle IA works as a judicial assistant.  Are you familiar with Latvia?  “Yes, well, because in Des Moines, Iowa, where I’m from, our Spanish-speaking chapel was made by the Latvian community and the Mexican-Americans, and it was Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel in Des Moines, Iowa … They celebrated their service, and then the Latinos and Spanish-speaking came in and celebrated their service.”  Well, who owns the church?  “Well, the church now was given to the Catholics because the Latvians went and built a new church, and so they gave it to our community, and so now it’s made into a museum.”  What issues motivate you politically?  “Well, that women have always made less money than men, women are responsible for the day care or the child care, the health care that the women and young people deserve, and also education.”  There was a speech earlier about equal pay for equal work, but it’s not clear how that’s to be implemented.  You say women make less than men for the same job, so what needs to be done to correct that?  “I feel that what they need to do is reevaluate the jobs and the skills because generally the women are less trained sometimes than the men, and we should stand as equals in the jobs, and the women have always been the backbone of America and the industrial industry when the men were off to war.  So I’m thinking and I’m seeing that the women nowadays go to school to become lawyers and doctors, and they still make less money.”  So the government should monitor and decide on wages?  “Yes, I think that they need to look at wages all across the board for all of the jobs that are available.”  Day care, what’s the solution on day care, what should be done?  “I feel that there should be a subsidy for working parents who have children that they need to have good, safe daycare for.  It takes two people in the household to run a household with the way the economy is, and child care is very expensive for one child, let alone two or three.”

 

Rosemary Marshall is a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from the Denver area.  What do you think the role of the US should be, if any, in the conflict between Russia and Georgia?  “I think that those kinds of policies are very challenging.  That’s the reason I’m here as a delegate for Barack Obama.  I think he’s going to be the person who can bring America back into the centerfold in terms of the respect that we deserve by making the proper negotiations and insuring that this country moves forward in a positive manner.”  Do you support membership in NATO for Ukraine or Georgia?  “I think that what this country has to do is to be willing and provide an opportunity for the leadership throughout the world to come together in a positive manner.  And that’s what we have to work toward.  We cannot continue this divisiveness throughout the world.  We have to find a way to come together.”

 

Representative Jim McDermott, D-WA:  What do you think the role of the US should be in the conflict between Russia and Georgia, if any?  “Well, I thought we got ourselves into it by threatening the Russians in the first place.  I thought the Polish missiles and the Czech interceptors and all that stuff was a direct provocation of the Russians, and they played tit for tat, so now I don’t think we have any, there’s nothing we can say.  They can say, ‘Look, what moral right do you have to tell us to stay out of a country?  Didn’t you run into a country?  And you weren’t even asked.  We ran into a country where people were asking us to come in.’ … And my view is that the United States has to rethink its entire foreign policy, with Barack Obama talking to people and listening to them before we provoke this kind of thing.  I don’t know what kind of message we gave to Saakashvili – or whatever his name is – whether we encouraged him or not, I don’t know, but there needs to be some investigation of that, whether Bush actually provoked it using him as a kind of a proxy.”  Do you think the expansion of NATO was a mistake to the extent we’ve done it now?  “I have some questions that I didn’t have at the time we were doing it, and I now think probably pushing NATO right up against their borders and then bringing missiles right up against their border is provocative if you want to have peaceful relations with the Soviets.  See, I look at Cuba.  We got all exercised because the Russians brought some stuff down to Cuba 90 miles off our border.  So what are we doing, we turn around and bring missiles 90 miles off their border in Poland.  I mean, what would we expect?  Nothing?  Or they just have to put up with what we do?  That kind of attitude on the part of George Bush is what’s gotten us into the mess both in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and I’m afraid – we still have 70 days for them to go into Iran – so I’m worried that they may use this as a kind of a proxy way into something that the Russians have, lead us, the Russians will do something with the Iranians, and the Iranians will, we’ll say, well, that’s provocation, we have to attack’em.  I don’t trust this bunch at all.  They can’t be out of the White House soon enough.”

 

Taylor Bates is an 18-year old recent high school graduate and a delegate from Williston VT.  Your candidate here is who?  “Barack Obama 100%.”  The reason you chose him?  “I was a US Senate page, and I got to see him working behind the scenes, I got to see him backstage.  He’s the real deal, so that’s how I made my decision.”  The ‘real deal’ means what?  “It’s not just a show, it’s not just rhetoric.  He’s not just talking.  He really does follow through, he really practices what he preaches with the other Senators.”  What issues motivate you the most politically?  “I think definitely global warming.  That’s going to be my generation’s version of the Cold War, I mean the transcendent challenge of the whole generation.”  Do you have a career goal?  “I would just like to help make this a better, more rational, more fair world.  If I can do that through politics, if I can do that through being a lawyer, an economist, whatever I can do to make it better, I’ll do that.”  What is your thought about the health care crisis, what should be done?  “I think that every American deserves health care, and I think not having health care is really hurting us in the world.  It makes us less competitive.  It drives our companies overseas where they can get health care, and I think it hurts a lot of people who need it.”  What about the immigration issue, how should that be resolved, 15 million probably illegal immigrants, what should be done about them?  “I think that they should have a path to citizenship, there shouldn’t just be a broad amnesty, but they’ve been doing a lot of work, they’re not here to hurt people, they’re not here to commit crimes, they’re just here to make a better life, and they can become citizens if they work for it.”  What message does that send to those people in foreign countries who are waiting year after year?  The Latvians after World War II waited some of them seven years, and they weren’t allowed to come here unless they had a sponsor that guaranteed that they would not go on welfare.  So what is the message that your position sends to the people who follow the law?  “Well, I think the message to them is that, you know, you’ve done well and that America is going to welcome you eventually.  I think that we should also be expanding all immigration and letting a lot more people into the country.”  Why do you believe that?  “I believe that America is only as strong as its people, and then when we take the best and brightest from around the world that makes us a stronger country.”  Do you think that we are taking the best and the brightest?  “I think that there is a certain amount of people who are professionals who want to take advantage of the opportunities, so yes.”  Are you familiar with what’s going in Southern California immigration-wise?  “I assume there’s a lot of immigrants coming in, coming across the border.  Is that what you were thinking of?”  Basically a lot of people in California feel that the oligarchs in Mexico are kicking their poverty into California, and the welfare rolls are enormous, the schools are a mess.  “Yes, well, I think that improving Mexico’s economy can really take the pressure off us, that Mexico needs to provide a lot of jobs for its own people, but that also illegal immigrants do put a lot of money into our economy as well.  They pay payroll taxes without taking that out in Social Security.  So I think there’s a net benefit actually from having them in here.”

 

Civil rights pioneer Representative John Lewis, D-GA:  The Baltic people, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, are shaking today because of Russia’s aggression in Georgia, and many Baltic people are worried that perhaps the Democratic Party, an Obama Administration, so eager to leave Iraq and concentrate on domestic issues, will pull back from its commitment to protect its friends in Eastern Europe.  “The Democratic Party has never been a party of isolationism.  We’ve been involved in the world, and we will continue to be involved in the affairs and the needs around the world.  We will not stand by and let Russia or any other major power crush the hopes and dreams and aspirations of people.  So I must say to my friends from all over Eastern Europe they have nothing to fear from the Democratic Party.”

 

Henry Tamarin, a hotel workers trade union leader from Chicago IL is a delegate for Barack Obama.  Biggest reason why?  “His position against the war in Iraq.”  What should we do now in Iraq?  “Well, that’s why he’s going to become the President ‘cause it’s a tough dilemma, the best way to get out now that we’re already in, and I’m not sure that I have a view, but I have the confidence that as President he’ll figure it out.  It’s a tough one.”  What role, if any, do you think the US should play in the dispute between Russia and Georgia?  Yesterday Russia bit off two pieces of Georgia officially.  “Well, I guess if you’re from Latvia, then you would use the verb ‘bite.’  Uh, I think that the US ought to stay out.”  How about if Russia starts trying to take a bite out of Latvia or Lithuania or Estonia?  “I think the US ought to stay out.”  Are you aware of the fact that those countries are in NATO, and the US has a treaty obligation to defend them?  “I was not, but I still think the US ought to stay out.  I think we should stay out of – we can’t control the world, and we ought to recognize that and stop trying.  It has not served us well.”  Is there any point in which you would support military action by the US, in what situation?  “I’m sure there is, and I don’t know the situation, and I don’t need to figure that out right now.  All I know is that we have chronically made some serious mistakes in the course of my adult life – in Vietnam, in Iraq, and in a variety of other places – and we ought to learn from our lessons that our strategy is not successful.” 

 

Jordan Oster is an Obama delegate from Des Moines IA.  What issues made you choose Obama?  “I would say the top issues would be the war in Iraq, restoring our place in the world, and I think just, you know, the idea of a new way of governing and a new kind of politics.”  What do you believe he’s going to do in Iraq that will please you?   “Well, you know, I think we’ve been shown in the last few months that even the Bush Administration is starting to realize that the John McCain kind of plan is not going to be the right one.  He’s [Obama] going to get a phased withdrawal of troops and get us home safely and also quickly enough to protect the lives of the people who have been serving over there.”  What should the role of the US, if any, be in the conflict between Russia and Georgia?  “Well, it’s been a very interesting thing to watch.  Well, I mean, my knowledge is not the highest.  But I think that Russia needs to be at least watched and make sure it’s not going to be harming neighbors like Ukraine or Georgia … We have to make sure that democracy is allowed to thrive in some of these states.”  What if the Russians initiate military action against Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania?  What should the US do?  “You know, I mean, I don’t think there can be aggression on any free states, democratic states, and really I couldn’t think of a reason where Russia would need to assert its power within those states, I mean nothing comes to mind.”

 

Representative Barney Frank, D-MA:  What do you think the US response, if any, should be to the Russian actions in Georgia?  “Very strong criticism, I think what we did flying the Georgian troops back from Iraq was appropriate.  It would not have been realistic to do military action, but I think we should continue to make clear to the Russians that this’ll be a serious obstacle to cooperation on a lot of areas.”  What do you say to Baltic-Americans who might be worried that an Obama Administration, eager to get out of Iraq and disentangle from these distant places, would not stand by its treaty commitments to the Baltics under NATO?  “That they have it absolutely backwards – that’s a very silly argument for anyone to make.  The fact that we are in Iraq weakens our ability to help people elsewhere.  The argument that a big country shouldn’t invade a smaller country with which it’s having an argument is undercut by what we did in Iraq.  The American troops and American military are overstretched because of Iraq.  So that’s exactly the opposite.  An America that was out of Iraq could more reliably help the Baltics, and, by the way, we had no treaty commitment with Iraq ….”

