Thursday’s “Life of the Party” political forum was formulated as a break from the candidate-driven, partisan forums broadcast over the last year, where answers and platforms are so routine and regimented, a voter could slip into election-induced déj? vu.
As soon as the slam-poetry styling of the Freedom Choir began to echo their rendition of “The Times They Are A-Changin'” from the back of the Woodbury Campus Center’s amphitheater, it was clear this was not going to be another starchy, dry discussion panel.
Organized by WeVote, the political panel was conceived as an attempt to bring people from across the political spectrum into a forum where they could discuss their party platforms, and share how their party would tackle today’s most pressing issues. Red, Blue, and Green were all represented on the panel, as well as an Anarchist/radical rep, and Herb Hoffman, speaking for the Independents (neither of whom have an organized party).
The atmosphere on the panel was one of open and frank discussion. With only one candidate represented, in Hoffman, the talk strayed from the usual party-line rhetoric of candidates desperately seeking votes.
“I was encouraged, I heard a lot of independent thought, and logical reasoning outside of the usual party platforms,” said Eric Monty, USM Junior.
The discussion took on a tone of honesty in the early goings when Democratic party representative Rachel Talbot Ross made clear her reservations about rehashing the democratic platform. “Sorry to disrupt the program,” Ross said “but I’m not here to represent the Democratic Party.” She added that the party’s official platform is 50 pages long, and having not memorized it, she only felt comfortable in sharing her own perspective on the issue.
This break from protocol by Talbot Ross quickly spread across the panel, with Republican Scott Kauffman and Green Bruce Gagnon both taking similar stances; they would speak their minds, but not stick to formal party rhetoric. While this might not have been what WeVote imagined when organizing the forum, many found the atmosphere of honesty to be a welcomed break. “It didn’t go where was intended, but I was glad for it,” said Monty.
Speakers shared what issues are most central to their own party, giving the audience a chance to see past the red and blue, and learn what some of the nation’s smaller parties think, a perspective that they feel earns little attention in the current two-party dominated system.
Bruce Gagnon, Green Party rep, saw corporate domination of the nation’s two biggest political parties as an overarching problem, one that he feels might explain the bi-partisan rescue of Wall St. in the last month. “There will be no alleviation of these problems until we break the back of this system,” Gagnon said.
“This is not an election at all,” said Gagnon, ” it’s 21st century corporate dominated feudalism.”
Anarchist rep Danny Muller shared this distaste for corporate influence in politics. Referencing Barack Obama’s half-hour, multi-channel prime time commercial (which cost an estimated $4 million) Muller shared his frustration with political parties using donations to pay for such ads.
“Money gets pumped back into corporate systems under the guise of democracy,” he said.
Talbot Ross, who was Maine’s first African American delegate to the Democratic National Convention back in 1976, quickly got the impression that the DNC was “bought and paid for by a couple folks,” and shared her disillusionment that parts of the democratic and republican party are “racist, sexist, and class-driven, just like everything.”
When discussion shifted to talk of our current two-party system, party lines were furthuer blured as the panelists spoke out against two-party domination of government. Hoffman, whose independent candidicy was reduced to write-in status in Maine’s Senate race, knows first hand the frustration of smaller political parties. He was knocked off the ballot after an aggressive legal challenge from the Maine Democratic party; he repeatedly referred to America’s government as operating under a “one-party system.”
Many of the speakers challenged the audience, and American public, to not end their political involvement after Nov. 4. “Change is good, but on January 21 (after the next president in inaugurated), what are those who voted for change going to do?” said Talbot Ross. Muller agreed, “if you are going to vote, you must be involved in the political process,” adding “you can’t check the box then be [uninvolved] for four years.”
“They did a great job of telling people you can’t wait around for change to happen,” said Cassie Shultz, a junior and a member of Maine PIRG. Shultz challenges students affect change beyond the ballot box, “it’s needs to start with their involvement, wherever they are, their family, school, community, just being a citizen in this country should require everyone to do that,” she said.
Gagnon suggested public hearings for citizens to make demands of the new president so that “we the people can speak out and make demands.” He later challenged USM to become part of this process.
Gabe Demaine, a staff support person for WeVote, was impressed not only with the frankness of the panel, but also with the organization of WeVote, who conceived the idea for a party panel earlier this month, and got right to work making it a reality. “It was awesome mobilization on the part of WeVote.” Demaine also thought the format of the discussion made for a more productive event. “I think if it had been more formatted like a candidate forum, it would have been in attack mode,” she said.