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Hawkins Denounces Pro-War ‘Debates’
Hawkins denounces Senate debates for “Pro-War Candidates Only”
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Says Clinton’s campaign slogan should be “More War, No Debate”
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for US Senate, denounced the
agreement between Hillary Clinton, John Spencer, and corporate media
sponsors to bar the four other antiwar Senate candidates from the two agreed
upon debates.
“Clinton’s campaign slogan should be ‘More War, No Debate.’ The farce
continues. After refusing to debate Jonathan Tasini, her antiwar opponent in
the Democratic primary, now she avoids her four antiwar opponents on the
ballot in the general election. So it will be debates for the pro-war
candidates only, with Clinton and Spencer debate the tactics of the war in
Iraq, while I stand with the majority of New Yorkers who are against this
war. But our voices are excluded by the corporate sponsors of these
debates,” said Hawkins.
“Debates limited to Clinton and Spencer are the type of debates that old
Boss Tweed liked to set up. Boss Tweed was happy to allow the voters to
elect the winner as long as he got to select the candidates. That’s what we
get when only the corporate-sponsored candidates get into the
corporate-sponsored debates,” said Hawkins.
Hawkins added, “Clinton and Spencer compete to attract the most corporate
funding for their campaigns. I reject corporate funding. Clinton and Spencer
both oppose national health insurance. I support a Medicare-for-All plan.
They both support the death penalty and I oppose it. They oppose legalizing
same-sex marriage and I support it. The opinion polls show that the majority
of New Yorkers stand with me on these and other issues. But our views are
excluded from these debates.”
So far, Clinton and Spencer have agreed to two one-hour debates. The first
will be held Friday, October 20 at 7 pm in Rochester and sponsored by Time
Warner. The second will be held Sunday, October 22 at 9 am in New York City
and sponsored by WABC, Buffalo News, Univision, and the League of Women
Voters.
None of the corporate sponsors of the debates ever contacted the Hawkins
campaign. The League of Women Voters, however, did ask Hawkins to answer a
questionnaire related to the debates. According to a post on the Tasini web
site, Paula Blum of the League of Women Voters wrote in response to a query
from a Tasini supporter, “Mr. Hawkins did submit the needed information, and
the state board determined that he did meet our criteria, and we will
negotiate with our media partners to try to get him included in the
Senatorial debates.” Clinton never agreed to debate Tasini at the state
Democratic convention or in a public debate leading up to the September 12
primary.
Hawkins statements came as Democrat Eliot Spitzer and Republican John Faso
prepared for a gubernatorial debate in Ithaca tonight which did not invite
the participation of the actor, author, and activist, Malachy McCourt, the
Green Party candidate for governor.
Hawkins noted that the US Supreme Court has ruled “it is of particular
importance that candidates have the…opportunity to make their views knows so
that the electorate may intelligently evaluate the candidates’ personal
qualities and their positions on vital public issues before choosing among
them on Election Day.” (Buckley v. Valeo, 424 US 1).
Hawkins also cited Justice Brandeis in Whitney v. California (274 US 357):
“Those who won our independence…believed that public discussion is a
political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the
American government.”
Hawkins added that James Madison’s words from over 200 years ago describe
the situation facing New York voters today: “A popular government, without
popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a
Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both.”
Hawkins said, “By agreeing to exclude some ballot-qualified candidates from
these debates, the media sends the strong message to the voters that the
excluded candidates are not important to the election and that voters should
not waste their votes on them.”
Hawkins said he supports legislation to require broadcast media to sponsor
and broadcast all-candidate debates as a condition of their broadcasting
licenses. He also said participation in these debates should be a legal
condition of ballot qualification for candidates “so that celebrities like
Hillary Clinton with powerful corporate backing cannot dictate the terms of
debates.”
Hawkins noted that the US Supreme Court recognized centrality of political
debate to the First Amendment in CBS Inc. v. FCC (453 US 367): “It is the
right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which
is paramount. It is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an
uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail,
rather than countenance monopolization of that market…the First Amendment
has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of
campaigns for political office.”
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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