 

Randy Bishop is Mayor of Neptune Township NJ and a Clinton delegate.  Why did you want Hillary as President?  “I stood for Hillary because I believe and felt strongly about her position and her approach to problems, and her values were so close and so much the same as mine.”  She speaks a lot about universal pre-K, universal day care.  For at lot of people who are not in education, they don’t know what these terms mean.  At what age should a child enter the system?   “You know, if I look at my own township, and I look at the children who are engaged and involved earlier, I see kids who do better, I see kids who come up with a different set of values.  So let’s be honest, it’s a difficult world for a lot of single working mothers, many of them working two jobs.  To be able to get young people involved into educational programs, to start them out early, helps them later in life and helps the communities they live in.”  Would that be through the present school system?  “It can be through the present school system.  We’re even trying to do it through alternate ways, but that was truly one of the things that I saw in Hillary Clinton.  But with that, if I look at where my dreams and my values are, they are with this Democratic Party and certainly with Barack Obama because I don’t see John McCain ever embracing my values and my beliefs.”  A critic would say that it’s best when children are really raised by their parents.  “You know what, a school is not taking them from the parent, and when you have a parent who has to be at a job, and you’re looking at a latchkey child, it is so much better that they have someone that can help them and take some of the burden off the parent.  There is no way that a parent can abdicate their responsibility nor should they to a school system, but certainly they can look for and need the help.  I believe that’s what pre-K and universal education really does mean.”  

 

Sally Powless of Toledo OH is Regional Director for AFSME, largest union in the AFL-CIO, representing public employees.  What do you think the role of the United States should be in respect to the conflict between Russia and Georgia?  “I’m pretty disgusted with the United States role in Iraq.  I think they should let the parties work it out, and if they have to use some kind of economic sanctions or something like that, but … I don’t think they should go in there and take troops or anything like that in there.  If you always go in with troops, then these people won’t do what they need to do.  It’s just like in Iraq.  You know, they got all that money and everything.  Those Iraqis are trippin’ over themselves with all the money they’re makin’ on oil.  Why not use some of their money to, you know, do some of this stuff?  You know, it costs too much for the United States.  Besides, the number one thing is all the lives that we’re losing and all the people who are getting hurt.”  President Bush tried to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO.  Are you for or against that?  “I think if everybody was in NATO, then we wouldn’t have all these problems.  You know, it’s not a perfect system, but at least we’re trying to work together.  I don’t think he wants to work together.  I think he just wants to decide what he wants to do, and he wants to do it ‘cause he’s the President.”  How will Obama be different from McCain on this issue?  “I think he’ll probably listen, and if he has intelligence that says we don’t have weapons of mass destruction, he’ll probably listen, you know, instead of trying to be the big shot.”

 

Representative Steny Hoyer, D-MD, is House Majority Leader.  What do you believe the proper role for the US is in the dispute between Russia and Georgia?   “Well, I think the proper role is to be an advocate for this being resolved through negotiations, not through military action, and this being resolved consistent with the Helsinki Final Act and the international law which honors national boundaries.  And the Final Act, of course, says that those boundaries shall not be changed by force.  It is a complicated situation clearly, complicated in the sense that the Russians, of course, are taking the position Kosovo was a part of the geographic area of Serbia and should have not been recognized as an independent entity.  Now they’re, of course, taking the position, if Kosovo, Pristina, could be recognized by the international community, then why can’t South Ossetia or Abkhazia?  It is a difficult issue, but it must be dealt with under international law and not at the point of a gun.”  Are you personally supporting NATO membership for Ukraine and/or Georgia?  “Well, I’ve been supportive of the expansion of membership in NATO to those nations who’ve wanted to join NATO, so the answer to your question is essentially yes.  However, having said that, I think we need to proceed very thoughtfully, and we need to not give Putin or Medvedev the opportunity to believe that somehow we are posing an offensive threat to Russia.  NATO has no intention of doing that.  Their actions have historically been and continue to be defensive.  But, again, cooler heads need to prevail.  Georgia is an independent sovereign nation, and its borders need to be respected.”

 

Steve Young is a California delegate and candidate for Congress in South Orange County.  What’s your answer to the problem of Iraq?  What do you want to do?  “I think that we need to draw the line and get out, make the Iraqis responsible for their own country, make the Arabs solve the Arab problem.  It’s not an American problem.”  What is your view of the US role, if any, in the conflict between Russia and Georgia?  “I think we were the instigators of it.  A little country like Georgia wouldn’t have taken a move like they did against Russia without assurances.  I think it was actually a political ploy to create this controversy for a Republican bump.  If we didn’t say, ‘Go in, we’ll support you,’ a country like Georgia never would have done it.”  Health care, what’s the solution to that, a lot of people without health insurance, what would you like to do?  “I’d like to see Medicare for everybody, and we can pay for it with the savings in insurance premiums.  I pay for eight different policies of insurance because I have my own business.  Imagine what I could save if I didn’t have to pay all those premiums.  We’d eliminate worker’s comp, we’d eliminate everything else that burdens business, and we would set the economy free.”

 

Gloria Allred is a renowned civil rights lawyer from Los Angeles.  What do you think the role of the United States should be in the conflict between Russia and Georgia?  “I think the role would be to work with the United Nations and to work to make sure that the territorial integrity of Georgia is respected, that there be no change in the territorial integrity up and until such a change is worked out by the people of Georgia and the people of Russia in a democratic way, hopefully with the assistance of the United Nations.”  How do you feel about bringing Ukraine into NATO?  “I think that would be positive.”  Does Obama support that?  “I don’t know, I don’t speak for Obama, I’m a Hillary delegate.”  Latvians are very worried about Russians moving into Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania because we all know they’d love to have those territories back.  What happens, what does the United States do if that occurs?  “Well, I think there is a great concern based on what Russia has done in Georgia about expansionist aspirations of Russia, and I think there are many countries who previously were part of the Soviet Union who are seeking to be part of NATO for whatever shelter and assistance … and I think that Russia’s recent actions only fuel the drive of others who are not in it to get in it or to seek the shelter of Russia.  And I think most would prefer not to, but out of fear they may decide to work out some kind of compromise or retreat from the desire to be in NATO in order to appease Russia, but appeasement has generally not worked anywhere in history.” 

Allred noted this the next day would be the 88^th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in the United States, and she said that she looked forward to the nomination of Hillary Clinton.  Only after that would she talk about supporting Obama. Allred stated, however, that McCain with any possible running mate “would not do it for me [because of] his pledge to put anti-choice nominees on the Supreme Court of the United States, and we’re not going to allow a reversal of Roe v. Wade ….”

 

What ought to be the role of the US, if any, in the dispute between Russia and Georgia?

Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent-VT:  “Well, the United States has got to play a significant peacekeeping role.  I don’t want to see another Cold War.  I don’t want to see us having to spend huge sums of money for the next 50 years, so I want the next President to do everything he can to see that we can work well with both Russia and Georgia.”  He moved on, brushing off a follow-up question regarding membership in NATO for Ukraine and Georgia. 

1972 Democratic Party Presidential nominee and former South Dakota Senator George McGovern:  “I think we ought to stay out of that.  Put it in the hands of the United Nations.”

 

Linda Weiss of Corinth VT is a Clinton delegate.  I know that you think very highly of Hillary Clinton as a person, but what issues, one or two real important issues for you, that you think she really answered?  “The fact of the matter is that Hillary and Barack were so similar on the issues, I did not see a whole heck of a lot of difference.  I liked her health care plan better than his a little bit, but I’d take either one in a heartbeat.  I supported Hillary because I’m her demographic.  I’m a 61-year old woman who has experienced discrimination, who is waiting for the first woman President, and she was our chance, and so I was happy to work for her.  She’s smart as a whip, she’d make an excellent President, he [Obama] will make an excellent President.  It was a tough choice for me.  And you know, he won, and I will be supporting him fully.”  You mentioned health care.  What do you think is the remedy to what we’ve got now?  What should we do, in your words?  “My personal preference is for single payer.  I would like a European system.”  Some critics of, let’s say, the Canadian system, it has long waits for cancer surgery … treatments.  “I certainly have heard that, and I don’t doubt that it is a problem, but I worked in health care for 25 years as an ultrasound technologist.  More recently I helped our local health center become independent and essentially stay on its feet, and so I got a lot of sense of things, and my sense is that we waste an incredible amount of money working with multiple, multiple, multiple insurance companies.  It takes up a huge amount of time and energy.  Health centers and doctors’ offices pay a ton of money to companies simply to process insurance, and all of that money is not providing health care.  It’s providing paperwork.  And so it seems to me single payer creates efficiency, has to create efficiency.  I don’t understand, I don’t know enough about the Canadian system, and I imagine there may be problems in other places that have single payer, to understand why there are delays.  I really don’t know enough, but I know that we have an unbelievably inefficient system that doesn’t work for an awful lot of people.” 

 

Tom Chorlton of Charleston SC is a Hillary Clinton delegate and was in 1982 founding Executive Director of National Gay Democrats.  What do you think the role of the United States should be, if any, in respect to the problem between Russia and Georgia?  “I definitely think that we have to be very clear that the Russian invasion and aggression is not acceptable, but I also think this is a perfect example of how Bush’s failed policy has been so detrimental.  What moral authority do we have to tell the Russians not to invade another country when we did it with impunity despite the UN’s clear mandate not to move forward?  So it’s really, you know, what goes around comes around, and we’re suffering the results of that.”  What do you think we should do if Russia makes moves against Ukraine?  “Well, I think we need to take every diplomatic effort.  One of the strongest is to deny them entrance into the WTO, World Trade Organization.  But I think the one thing we have learned very painfully is we sure as hell don’t want to use military might, you know, as a starting point.  The stakes are still very, very high, and we need to take steps with Ukraine, for example, maybe accelerate the NATO process, but we have to make sure we don’t think that military might is a viable option.”  Do you think Obama supports Ukraine in NATO?  “Oh, yea, definitely.”  So if Russia makes a military incursion into Latvia and Estonia, the Democratic Party under Obama will protect those countries?  “Well, they’re members of NATO, and we’re pledged to do that.  And I’ve traveled through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and I’ll tell you, nobody’s invading Latvia without one hell of a fight.  Those folks have had enough occupation, and they’re a lot tougher than they look on the map.  But they’re members of NATO, and you know, the NATO commitment is quite clear, and I’m sure the Russians understand that as well as we do.”

 

Miranda Galindo, an Obama delegate from Brooklyn NY, works in the political communications department of a labor union.  What is your main issue here, why are you supporting Obama?  “Well, I think I see our country’s at a very important turning point in history, and I see him really as our only hope for coming out economically sound, environmentally sound, and internationally respectable.  As a young person he’s sure inspiring to me, and I think he’s really pushing a lot of young hearts in the direction to be good citizens, to be involved.”  As a 2006 graduate of Brown University, she said, “One of my favorite classes was ‘Children and Public Policy’ learning about children who are in the juvenile justice system and in the social welfare system.  I also am very committed to the criminal justice system, and I feel that there are policies that are unfair for immigrants and for people of color, that profile them.  And I’m interested in going into law and to policy in my career to help change those things.”  What should be done in terms of path to citizenship for the 15 million illegal immigrants?  Are you supporting that?  “Certainly I’m supportive of that.  Obviously there is the Student Adjustment Act and the Dream Act.  I am a Chicana, so I have been very committed to that … Also I think at its core that Americans need to look at immigration and look at the ‘push and pull’ factors that affect it, that immigrants are not a scapegoat, they’re a necessary component to our society and to our economy.  If all of the immigrants disappeared, the middle class couldn’t afford food and clothes.”  If you put illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship, what message does that send to those people in other countries who are waiting in line to come here?  “That’s a very good question, and I don’t have an easy answer for it, but I think that on the one hand it would just be a more realistic way to show that of the presence that is in the United States and show that there is a way to it and that it isn’t not just overnight, you get it, you have to earn it, you have to be here…”  And she added, “I think that opening up, you know, and having larger quotas from all countries would make a lot more sense, would be a lot more realistic ….”

 

Representative Adam Schiff, D-CA:  I know your Lithuanian background, a member of the Baltic Caucus, I think you understand pretty well that a lot of Baltic people are worried that, regardless of one’s position about the Iraq War, the energy here among many, many delegates is to get out of Iraq as soon as possible, get out of these foreign entanglements.  What reason do Latvian-, Lithuanian-, and Estonian-Americans have to be confident that an Obama Administration will stand by its treaty commitments to the Baltic States if Russia makes a move against them?  “Well, I think Senator Obama and Senator Biden are deeply concerned with Russia’s actions in Georgia and have spoken on this, and I think that Senator Biden may have just come back from Georgia.  We need to do everything we can to deter Russian belligerency in the region.  We also have to have, I think, a better dialogue with Russia to prevent Russian use of force and prevent these kinds of situations in the future.  But we stand by our commitments, and we’re not gonna go back to another Cold War, and we’re also not gonna jeopardize our allies and our alliances in the region, so I think you’re going to see a very strong and effective team in Senators Obama and Biden.” 

Schiff told about his family, “I have great-grandparents on both sides of my family that are from suburbs of Vilnius, one is Ukmerge and the other is Panevezys ... I had a chance to visit them several years ago in 1992, and it was wonderful walking down the streets of these towns knowing that my great-grandparents walked down those same streets, and it was a thrill.”

 

Darin Brunstead is a flight attendant and an alternate delegate from Idaho.  Why did you pick Obama?  “I picked Barack Obama because I think that the policies of the Bush Administration have been ruinous for this country.”  Specifically?  “Specifically, the war in Iraq.”  What should we do about that?  “I believe – I have family members in the military service, and I believe that they serve honorably – but I do believe that we shouldn’t be over there.  They have served us honorably.  I don’t believe that we should have gone over there in the first place.  I do believe in our mission in Afghanistan, but I do believe that’s it’s time to bring them home, and I believe that Barack Obama will be the one to accomplish that in the best possible manner.”  A big issue in the last year has been immigration.  There are 15 million or so people who are here illegally.  What should be done about them?  “You know, I think Americans in general forget that, unless you’re one of the first Americans, that every single one of our relatives came from somewhere else, and many of them were treated in a very disrespectful manner when they came over here … and I would really hope that we would show compassion even to the illegal immigrants in this country.”  What does that mean – a path to citizenship?  “That, I’m not sure exactly.”  Obama supports that.  “Yes, I do believe that illegal immigrants should have the opportunity just as our ancestors did to gain citizenship.”  Are you aware that when Latvians came after World War II some of them waited seven years, and they could not come here unless they had sponsors who guaranteed that they would not go on welfare?  “No, I did not know that.”  That’s the way it used to be.  “I know that with many different ethnicities in this country there have been many different rules in the past, yes.”

 

Sal Vega is Mayor of West New York NJ and also a school administrator and athletic director.  What do you think the position of the US ought to be in the conflict between Russia and Georgia?  “Well, I think we should be very supportive of Georgia, a sovereign nation.  I think we have to be careful how we deal with the Russians, but I’m sure that within our party and within Senator Obama’s cabinet when he becomes President, he’ll have the right people to give him good advice.”  A lot of East Europeans would be concerned about an Obama Administration because there are many Obama supporters who say we have no business getting involved in Iraq, so why would we care about Georgia?  “I think there’s a history with the Russians that we all remember.  I’m 50 years old, and I know about the Cold War.  My family came here from Cuba.  I came as an immigrant in many ways as a result of the Cuban Revolution and then the involvement of the Russians in Cuba.  So people know that when you talk about Russia, it’s a whole different scenario.”  The Democratic Party was extremely critical of Reagan during the Cold War because he was so tough with the Russians, and many people in this party had no use for that position, and yet you as a Cuban-American are a loyal Democrat.  How do you –   “Well, because to have a true party, a true Democratic Party, you have to include a lot of people, and my family lived that era, I lived it as a young man, and I also benefited by the greatness of this nation when I came here, got a great opportunity to study, as a matter of fact at the University of Tennessee, and then to become mayor of a mid-size town of West New York in the State of New Jersey, so you know this party includes many, many people.”  Why did you choose to be a Democrat?  “I’ve always felt that the Democratic Party’s been there for the working people.  I saw my dad having to come to this country, work in a factory, be protected by his union, and so that means a lot to me.”

 

Rick Stafford of Minneapolis MN is Democratic National Committeeman from Minnesota and Chair of the LGBT Caucus.  So your candidate is?  “As an activist I was a proud supporter and 100% supporter of Hillary Clinton.”  How do you feel now?  “Fine, you know, I voted for Barack Obama.  He’s going to be our nominee, he’s going to be a great nominee.  I’m very enthusiastic for him.  As a gay man [I believe] he’s no different than Hillary Clinton on our issues, and so I’m thrilled, I’m thrilled to support him.”  What should be done in Iraq now?  “Get the hell out, plain and simple … I mean, we have to have a reasoned withdrawal, but we need to begin that immediately … We need to begin the withdrawal process, we need to let the people of America as well as the people of Iraq know we’re beginning, we’re not an occupier.”  What should be the role, if any, of the US in the dispute between Russia and Georgia?  “Well, you know, I mean it’s really hard for us to play any meaningful role in a lot of respects because of what George Bush and his Administration have done.  We have no respect overseas.  I mean, you know, the American public should ask why did Russia do this?  Because we have no respect, we have no power, you know … He has wasted any power and influence that we can have to change the direction.  I know that there should be diplomacy that probably needs to be done, but I think it’s very difficult with this Administration to do that.  That’s why we need Barack Obama.”

 

Kierra Johnson is an Obama delegate from Washington DC.  She instantly responded to my mention of Latvia.  “My running mate in college was Latvian.  When I was in college, I ran for student government, and my student body president who I ran with was Latvian.  Amazing!”  And where, when was your running mate?  “That was in 1997 [at the University of Colorado at Boulder], it was a tri-executive, and it was Ben Goldmanis, and he comes from Latvian roots, and my other running partner was John Cooper.”  What do you do for a living?  “I am executive director of a pro-choice organization called Choice USA.”  So obviously abortion is a big issue for you.  “It is, among other reproductive health issues – accessing birth control, accessing prenatal care for women who want to have healthy children as well.”  Why did your choose Obama?  “For me it was always about not what an individual candidate would do but what a candidate would inspire other people to do.  And what Obama does is to inspire the not so usual suspects to reclaim their democracy for themselves.”  You mention that you are involved in pro-choice.  It’s quite something – around many of the hotels here in town there are hundreds of anti-abortion demonstrators with big pictures of bloody fetuses.  What do you say to them?  “I say, those aren’t the real stories.  I say, the real stories are young women and men of young families, of couples starting out, who make different choices given their circumstances, given their economics, given their faith, and sometimes it’s necessary to chose abortion, and other times they need child care for the twins that they had that they weren’t expecting.  Other times they need affordable education for their kids they’re raising that they want turn into, you know, viable, successful citizens, and it’s about accessing all of those options for women and families.”  Your group again is called what?  “Choice USA … we’re a national group that works with young people under the age of 30.  We do education and organizing.  We are developing the next generation of progressive leaders who can speak to issues of reproductive health rights and justice.”  What do you perceive for yourself maybe 10, 20 years from now?  “Hm, 10, 20 years from now, you know, I like this politics thing, and I might just want to run for office.  I was telling somebody I can see myself making one of these speeches in another 10 or 20 years.”  Okay, well, maybe Hillary will have competition in 2012 if Barack doesn’t make it, you know.  “Just might, just might.”  Of course, John McCain might need a running mate.  “10 or 20 years from now!”  No, next week.  Somebody says he ought to pick a woman.  I’ll give him your name next week.  “I don’t know if he’s gonna’ like me so much.  I mean, I do come from a military family, but I think that’s where the similarities stop.” 

 

Lucy Buckner Watson is retired from AT&T and a delegate from Inver Grove Heights MN.  You’re a delegate originally for?  “Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama.”  What’s your big issue, if you had to pick one, that drew you to Obama?  “I could say there are several.  For me it’s a very emotional time, along with being historic, because I was at the March on Washington where Dr. King spoke in ’63 … and to see the reality of a large portion of Dr. King’s dream that he spoke about coming to fruition in the nomination and election of Senator Obama as President, and because I was there, because I did experience some of the racism that was goin’ on in Georgia – my parents are from Georgia – to hear Dr. King say he dreamed of the day when his four young children from the red clay hills of Georgia would be judged on their character and not the color of their skin, and now to have a man running for President, and he’s not going to be judged on the color of his skin – I know some people will do that, but the majority of them will not – because his character, unshakable.  He’s a very wise man, a very compassionate man, a very intelligent man, and a very inclusive person, and then very compassionate.  He cares for people.”

 

Part Two

THE REPUBLICANS

 

Senator Norm Coleman is Republican Senator from Minnesota, the site of the 2008 GOP Convention.  I wonder what your thoughts are on what America should do about resurgent Russia.  “I think it’s a deep concern.  I served in the US Senate when we passed the NATO treaty for the admittance of Latvia and the other Baltic nations.  When I stood on the floor of the Senate I was with the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Dick Lugar, and he pointed up at the balcony, and all of the foreign ministers from all those countries were there, and he said to me, ‘Senator,’ he said, ‘Norm, this may be just one vote for us, but for the folks up there, it’s their life.  It means they don’t have to live in fear of Russia coming back and taking them over.’  I think we have to be concerned about Putin wanting his empire back, and I think he has to understand that in today’s environment, you simply can’t operate that way, and I would hope and I have no doubt that Senator McCain understands that, and as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, I certainly understand that.”

 

Anna Lee, a McCain delegate from Centerville VA, is a meeting and convention planner for the National Federation of Republican Women.  What do we do about re-emergent Russia?  “We need a Commander in Chief who’s going to be stern just the way that Ronald Reagan was with the Soviet Union.  We need to have resolve, and we can’t waiver.  You know, freedom doesn’t come free, and we need to stand by our principles.”  About the GOP nominee, “I want to tell you something.  When you compare McCain to Obama, we have someone who has dedicated his life to America and freedom.  Obama only has 143 days of experience in the Senate working in the Senate … the rest of the time he’s spent campaigning.  I mean, you can’t weigh the difference there.”

 

Walter Scott is a delegate from Jackson MS.  Are you familiar with the country of Latvia?  “Oh, Latvia, well, not quite, not quite.  Where is it located?”  On the Baltic Sea.  “The Baltic Sea – okay, close to Russia?”  Yes.  “Okay, okay, I know the vicinity.”  They were under the boot of Russia for 50 years.  “Ah, the Soviet Union, the old Soviet Union, okay, the one that we, that President Reagan called the Evil Empire.”  That’s right.  “Okay!”  Something tells me that you’re not just for McCain, but you were also for Reagan.  “Oh, absolutely!  I headed up Blacks for Reagan-Bush in Mississippi in 1980, so I’m a Reaganite.”  Most blacks are strong Obama supporters this year, in fact, something like 90-95%.  What makes you different, why do you think unlike the crowd?  “Well, first of all, I’m a Republican.  I’m a life-long Republican.  My granddaddy was a Republican, so I’m a party person.  And I believe in the free enterprise system, I believe in smaller government, I believe in low taxes, I believe in individual freedom, and those are the things that the Republican Party stands for.”  Obama is promising free day care, free pre-school, free college, free medical, whatever you need, the government will provide.  How do you respond to that offer?  “That is not the way the United States Government works.  To me that is more of being socialist.  That is saying that the government will solve all of your problems, the government will come to your rescue.  Well, this is the kind of government that the Soviet Union used to be about.  That’s the kind of government that North Korea is.  That’s the kind of government that China is.  So the fact of the matter is we live in a democracy, we are a capitalistic system, we believe that small business is what drives our economy, and we believe in individual freedom.  You have the freedom to get out and climb as high as your aspirations can take you.  So just to say that the government can solve all your problems, the government cannot solve all your problems.  You have to solve your own problems with a little bit of help from your friends.”  What do you do when you’re not politicking?  “I’m a small business owner.”  What kind of business?  “Water system integration information technology.”

 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich:  Could you offer your thoughts on what should be done to deal with a resurgent Russia threatening its neighbors?  “I think we have to have a policy of working with the Europeans and sending a signal of strength that there are limits to the kind of lawless behavior we just saw in Georgia and that we take very seriously violations of your neighbor’s sovereignty, and I think it’s very important that Moscow not have any confusion about the importance we put on what they have done in breaking international law.”  Some of the critics say, “Well, Russia has its sphere of influence, and we should just back down.”  What’s your response to that?  “I think that violates the whole norm of the rule of law.  I mean that would imply that you can violate the rule of law in your neighborhood if you feel like it.  I think that would be fundamentally wrong.”

 

Karen Bonadio, a delegate from Los Angeles and a California state licensed specialty contractor, explained her support for John McCain:  “He has the national security experience that I’m looking for in the next President.  I think it’s a time in our lives now, the world is a different place, and with two wars going on, we really need someone that has the military experience, and besides that, he’s got life experiences as a POW and also in his political career, and I’m actually an independent, but I changed Republican only for John McCain.”  What’s your reaction to the Democrats and their desire to expand government – government pre-school, government day care, government-provided college?  “Who’s going to pay for all that?  That’s my question.  Who’s going to pay for all that?  I don’t want my taxes to go up.  I pay enough taxes.  I mean, I’m sorry.  Everything sounds great on paper, believe me.  It’s like an architect with his plans or a builder, you know, what works on paper doesn’t always work in the real world, believe me.”

 

Phyllis Schlafly is a veteran political activist and an alternate delegate from St. Louis MO.  I know that Phyllis Schlafly knows where Latvia is.  Some people, especially in Denver, didn’t know.  “In the years that we were fighting the Communists, I was part of the anti-communist movement, and one of our most important movies – black and white, of course – was ‘My Latvia’, and it told about the Communist takeover of Latvia.”  What do you think of Sarah Palin?   Was it a surprise to you?  “It was a complete surprise, and I think it’s a brilliant move.  It has energized the whole Republican Party.”  How do you think she’ll be able to deal with Joe Biden?  “Oh, I think she’ll handle him very well.  She’s very articulate, and she knows what she’s doing.  She has a lot of self-confidence, and she’s not one of these feminists like Hillary Clinton who’s always whining around about how women are mistreated.”  What do we do about a resurgent Russia?  How do we handle that?  “I don’t know, I don’t know what the answer to that it.”  How did you know of the movie “My Latvia”?  “Well, I organized many anti-Communist study groups in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and we read the reports of Congressional committees, and the grassroots were very well informed about Communism in those years, and that movie was one of our teaching tools.”

 

Representative Duncan Hunter, R-CA:  What message would you, as a member of Congress, give to the Baltic people who are particularly worried these days about a resurgent Russia?  “I think that the message for all of the newly freed Captive Nations should be this:  You need to all hang together so you don’t hang separately, and that means that all of the newly freed nations who received their independence when the Wall came down and when the Soviet Empire as it stood was dissolved, those nations need to stand solidly behind Georgia, they need to give it very strong backing.  We should be flooding Georgia right now with peacekeepers from the free nations of the world, and they should do everything they possibly can to make sure that that democratically elected government stands.”

 

Alternate delegate Christopher Harvey of Pearland TX named his main issues:  “The war on terror, that’s one, education, that’s another thing, and also on the conservative issues, I believe in English-only.”  He talked about bad schools in black neighborhoods that his family helped him escape when he was young, and he was adamant, “We need to start to open up schools for people who do bad in bad schools, move them over into other schools.  Like with me growing up my parents particularly put me into another school outside the district that we were in because they had better teachers, better classes, no violence.  I mean, we’re hurtin’ our children by just leaving them in bad, poor schools where teachers don’t care.  They should have the freedom to choose what school they want to go to.  That’s what America is all about.”  Also, “I just believe that we as Americans need to have common ground, and I think that one way is English as the official language.  Now, we don’t want to discriminate against folks who have different languages.  You should be able to speak your own language, but when I come into your business, I want to be able to read what the sign says.  I have to learn English, and if I go somewhere else, I have to learn their language.  That’s just what I believe.”

 

Are you familiar with Latvia?  “Oh, my goodness, I have good friends from Latvia,” exclaimed Tamara Scott, a delegate from Norwalk, Iowa.  “And, of course, Chuck Larson is our ambassador, and I also consider Chuck a friend, but I have a dear friend I just talked to five minutes ago on the phone.  I listened to some Latvian praise music on my way up here, worship and praise music.  It’s on a CD, and I didn’t understand all the words.”  What do you do in your day-to-day?  “I’m a full-time mother, I’m raising tomorrow’s leaders, and then I also have the honor of hosting a radio show at a local radio station, a half-hour talk show, and sometimes it’s religious, sometimes it’s economic, sometimes it’s political, and depending on your world view, all of those are issues of faith.”  In politics what issues get you excited?  “The fact that here in America we have the freedom and the opportunity to come be a part of this.  No one was appointed.  No one inherited the White House.  The next person in the White House will be whoever we either put there or don’t put there by our action or our lack of action … Life is a very, very important issue to me.  The security of this nation is a very important issue to me.  This war on terrorism, and McCain understands this war on terrorism, which is, I think, the present threat we face right now today.  His experience, his loyalty to this country, it wasn’t fashionable even at that point to be a prisoner of war, and yet he maintained with honor and stayed there and endured on behalf of this country.” 

 What does ‘life’ mean in legislative terms if you had your way?  “First, we are going to protect every life, from conception until natural death.  And it used to be in this country when you talked about ‘life,’ it was simply the abortion issue, but now we have euthanasia, now we have so many other issues whether it’s stem research and embryonic stems cells being cloned and then killed when there’s been absolutely no positive outcome of that embryonic stem cell research, and yet we have adult stem cell research constantly making headway in therapies and treatment ….”  The issue that is most discussed is abortion, and what should the law be in respect to abortion?  “I think as long as we want God’s blessing on this life, we follow what God has placed quite firmly in his Bible, and that is to protect life in the womb.”  Which means legislatively to make abortion illegal?  “I think we do everything we can to promote health, to promote abstinence until marriage.  Instead of talking about the tragedy of unwed pregnancies, let’s do what we can to curb unwed pregnancies.  Let’s do what we can to promote healthy pregnancies.  But yes, protecting life at all costs, and yes, that includes taking away abortions as an option for people to pursue.”  So if it is illegal, then what is the punishment?  “I think that for me it is not condemnation, but it’s not condoning.  And if we would once again turn the tide in this country as we’ve seen with smoking, we’ve seen with seatbelts, we’ve seen how through legislation we have changed the thought process of Americans, and if we once again come back to respecting life in the womb, then the punishment is not the issue because we’ve stopped the act from happening in such a great and fast rate.” 

From the Christian perspective, what would you say about [same-sex marriage]?  “Again, I think it’s education, honest education on the issues, allowing truth to be spoken because unfortunately too often the honest truth isn’t allowed, it’s not politically correct, it’s considered hate speech.  And I guess I feel like it’s more hateful to not tell someone the total truth of a dangerous lifestyle, beyond that a lifestyle that is risking blessings of the Lord when he has made it quite clear what his view is on homosexuality, and the Bible has not been revised by any divine inspiration that I’m aware.  He has not changed his mind on homosexuality, and so while we love those who may have that preference, if I had a relative who had the same desire to drink, I would not make alcohol more accessible nor would I change laws to make it more acceptable.  I just don’t think it’s loving even with the best intentions to do that with this situation.”

 

Patrick Sammon of Washington DC is President of Log Cabin Republicans.  “Log Cabin Republicans are a group of gay and lesbian people who are working for gay rights in the Republican Party.  We have 20,000 members around the country who work to educate and lobby Republicans at the local, state, and federal level about why they should be more supportive of gay rights.”  Why are you Republican rather than Democrat?  “I am a Republican because I believe in the core tenets of the Republican Party.  I don’t think government is the solution to every problem.  I think that individuals need to be empowered to live their lives in freedom and with responsibility.  I don’t think we need to be spending too much.  I think we need a smaller, more limited government because that maximizes personal freedom.  And at the same time I don’t think the party is where it needs to be on gay and lesbian issues, so we’re working from inside the party to change it.”  Why John McCain over Barack Obama?  “Well, we’re Republicans, and Senator McCain is an inclusive Republican and made an important, courageous vote stepping forward to oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment.  He’s someone who’s demonstrated that he’s an inclusive Republican who can unite our party and focus on the issues that bring our nation together rather than divide it.” 

 

Ivan Cermak is a delegate for McCain from Selma OR.  Why would John McCain make a better President than Barack Obama?  “Well, I don’t know, I think Barack Obama is an empty suit.  He has no experience at running anything, you know.  He had a helper, one of the senior senators, I think it was, in Illinois, you know, which accounts for his legislative record, so-called.  He’s a good speaker, you know, but it takes more than that to run a country, I think.”  You said you were from Czechoslovakia.  “I was born there.”  How did you come here?  “Well, that’s a long story.  My family escaped in ’49, after the war, and by that time the Stalinists had taken over pretty solidly.  So we were refugees in post-war Germany for a few years.”  Where did you live in Germany?  “Well, gee whiz, I lived in Stuttgart and – where was the other place? – Ludwigsburg.  They used the Army camps back then to host the refugees.”  Why did you become a Republican rather than a Democrat?  “Oh, wow, that’s a good question.  I went through the school in Canada. and I escaped from there when Trudeau got elected (laughs).  Well, I saw what totalitarianism does and collectivism, and so I’ve been slanted toward individual liberty and small government, you know, for many decades now.”  What are the domestic issues that get you excited?  “Well, one of the things I’m trying to achieve by getting active in the Republican Party is I’m going to get it back to its roots, you know, because it used to be, we’ve drifted away to it, you know, at least the party has drifted away from me in some ways because we used to be for small government, individual liberty, balanced budgets, and that kind of stuff, and now we’re spending money like drunken sailors and printing it up, you know, and the government monstrosity is growing.  We need to cut that down because I escaped from a system like that, you know, so the more power you give government, the less freedom you have.”  What do you think about the hot button social issues – same-sex marriage and abortion?  “I don’t think that’s the subject for the feds, you know, really….”

 

Senator John Kyl, R-AZ:  Explain why you believe Senator McCain would be a better President in respect to resurgent Russia than Obama?  ”John McCain and I have been to Latvia.  He’s been to that part of the world many times, met with the leaders there, understands the issues, and would instinctively understand what action the United States needs to take in any particular kind of emergency, especially if Russia continues its hegemonic activities – let’s just put it that way – in its so-called Near Abroad.”

 

Luana Stoltenberg of Davenport IA, delegate-at-large, identified herself as a state leader for Operation Outcry, a pro-life organization.  “I am a woman who has had an abortion, I had three abortions, so I’m very pro-life.  I work very hard to educate people about how abortion hurts women.”  What should the law be in respect to abortion?  “I believe that Roe vs. Wade needs to overturned, and abortion needs to be illegal in our land.”  So if the woman went to some doctor or abortionist and had an abortion, what should be the punishment, and who should be punished?  “I believe that there needs to be a whole lot more education.  I believe the abortionist should probably be educated.  Abortion is one of the industries in our nation that is not regulated at all, like any other medical procedures are regulated.  Abortion is not.  So many women are being harmed by abortion.  I had three abortions when I was in my teens and no longer can have children.  When I got married and wanted to have kids, I could not have kids because of what that procedure did to my tubes and my uterus … When I went into that facility, I was told it was not a baby, I was told it was just a blob of tissue, I was told it would be safer to have that procedure than it would be for me to carry my baby to term.  I was sold a bill of goods, and no one told me the truth ….” 

Are there other issues?  “I think we need a marriage amendment.  Marriage needs to be between a man and a woman, that’s my number two issue.  I believe taxes, I think we need to pay lower taxes, have less government.  We need to trust the people.  You and I are making the money.  We should be trusted with it and take care of ourselves.”  You may be aware, the first couple to get married in San Francisco were two women in their eighties who had been together 55 years … and last week the older one, who was 87, died, and it was all over the papers there.  To her widow, Phyllis Lyon – again they had been together 55 years – what would you say to her?  “First of all, it’s a very rare exception because most of them do not stay together.  But I would say marriage as an institute since before the beginning of time it’s been between a man and a woman.  If these two ladies wanted to be together, that is fine, and that is their choice.  But then why change the institution of marriage for what they desire to be their lifestyle?  Why not just live together and be together?  Why do you need to change the entire institute of marriage to do that?” 

What should be the policy in Iraq now?  “I think we made the right choice, I do.  I think now it’s time to look at it and decide – I don’t think we should give a timetable and say we’re going to pull out this day because I don’t think that’s wise – you know there’s security issues there.  But I do think it’s time to look at it and say, what have we done, what are we doing, and when is the time to move out because we have done some good things, we have done wonderful things there.”

 

Len Olds of Laguna Beach is a veteran activist with the Log Cabin Republicans and Chair of the Liberty Education Fund.  He explained, “In California when we received the ability to marry, we [Hugh Rouse and I] thought it was important for all gay and lesbian couples to marry, to add to the statistic of those of us who would take advantage of positive legislation.  And what happened was that many of our long-term friends, 30, 40, and 50 years or more, did indeed get married, regardless of Democratic or Republican affiliation ….”  How long have you been together?  “38 years … We felt that, number one, we’ve been together for a long period, and we’re committed.  Number two, that when the opportunity comes, and gay legislation is part and parcel of the law, I feel that it’s incumbent on every gay and lesbian couple who are long term to participate and to marry because that’s what we worked for ….” 

What do we do in Iraq?  “We stay until victory, as we should.” 

 

Phil Bevis is a delegate from Seattle WA and the owner of Arundel Books.  Russia and Georgia – what do you think the US should do, if anything?  “I think it’s important for us to show support for Georgia in a very firm and responsible fashion, not provocative, but just make it very, very clear that violations of their territorial integrity are a thing of the past and not the future.  And, you know, there’s no reason to throw it in the Russians’ face, but I think the line was crossed, and the Russians think they’ve rubbed it out, but that line is still there, and I think it’s important for us to help rebuild the Georgian military and make sure that they’re in a position to defend themselves.”  Some say that if the Russians were – well, they would use the word “meddling” – in countries on our borders, we wouldn’t like that, so that maybe we ought to stay out of their so-called sphere of influence.  How do you respond to that?  “Well, I guess the question is, is Georgia interested in being in the Russian sphere of influence?  Are the Baltic countries interested in being in the Russian sphere of influence?  And if the answer is no, I’m not sayin’, you know, walk up and, you know, poke’em in the eye.  I’m just sayin’, you know, support your friends in a responsible fashion, make sure they’ve got strong democratic institutions, strong economies, and a strong defense.”

 

April Newland is a real estate broker and a delegate from Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands.  Name a couple of issues that get you involved in politics, that motivate you?  “Well, a lot of them are children’s issues, right to life issues, issues of keeping peace in the world, which I hope to see in my lifetime, and being on the Platform Committee, we came in a week in advance to get to discuss all the issues about the economy and everything else, plus energy was a big issue.”  You say children’s issues.  What is you view of the Democratic proposals for government pre-K – day care, in other words – bringing the children into the public education system, let’s say, at age two or three instead of five?  “I think that should be an individual choice.  You know, I think there are a lot of mothers that now think that they can work from home.  I run my own business, and I have quite a large real estate business, and just about everything I do is on the computer.  I used to have a huge office with a huge conference room, conference table, and now everything is done over the Internet, so I think you can do both, so I think that should be a matter of choice.”  What should be the resolution in Iraq?  How do we bring that to a conclusion?  “Well, the United States, it took them quite some time to have stability within their government.  You can’t expect people in one or two years to stabilize their government.  We have to make sure that they have enough security within their country so they can actually have stability to run their country.  You can’t just divorce yourself from what you’re trying to do and leave those people undefended.  So I believe that we have to stay there until they say that they feel that they have a stable country.  And I think it went a long way for the United States to stand up and say we just aren’t going to allow terrorism in our country.”  What role, if any, should the US have in protecting Georgia?  “Well, I think it’s good that we’re standing up for a country that’s striving for democracy, and I don’t want to see a huge conflict break out again with Russia, but I think that we need to stand up for people who are striving for democracy and that want to govern themselves.  I think that’s so important, and then whatever decisions they make, they can make unilaterally among their own country.  So I think it’s very important, and I don’t want to get in a big conflict with Russia.  We need to come together to try to strive for peace.”

On abortion:  It seems to me that if one really believes that killing the fetus is killing a child … and if you make abortion illegal, why should not the mother as well as the doctor be penalized, in other words, go to jail because if you hire someone to kill someone else, you go to jail?  But the Republicans and the pro-lifers they don’t go that far because they know that’s probably not going to work, so how does that get resolved?  “Well, I’m a little bit off shoot from the Republican Party.  I think that people should have availability for protection to try to prevent some pregnancies.  Even though I am totally pro-life – I have two adopted children that came from mothers that got pregnant at a very early age that could have decided to abort and did not.  I have two beautiful, beautiful children that are adopted.  But I do think that if you have enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes, you have enough money to buy some kind of contraceptive that’s available in any drug store across the US.”

In California there’s an initiative on the ballot to overrule the State Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage ... What do you say about that issue?  “I am kind of ambivalent about same-sex relationships.  I understand the argument as to why it has to go to marriage, but I just don’t think that the institution of marriage, the way it was formulated, was for same-sex unions.”  The first couple to get married last June in San Francisco, two women who had been together for 55 years, and they were honored the night before with a special ceremony at City Hall, and one was 87 and one was 84 – “And one passed away.  Well, I think we can go so far.  You know, I think that some common ground on the issue is important.  You can’t take extreme positions on everything, and you do have to think about families, and I do know of same-sex couples that have adopted children, and they’ve done very well with that.”

 

Senator Orrin Hatch, R-UT:  Do you think that the United States should continue to push for NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia?  “I do, you bet your life.”  And how do we deal with Russia today?  “Well, that’s a complicated question, it takes a very complicated answer, but we know how to deal with them, we just have to have strong people doing it, not weak people.  That’s why I’m for McCain and Palin.”   

 

Bob Semonian of Watertown MA is an eight-time Republican Convention delegate, this time initially for Mitt Romney but now supporting John McCain.  How do you describe your profession?  “My profession is in publishing.  We publish The Improper Bostonian magazine, which is a magazine geared toward the Yuppies ….”  Tell us why McCain would make a better President than Obama.  “Well, he has experience whereas Obama is sort of green.  He’s just out of the pasture, and I think we have to have somebody a little bit seasoned and experienced more with life whereas Obama, he’s a nice person, a great orator, but we don’t need a great orator.  We need somebody with experience.”  What kind of change do you expect from McCain?  “Well, I would think that he would be strong on security, and I think he’d be good for the economy whereas Obama I think he’d be weak on security, and I think he’d be bad for the economy when he wants to tax people more and more with all his programs, with all the programs that he’s coming out with.  Somebody has to pay for it, and the way they get it is through taxation.”  You’re of Armenian background.  What are your thoughts on the issue of resurgent Russia?  “Well, I’m not too familiar with the situation, but I think we’ve got to watch what’s happening … it’s got to be controlled so they don’t go into other former Republics.”  Are Armenians concerned about this?  You don’t see them mentioned much.  “Uh, I know, because, see, they’re in a blockaded area.  They’re surrounded by the Turks who blockaded the area, and so they’re sort of caught in a bind.  So they’re more worried about the Turks than the Russians?   Probably more so (chuckles ruefully). 

 

Karin L. Agness, a third year law student at the University of Virginia, is an alternate delegate from her home town of Indianapolis IN.  “I founded a group in college called the Network of enlightened Women.  It stands for NeW, as opposed to NOW, the National Organization for Women.  I started it four years ago, and now we’ve spread to 15 college campuses all over the country, and we’re a book club for conservative college women.”  What does “conservative” really mean, what issues, what makes you conservative as opposed to the typical liberal woman on campus?  “Well, we’re a culturally conservative organization, so we embrace modesty, we embrace femininity.  We recognize that there are differences between the sexes and think that some of our public policies should reflect those differences.  And we really value motherhood and families, and you know that is really against some of what our college professors are speaking out against all the time.  So we think that women who choose, you know, to raise their families and be homemakers contribute just as much to society as women who really try to excel in the business world … We really think these women’s studies departments are causing a lot of problems on college campuses for young women as they kind of don’t recognize the value of motherhood or families at all and just are really political departments that just kind of espouse the liberal ideology without giving, you know, the other side any time or really being fair.”

 

Dr. Donald J. Michels of Cheverly MD, a McCain delegate, is retired after 50 years as a physics researcher working in space research for the US Navy and NASA.  Are you familiar with Latvia?  “Sure, I know where it is, on the Baltic Sea.”  Most people here don’t know.  “I know.  You know, we think of them as three countries close together and suffering many, many years under the heel of an oppressor, and now hopefully they’ll be staying democratic for a long time.  But I’m sure … with the recent developments in Ossetia and Russia, we’re all concerned.  What should the US do, if anything?  What role can we play?  “I’m not sure what the US should do.  I am sure it’s a big problem to be solved with much thought.  Obviously, we don’t want to start another Cold War with Russia.  But, on the other hand, we have to find imaginative, peaceful means to somehow convince the Russians that this is not in their interest.  In the long run their interest will be to integrate with the world, but I think the present leadership is still of a mind that they’d rather not be a partner, they’d rather be a leader and lead the world.  Most people probably feel that’s not realistic at this point.  At least our government, I think, does.  So we hope that we can bring them around.” 

Michels explained, “I have been an enthusiastic supporter of McCain for as long as I’ve heard about him and supported him in the 2000 election, and now as soon as I heard that he was running again, we’re 100% behind him.”  Why did you like McCain from the beginning?  “Ah, many reasons.  First, the most fundamental, I believe he’s a man of great integrity, and I think his whole life history shows that.  What you hear from John McCain is what he thinks, and what you see is what you get.  He doesn’t fool around, and I think his ‘straight talk’ motto of his is apt, he does talk straight.  But as far as the issues go, he’s right on the issues that are important to me.  You don’t find any politician that you agree with a hundred percent on everything, but John McCain is right on national defense and has been and has in a sense rescued our country by pressing for the increased troops.  He’s right on the current war situation and how to finish it up.  He’s right on foreign policy, he’s right on immigration, and I believe he’s right on the right to life.  Those are the issues that are really important to me, and he’s been right consistently on all of them.”  On immigration, meaning?  “Meaning that he has not gone with the extremists in our party who want to pack up all the Mexicans, for example, and put them on trains and send them back to Mexico, which would be a very destructive act … What we need is a comprehensive policy that will look at human needs, will look at poverty levels and economies, will look at the security of our borders, and put all these things together and come with a comprehensive policy so that we can control our borders and at the same time allow reasonable levels of influx and some kind of arrangement for seasonal guest workers or any kind of guest workers that may come work for a while and go back because frankly our economy needs that.” 

One element I didn’t hear mentioned was the path to citizenship for 10 to 15 million, and that’s what stuck in the craw of a lot of people because here you had, especially Latvians after the War, they waited five, seven, eight years in camps in Germany to come here, and they couldn’t come without a sponsor who guaranteed that they would not be a public charge.  Meantime you have literally millions coming from the South and immediately demanding public services.  “Yea, that’s a serious inequity.  And I have at home a German friend who went through that kind of process and is very resentful, and I don’t know the answer, but some kind of an arrangement has to be made other than putting people in cattle cars and shipping them out.  The people who came illegally should follow some path.  Some path has to be built so that they can overcome that, and maybe it’ll take them seven years or whatever it takes.  They should not just jump to the front of the line over people who have been playing the game by the rules, that’s clear.” 

 

1996 Republican Presidential nominee and former Kansas Senator Bob Dole:  I’m with the Latvian newspaper –  “Oh, Latvia, that’s a great place, that’s one place I haven’t had a chance to visit yet.”  What do you think, how should the Latvians be feeling here about the resurgence of Russia?  Should they be fearful?  “Well, I’d be very – you know, I’m no longer in politics – but I’d be very careful.  I think McCain is right.  When he looks at Putin, he sees three letters – K G B – and I think the Latvians – well, I don’t know what, they ought to be seeing some letters.  Thank you.”

 

Delegate Renee Gentle Powers, a retired kindergarten teacher from Clanton AL and over the past seven years a political campaign manager in her area, most recently for Mike Huckabee, explained, “Actually my kind of goal in all of this is I’m looking to have more Christian leadership in government.  I think that we need that because that’s why we have veered from those principles is that we have not had that type of leadership as a majority ….”  Your position, I don’t have to ask it, on abortion.  “Pro-life, 100%, no matter what the circumstances.”  If there is an abortion, what kind of punishment should there be?  “Punishment.”  If something is against the law, there’s a punishment.  “Yes, um, I really don’t know.  I think I might just let the Lord make that judgment.”  In California we have an initiative on the ballot … an effort to reverse what the Supreme Court did in California, in other words, to ban same-sex marriage after thousands of people have already had their same-sex marriages … what are your thoughts?   “Of course, my whole belief system is based on the Bible and the Biblical beliefs that I hold dear, and I don’t think there is any better example than our Ten Commandments, and I think that our country was founded on those principles, and so I think that we need to just stick with that and – I keep reflecting on your question on punishment.  Maybe we would create the rules and the laws, those who performed the abortions might be more the ones that would –”  Except that if you hire someone to kill, you go to jail with the killer.  “Um-huh, now, the mother, I’m not sure but what I would just trust the Lord would provide for that, but the person who actually provides the service –”  If you put your money where your mouth is, you put them both in the clink – if you put anyone in.  You don’t have to.  “I think the clink should be to the person who administers the abortion because they’re capitalizing on a woman in a weak moment, and I think, the more I keep thinking about this, although I’ve never really thought about dividing the punishment, I really think it would be more with the person who performed the abortion.”

 

Mike Thompson is a McCain delegate and President of the Thomas Jefferson Institute, a public policy think tank in Springfield VA.  “I have known John McCain for 30 years.  I’m pretty excited about this.”  Why do you think would be a better President than Obama?  “We can start with the experience factor, we can start with the fact that I am a Goldwater-Reagan conservative, and I think that John McCain is as well, and I just have real deep philosophical disagreements with Obama.”  What would those disagreements be?  “The role of government in society, I think he wants a larger role for government, I want a smaller role for government.  He wants a larger chunk of our taxes going to the federal government, I want a smaller piece of our taxes go to the federal government.  He has a more malleable foreign policy, I believe, than what John McCain would have, and I think all of those things are difficult for me to accept as a father and grandfather.”  What should we do in Iraq now?  “I think that the course we’re on seems to be working.  We just pulled our forces out of one of the major cities in Iraq today, turned it over to the Iraqis.  So clearly what we’re doing there seems to be working toward a time frame where letting the Iraqis be able to defend themselves, and isn’t that really what all this has been about?”  Thompson added that he is also involved with an educational foundation called Fund for American Studies:  “We’ve had the Latvian President [Vaira Vike-Freiberga] speak to our group.  She is just terrific.” 

 

Shawn Steel is a lawyer and former chairman of the California Republican Party.  What do we do in Iraq?  “Well, it looks like we’ve helped establish a democratic nation.  They’re having political squabbles like any democratic nation has.  Right now there’s negotiation about how soon they can take over.  It seems that in the bottom line that many people suggested that Bush should be a hero in the long term.  He’s a hero in the short term.”  Many of the Democrats that I talked to say, “We gotta get out as soon as possible, as soon as possible.”  “That’s a defeat America approach, and it didn’t work.  Obama is going to have a hard time to explain why he wanted to get out of Iraq when we were losing.  Now he wants to get out of Iraq while we’re winning so we can lose.  I don’t think the Americans are going to go for that ….”  What do we do in response to the Russian invasion for Georgia?  “That probably iced it, I think, among conservatives for McCain because nobody expected Russia to come out that naked, that brutal, that obvious, that old Red Bear is active again.  I think most Americans intuitively know that Obama is clueless when it comes to that kind of aggression.”

 

Former Senator John Danforth, R-MO:  I wonder if you could tell Baltic people how they should feel about the United States’ willingness to stand up for their freedom.  “Well, I think they should feel pretty good about it, I mean, I think that there’s, uh, I mean, you’ve seen in connection with Georgia that there’s at least a lot of concern.  I’m not sure what we’re going to do about that but certainly a lot of concern about it.”

 

Chris Daniels is the youngest public official in Texas, elected in November 2006 to the board of the second largest junior college system in the state, extending from North Houston all the way to Huntsville.  What do you do in your real life?  “I am an engineer for Kellogg, Brown, & Root designing oil refinery equipment, and I also go to law school at night at South Texas College of Law.”  How did you become a delegate?  “I ran as a Texas delegate out of the northwest area of Houston, and I ran on a platform that I was gonna vote for the most conservative person that we could get into office that would beat Obama or Hillary.  McCain’s it.”  Why would he make a better President than Obama?  “Because he has not only the legislative experience to get the show on the road, 22 plus years in the Senate.  Obama’s literally been in the Senate for 145 days – he’s been elected for four years, but he’s only been doing his job for 145 days.  McCain has the experience, and he has the worldly experience without trying to get a photo-op everywhere he goes, and he has the executive experience leading a team when he was in the Army, and on top of that, now he has a perfect Vice-Presidential candidate who has a diverse executive leadership experience as a business owner, as a mayor, as a Governor, as a woman leading a family of five kids, she has it all.”  What are the political issues that get you riled up?  “Taxes, taxes, taxes.  When I got my first paycheck, and I thought I was going to make $7.50 an hour and instead I got $6 and change, I said, ‘Who’s FICA?  Who’s Medicare?  What in the world is this?’  And they said, ‘Chris, welcome to the Republican Party.’  We’re trying to abolish the IRS, get rid of the income tax, repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, and just have a sales tax, like we have in Texas, which makes sense, which taxes everybody, including the illegals, prostitutes, and drug dealers, so that everybody is now contributing, so it doesn’t matter about immigration because for the first time since everyone contributes, therefore everyone can benefit.” 

 

Marsha Bjornn is a delegate from Rexburg ID.  Why are you a Republican?  “Because I espouse the Republican values.”  Which are?  “Being conservative in your spending, that government belongs close to the people, that the answer to everything isn’t higher taxes.  I’m not against taxes.  We have to have them to run our country.  But I appreciate someone who’s conservative on raising – once they’re raised, it’s hard to get it back.  I value the family.  I have seven children and nineteen grandchildren, and the family values.”  What does family values mean – in terms of policy, what does it mean?  “I know it’s not possible for every household, preferably there’s a father and a mother.  I don’t put anyone down because in my own family I know it hasn’t been possible in some cases because my brother got killed, but preferably a mother and a father.  I believe in going to a church with all of your family every Sunday, and having your religion be part of your life every day, not just on Sunday, trying to be a good Christian, love your neighbor as yourself, family values, teaching honesty to your children, having integrity that you can be trusted, that you don’t speak ill of other people, that you have a work ethic, and that you shouldn’t be paid for a dishonest day’s work, if you’re going to work and have an employer you put in a full day’s work for your employer.  Family values, I value education.  We’ve encouraged all of our children to get higher degrees, and they all have.  We believe in serving your country, and your church, and your local community … I was on our Rexburg City Council for nine years.”  I feel compelled to ask, I wouldn’t normally, but you’re so fluent and articulate in terms of what you’re categorizing as family values, but your ethic of life.  Can I ask you what church, what denomination?  “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”  Mormons. 

What if – I’m from California, so we have certain things on our minds, Latvian paper or no – what would you do or say if one of your kids came to you and said he or she was gay?  “Well, I would feel bad that they had decided to take another route, but I would not cast them out.  I’d love my (pause), I would love my children unconditionally.”  Do you think that people choose to be gay, choose their sexual orientation, choose who they’re attracted to?   “I think that sometimes there are tendencies towards that.  I’ve got a couple of people in my family that are that way, and that really show a tendency to prefer more feminine things in their early years when they were children, so I think that there is a tendency there.  But I think that – and you may not agree with this – but I think that we are all given weaknesses of some kind.  I don’t think, and to me that’s a weakness – you may not think that way – just like if I had, say, an addiction to alcohol or pornography.  That we’re all given trials, put it that way.”

 

Former California Governor Pete Wilson:  How are Baltic people supposed to feel these days?  What can we expect from the United States?  “What they are feeling these days is anxiety, and understandably in light of the brutal invasion of Georgia.  I think if they watched both conventions, and I don’t know that they did, but if they did, they should feel a great deal more confidence in John McCain as President of the United States.”

 

Wickham Seeley of Ann Arbor MI is a retired inventor and business manager for Lucent Technologies.  What should we do about Iraq after how many years?  We’re there now, we have a big problem, what do we do?  “We win it, finish it up, get it so the Iraqis can take it over themselves.  Then we have created for ourselves and our children and our children’s children an ally in the war on terror who will fight terror with us, and we’ve eliminated the threat of passing of weapons of mass destruction from that country to some kind of terrorist group … I think that’s very good.”  How deal with a resurgent Russia?  “I don’t pretend to know the answer to that question, I really do not, other than to say we don’t deal with it by letting them do whatever they want to do ….”  Should NATO be expanded to include Ukraine and Georgia?  “Well, sure it should, and it should have, and it wasn’t in the latest NATO meeting, which may have encouraged the Russians to go ahead.”  What domestic issues get your dander up?  “Drill here, drill now.”

 

Karen Arshinkoff of Hudson OH says that her biggest issue is taxes.  “If the other side takes over, they’re going to do, the easy way out is to raise them and to make government responsible for everybody, and I don’t like that approach.  I like less government.”  They would like government to provide day care, pre-K, which means pre-school, college, all the medical bills to be paid by the government.  “But who’s going to pay for it?  Who’s going to give them the money – the taxpayers, the ones that work everyday?  It’s not going to work.  You can’t tax yourself like that.  It’s going to turn into a socialist country.  It’s not going to work.  It doesn’t work worldwide.  It’s not going to work this way.”

 

Why don’t we talk to you together?  This would be fine.  I haven’t done that.  Now you’re both from PA?   “Pennsylvania.”   

And you in red are?   “I’m Nancy Otstot, I’m a delegate here from 19^th Congressional District, and that is Cumberland County, York County, and Adams County.  I’m been a committee lady for 30 years.”  And what town is that?  “That’s East Pensford Township and Enola, Pennsylvania.  This is my friend from Harrisburg.” 

“Sue Helm, I’m a State Representative for the 104^th District of Dolphin County, Pennsylvania.”  I’m from a Latvian newspaper published in this country.  Do you know where Latvia is?  “Oh, I don’t.  Nancy will know.” 

Otstot:  “Is Latvia in Europe?”  Yes.  “Is it near Croatia?”  No.  “Is it near – where is it near?  Give me a hint.”  It’s between Estonia and Lithuania.  “Lithuania!  And did you send someone to the Olympics?”  Yes, somebody won.  “Oh, boy, that’s wonderful!  Oh, how nice!  Well, we’re from Pennsylvania.” 

And here we have, what is your name?  “Jeanne Noll.”  And you’re from what town?  “Fleetwood, Pennsylvania.  The Fleetwood Cadillacs were first made there.”  And what do you do in Pennsylvania?  “I’m a retired teacher.”

Otstot:  “A music teacher.  Do you want us to sing?” 

To Otstot:  And what has your work been at home?  “I’m a transportation director, I directed the transportation system for my county – and was on a school board for twelve years.” 

To Helm:  And by the way, had you heard of Latvia?  “Well, you know, I knew a guy that came from somewhere over there like that, but I haven’t heard of it, I hate to tell you.”

To Noll:  Are you familiar with Latvia?  “I have to tell you that in my town, which the big town is Reading, we have a museum, and when I was a kid – and it’s still there now – they have Latvia, Estonia, all of them, they have a mock-up, with clothing and everything.  So, yes, I‘ve heard about you since I’m a little child.”  That’s very good.  “These guys, we went to Russia not too long ago.”  That’s very good.

And now who are you?  You’re from Pennsylvania, too.  “Agnes Tilley.”  What town?  “Philadelphia.”  Oh, yea, now do you know Latvia?  “Do I know who?”  Do you know Latvia?  “Yes, yes, it’s a small country.  Who do I know that’s from Latvia?  Somebody I met in Philadelphia.  It’s a little, little country, very little.  But I know it exists.” 

I don’t want her to get lost, so I want to get a picture of the four of you.

Something special you want to say about Sarah Palin?  

Otstot:  “I want to say that last night she energized this audience, so that we can electrify the electorate.  You know what I mean, the people that vote.  She energized us.  She’s like the American dream.  She’s what everybody wants to be.  What a wonderful family!   And what she’s overcome.  It’s amazing!  And she’ll set the example and set the standard for the rest of the girls in this country.  ‘Cause you know what?  I worked 47 years, and I never met one woman that didn’t run rings around every man I ever met in my life, and I’ve been married 50 years.  Maybe on my hand I can count two or three, and I’ve met thousands of men because I worked 47 years.  But women are nurturers, they’re detail, they know how to get things done.  So she will pave the way, and I feel bad for Hillary ‘cause she did crack the ceiling, but this girl is going to break the ceiling.  Besides that, she can dress a moose, field dress a moose.  Can you do that?”

 

Bob Naylor is a lawyer, a delegate from Sacramento, former Chair of the California GOP, and former Republican leader of the State Assembly.  I’d like to know why you think John McCain would be a better President than Barack Obama?  “You could look at their reactions to the Georgian invasion, and the contrast between the ‘Well, let’s all get along’ approach of Obama and the essentially ‘Get the hell out of there’ approach of McCain was stark, and I think he’s better prepared.  He has a better strategic idea of what’s at stake in a crisis like that, and he’s prepared to go.”

 

Delegate Dennis Lennox of Topinabe MI:  “Oh, you’re from Latvia!  A good friend of mine was in the Olympics for ice hockey from Latvia, ice hockey referee.”  What’s his name?  “Edward Odzins, I’m pronouncing his name wrong.”  His job was what?  “Well, he’s a professional ice hockey referee from Latvia, and he was in the Salt Lake Winter Olympics in 2000.”  At 24, Lennox is a political science and journalism graduate of Central Michigan University and now operates a political consulting and public relations firm and is already himself running for office – as County Drain Commissioner.  “In Michigan it’s the most powerful local position – each county has one – because it’s the only elected official that can assess taxes … it deals with water-related taxes.”  He says he plans to run for the state legislature in 2010.  You must have some firm views on the big issues.  “Well, Michigan has the worst economy in the country, mostly because of the decline in automobile sales and manufacturing.  We’ve lost over 250,000 jobs in six years.  So my big priority in Michigan is cutting taxes and creating a climate that’s pro-business and business-friendly.  Michigan has a very anti-business climate with a high tax Governor.  In fact, our [Democratic] Governor raised taxes by $1.5 billion last year despite the state having the worst unemployment rate in the country.” 

A lot of the people I’ve talked to here, their passion is so-called social conservatism.  How do you define that, and where do you stand?  “Well, the Republican Party is a big tent.  We’re a grand coalition of social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, libertarians.  I tend not to label myself to a particular faction.  I consider myself an overall conservative.  I’m socially conservative, but I’m also fiscally conservative.  And on foreign policy issues I’m also a national security conservative.”  What does social conservative mean?  “Well, I’m pro-life.  I believe that we need to promote a culture of life and not a culture that promotes death by abortion.  I’m for traditional values, the values that have been the bedrock of our Western Civilization as we know it.”  Such as?  “Marriage.  I believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman … We are a strong family party.  Family values, we’re seeing them being eroded in the United States.”

Lennox stated, “I am actually involved in an organization called the International Young Democrat Union.  It’s an organization of young leaders from center-right political parties in over 55 countries.  I was in Estonia in December for our annual conference, just your neighbor in the Baltic.  I’m very familiar with the situation in Belarus, Europe’s last dictatorship with Lukashenko.  It’s a very troubling situation.  And obviously in the Caucasus with Georgia we’ve seen what some in the West have appeased Russia and very reminiscent of Munich.”  He has strong opinions on international affairs:  “I think Americans need to pay close attention to the European Union because integration and what some on the Left want, a United States of Europe, is a serious threat to the United States, and I also think in the long run Eastern Europe, even though right now by and large they like the European Union because of the development assistance, they will find that they may regret it.  I mean look at Georgia.  The EU completely dropped the ball and failed to act, and I’m not comfortable with a European military rivaling NATO, rivaling the United States ….”

 

Ron Maurer is an Oregon State Representative from Grant’s Pass.  Are you familiar with Latvia?  “Yes, actually, I had a lady live with our family for a summer two years ago” – Unda Bujaane, originally from Cesis, now living in Riga.  Was she an exchange student?  “No, she came over here just as a tourist, and we arranged it with a fellow Latvian who we know from Grant’s Pass, Oregon.”  Who’s that?  “Laila Dzene.  She is a naturalized citizen.”  Why do you think McCain would be a better President than Obama?  “Well, I mean there is a clear choice between the Presidential candidates.  One is essentially about bigger government, and one’s about less government.  And that is our perennial debate, and this is no different.  I just think that Senator Obama is the most liberal Presidential candidate that we’ve ever had on a Democratic ticket, and Senator McCain is a moderate Republican, but he has solidified his base here in the last three days.”  What political issues do you get most involved with as a state rep in Oregon?  “Health care.  I’m actually an honorary co-chair for the McCain campaign in the state of Oregon, and I’m also a health care spokesman, and I’ve had a number of years of health care experience … and Senator Obama wants to expand the employer connection with our health care, and Senator McCain wants to dismantle the employer connection with health care and give it back to the individual.” 

 

Senator Olympia Snowe, R-ME:  What message would you have for Baltic people who are worried about a resurgent Russia?  “Well, I think it obviously it’s a concern that we’re concerned, you know, as Americans about an emboldened Russia, and I think that obviously the European Union and the United States have to play a critical role in making sure, you know, that we send a strong message, you know, to Russia.”

 

Fredi Simpson of Wenatchee WA is an automatic delegate as a result of being the GOP National Committeewoman for Washington State.  Why are you Republican?  “I’m Republican because Republicans have always been the founders and champions of civil rights, and being Mexican, Spanish, English, French, and Mohave Indian, I went all the way back to Abraham Lincoln.  I see that the Republicans want to give a hand up, not a handout, and that’s the way my family taught me to be.  You don’t help people forever.  You know, Jesus taught us, give a man fish and he fishes for a day, teach him how to fish and he fishes for a lifetime.  And that’s the rule of the Republican Party.”  Immigration is a big issue in the Republican Party.  “It’s a huge part of the Republican Party … We believe we need some type of a guest worker program without giving amnesty, but we understand the value of the important workers where I come from – we’re an agriculture town, we’re the apple capital of the world – so we understand the importance of the workers and what happens if we don’t have a wonderful guest worker program.” 

The guest worker was kind of over here, but the thing that offended a lot of people was the path to citizenship for 15 million when you had law-abiding people waiting in line in Manila, and that’s where the line was – in Manila, Athens, you know, India, wherever.  “I have a theory, okay.  Stop printing up every document, every voter’s pamphlet, every voter’s book, in any other language but English.  Stop forcing every government employer to have to speak two languages to help the people that are coming in.  If people are going to take advantage of a system that we’ve created, they need to be able to be citizens and they need to speak English … And, you know, I have to be also honest.  We were taught from my family because of all the ethnicities that my family brought to this picture, we were taught to be proud of everything this country was about and be proud of being American.  My mother was actually born in Cuba and had to become a citizen.  So her brother was born here in the United States.  He took his citizenship for granted, my mother did not.  So my theory is, we have to stop going to other countries, we have to stop our past Presidents, we have to stop the rich and the famous and the celebrities going to other countries and apologizing for America, and instead we need to be proud of everything America stands for, faults and all – it’s kind of like your family, I’m still proud of all my family even though we have some faults – but when you start being proud, then what you’re going to do, dry up the system, stop giving to people who are not citizens, stop giving – in my little town of Wenatchee, English-as-a-Second-Language at the Community College is drying up because everybody’s learning Spanish, so why do they need to learn to speak English?  We need to at some point stop the cycle and make people proud to be Americans first, and when you dry up the system from within and you give us a pride of being American, I think we’re going to turn this around, and plus then you have guest worker programs, a whole lot of other things the government can involved in, to bring people here legally.  Give’em an ID card that says you can come here and work, but you have to be home at a certain time ….” 

 

Pat Powers, a delegate from Brookings SD, is a realtor and also director of the Red Cross in northeast South Dakota.  Why are you a Republican?  “You know, I’m a Republican because I believe in better government through lesser government.  I think that when we do for ourselves, we’re better off than if government does it for us.”  So that’s the contrast.  What was your reaction to Sarah Palin?  “You know, I’m a father of seven kids, one of whom is a special needs child.  She (Palin) is somebody who resonates with people like me, just common folk who, we still believe in the dream that ourselves or our kids or anyone can rise to the highest office in the land, and she’s proof.  You know, she’s no different than you or I … I’ve got a little three year old girl who has apraxia of speech, which is a fine motor control speech issue.  And, you know, as a parent I know what she’s dealing with with her child who has Down syndrome.  You know, you love the kid unconditionally, and you treat them no differently than anybody else, and, you know, for her being in the White House, she can help people understand those issues.”

 

Senator John Thune, R-SD:  Why would John McCain be a better choice for Baltic people than Barack Obama?  “Well, because I think John McCain understands our adversaries around the world.  He’s been a guy who has fought for and sacrificed enormously, both he and his family, for democracy and freedom, and I think that, you know, countries that are sort in the hot spot, so to speak, and who are struggling with some of those same issues ought to be able to appreciate the kind of leadership that he’ll bring.  He’ll be very principled, he will be someone who because of his experience on national security issues has the courage, the profile, the stature, to face down the threats that we face around the world and those things that would put freedom and democracy in peril.  So I think it’s a clear choice.  You look at the experience he’s had both in the military and in public service.  I serve on the Armed Services Committee with him, and I know full well what a deep appreciation he has for men and women who serve their country and who fight for freedom, and I think he also understands very much how real these threats are, that freedom and democracy in those countries who love those principles face around the world.”

 

Twenty-year old Trent Newell, a delegate from Homer LA, is studying petroleum engineering as well as geology and political science at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.  You went into politics because you believe in certain principles, issues, what are those?  “Well, I really believe in interpreting the Constitution strictly.  Some of my probably hallmark issues would be lower taxes, social issues like abortion, things like that.”  What do you want to do on abortion?  “I think it should be outlawed.  I am very strongly pro-life.”  So does that mean that the doctor and/or the woman would be sent to jail?  “If they break the law, that would be one of the consequences.  You know, I’m not trying to set consequences for it here, but it could be a fine, it could be a lot of things.  But regardless of what the consequences are, I think the legislatures would be fair about that.  I do think it should be illegal.”  Abortion also banned in the case of rape or incest?  “Right, well, yea, if you’re like me, and you believe that abortion is murder, then there is no reason that you should – murder should never be legalized for any reason.  So, no, I don’t think it’s the child’s fault.  You have it, and you put it up for adoption ….” 

Newell continued, “Immigration and national security would be my other top two [issues].  I kind of view those to go hand in hand.  I kind of think immigration is kind of a subset of national security.”  Elaborate.  “Well, if you don’t know who’s coming across your borders and what’s coming across with them, I think that has a pretty obvious impact on national security.”  What do we do in Iraq?  “Well, you know, I don’t think it was handled correctly in the beginning, but, you know, no one’s perfect.  It’s not something that I want President Bush impeached for or anything like that, nor do I think it’s entirely his fault.  But I think that the way we’re going now is the right way.  I think that when you look at the fact that, I believe, 15 out of 18 benchmarks, political benchmarks, that were agreed upon by Democrats, have been met, the fact that we’re now withdrawing troops from Iraq, and, you know, US highways are much more dangerous than Baghdad is, I think that it’s quite obvious that we’re making both political and military progress in Iraq.”  What should the US role, if any, be between Russia and Georgia?  “That’s one where we have to be really, really careful in.  Right now I think that definitely it should be strictly a diplomatic approach.  I don’t think that a military option – it shouldn’t be taken off the table – but I don’t think it should be something that should even be considered at the moment.  I think purely just propping them up, helping them, financial aid, humanitarian aid.  I believe that should be the extent of it at this point.”

 

Julie Ann O’Brien of Augusta served in the Maine legislature for eight years and is now Executive Director of the Maine Republican Party.  Why are you a Republican?  “Why am I a Republican?  Because I believe, my belief of the philosophy of the Republicans is less government, helping those who truly help themselves, that Republicans believe that we can do better with our money, and let us keep more of our money, and we will then help those who need the help.  So it’s lower taxes, less government, and more accountability, I think.”  How do you feel about the Obama Convention in which so much has been promised – free day care, free pre-K, free medical care, free college, what’s your reaction to that?  “Well, absolutely it’s, you have a child, and then you hand it over to us the government, and we can do better, and I just think that that is so condescending.  The Obama convention and the Obama event is I think there’s a clear, clear difference.  I think that the conventions are accentuating that, I believe, because of the Obama’s, you know, with his stage and with his parting the waters, it’s a true event.  It says that he has forever wanted to be President.  He sees this politics as a career as opposed to someone like Governor – we’re so excited, our VP choice – she came into politics because she saw a need.  She was on the PTA.  Then she saw a need in her community and served on the City Council.  Then she was the Mayor.  It wasn’t a goal to become President.  She saw it the other way around – as public service as opposed to politics.  And so, as you said, Senator Obama promises the world and then says, ‘But I’m going to lower your taxes.’  I mean, people if they really listen, they see that it’s just all smoke and mirrors.  We really need to hold people accountable to what they say.”

 

Clifton Yin, a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and now working as a legislative aide to a state assemblyman in Sacramento CA, explained how already at age 22 he became a full delegate.  “I’ve been a supporter of John McCain for a long time ever since the summer of last year when his campaign was kind of dead in the water.  I’ve always stuck with him, very loyal to him, so I think they rewarded me.”  Why do you like McCain?  “Well, you know, I think he has the experience and the wisdom to be President.  You know, agree with him or not, during his more than 20 years in the Senate, he’s been a leader on a host of issues, anything you can think of – campaign finance reform, the environment, foreign policy, spending, earmark reform – he’s been great on all this issues.  And I think, you know, he also brings accountability to the White House.  He’s always been a leader who’s emphasizes ethics, and I’m looking forward to him being President.”  He shared his personal history, “I was born in California, but actually I grew up overseas.  I lived in Asia for ten years, China for two years, Taiwan for seven years, and Korea for half a year, and, you know, living in all those different countries, it really struck home how important a good government is, I can tell you.”  Yin suggested that Latvia “is becoming more and more important these days given Russia’s aggression in Georgia.  From what I hear you guys are a little worried over there.  I hope everyone is all right, and please know, we have your back.” 

 

Donna Bahorich is a delegate from Houston TX.  “We [Republicans] want reform.  Government is good, the government we have is good.  It’s a great setup.  The problem is that we haven’t got people with enough guts to take on the things that need to be taken on, and finally we have two people at the top of the ticket who have been doing that their whole time … I think Senator Obama someday may be ready for the Presidency, but he’s got a long way to go to be in charge of the most powerful country in the world.  I just don’t feel that he’s anywhere near ready.  I think if people will take an honest look at him and his record compared to that of John McCain, his record of service, I think they will clearly, I mean there wouldn’t be a choice.  If that was what you did, if you didn’t look at the personalities involved, you looked at the records, there’s no way that you could not conclude that Senator McCain was the much better choice and much more prepared in this super dangerous world to lead America.  There’re a lot of countries depending on us to be strong, to have the kind of leadership that we need to show in a tough world, and we need somebody like Senator McCain who’s been through it personally, been through the fire, and come out, you know, shining like gold.”

 

END