I
put this stuff here because I want you to think about this message. Not the Weisser
for Congress part. Though that’s cool, Weisser for Congress, I love the idea. But
I want you to think about this part: The “Tell the Right They’re Wrong” part.
Think about it, then we’ll get back to it later.
Howdy
ladies and gentleman, thanks for coming out to Payson. My name is Mikel Weisser
and I want to be Payson’s democratically elected Democrat in the US House of
Representatives for Arizona’s brand new Congressional District Four. You guys
know CD-4 right? I call it the Left Coast of Arizona, though admittedly that’s
a bit harder to explain when you’re right next to the Mogollon Rim, but
basically it runs Yuma to Utah, Parker to Payson. Seven Counties, 7 or 8 LDs,
Mohave-La Paz-Yuma-Yavapai-almost all the parts of Maricopa where they don’t
have people and then throw in major portions of Gila and Pinal County just for
the sport of it. It’s about the size of Illinois. I have traveled 45,000 miles
since announcing my campaign at the end of January and I see something new each
trip. CD 4 is as beautiful as it is immense and it is just about as red a
district as you could find.
Before
we even had candidates announced the handicappers had the Rs with 65% and the
Ds with 35%. Generic candidates, it didn’t matter who. John Wayne Gacy versus
Santa Claus. If Santa had the D on his chest, Christmas might have trouble. In
fact, the word was there wasn’t a Democrat in Western Arizona with the balls
enough to even take on the big red machine out our way. And as soon as I heard
that, I thought, well, hmmmmmmmmm. I reached down and well look-ey here. And it’s
been smooth sailing ever since.
I
am a first time candidate, still learning when to say please and how to say
thank you. Any other first time candidates in the room? I want you all stand up
and give all your first time Democratic Party candidates a big hand because
they are your Democracy in action. They are why we’re here. I tell you this is
absolutely, bar none, the most thrilling experience of my life. I am so much
better a person for taking this challenge. I wish each of you could experience
this for yourselves. In fact, I hope you try it and get to enjoy even a
fraction of the rewards and blessings this path has brought to me.
For
example, I’ve only been here in Payson three times and already I’m their
favorite son. Last night when we came in, this little old lady came up to me
with her even littler older lady mother and said, I wanted my mom to meet you.
A couple of months ago I found a piece of your campaign literature stuck on my
windshield and I love what you’re doing, so I wanted my mom to meet you. I tell
you it doesn’t get better than that. There’s a bunch of us first-timers this
year and they are putting their lives on the line for Democracy and for the Democratic
Party and have put their lives in your hands in many more ways than you
realize, just saying. But they’re doing what they can. They are proof the
system can make a difference. Reginald Bolling is proof teachers can change the
world both inside and out of their classrooms. Doug Ballard is proof progressive
activists aren’t just all talk and no action and my personal hero, Dr. Janie
Hydrick, is proof that our nation of immigrants has always been enriched when
we welcome newcomers with open arms and open minds.
I’ve
been a life-long Democrat. I am so Democrat, I was a Democrat in utero. I
remember when I was 9 years old I was watching when my hero Bobby Kennedy won
that California primary. And then walked into that kitchen … and I was watching
later that same year when the election came around and even as a little kid, I could
tell Nixon was a crook. I mean Richard Nixon? The guy was a dick right? I was
so certain of it, the night before the election I got a piece of chalk from the
school, went out in the middle of the street in front of my home in
Raymondville. TX and scrawled, “Humphrey/Muskie is our man, Nixon in the
Garbage Can!” I was sure it was going to make a difference, but did America
listen to me? No! And look where we are today. Look at what they’ve done to us.
Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, look what they’ve done.
Notice
the sign.
Yeah,
they’ve done quite a bit of damage. But I think it is not too late for us to
turn that tide and bring America into the 21st Century. America is a
still great place for now. That a guy like me can find myself in front of a
crowd like this. I know there is a lot of love these days in the AZ Democratic
Party for homeless folks, what with the amazing life stories of Dr. Richard
Carmona and Kyrsten Sinema. I too was homeless, first as a teen runaway, later
a homeless vet. And now? Beautiful wife, lovely life, college degrees, house
and chickens and cats and dogs.
You
know how I got those things? Yeah, because I’ve got some skills and a huge
mountain of good luck. Sure. But I have the American Dream, because the America
I grew up in wanted to make sure I had a chance to reach for its dreams. They
wanted to create a great society. They wanted all people to be judged by the
content of their character and not the color of our skin. They wanted the old
and sick to be cared for, they wanted the poor to be comforted. They wanted all
us children to be educated to be the best and the brightest. We were supposed
to reach for the stars!
Some
folks say those days are gone forever. Now I know my country has never been
perfect, but the America our kids are going up in, the country we are going to grow
old in, is not the America I once knew. I know I am preaching to the choir
here, but I want you all, to seriously think about this message. This is what I
have learned as a first time candidate and life-long Democrat. The Right are
Wrong. This isn’t a simple choice between pick red or blue. The people who tell
you they can’t see a difference between the two parties are at least half
blind. Their so-called “conservative values” agenda that has been driving our
nation has been driving it into the ground, 28 of the last 40 years we’ve been battling
their poison to our nation. As a school
teacher in a state where the GOP have cut 1.6 billion out of K-12 ed in just
the past four years, I can assure you they want your children be ignorant. They
want to public to stay sick and poor and fearful, because if you can keep a
people ignorant and sick and poor and fearful then they are easier to control!
See?
Wrong! They’ve been wrong on social issues. Move mountain and mole hill alike
to save Terry Schiavo but vote 30 times to throw 30 million Americans under the
bus, because they have to repeal Obamacare. Abstinence only sex-ed in the
country that leads the world in unwed teen pregnancy. Make sure the LBGT
community is forever made sure to always feel Queer. Cut arts funding, cut ed
funding, cut veterans benefits, decimate the social service network in our
country and brag about their morality? Throwing 800,000 Americans a year in
jail for cannabis possession and then installing the world’s leading opium
producers, the Karzai family, into office in Afghanistan. Newt Gingrich gonna
lecture me on morality? Wrong. Serial executioner Rick Perry gonna teach me
about the sanctity of life? And icky old Ricky Santorum gonna tell me how to
love Jesus by listing all the people he wants me to hate. Come on folks, from
the first time you saw him fail to properly rock a sweater vest, you knew the
guy was stark raving wrong.
They’ve
been consistently incredibly wrong on fiscal issues. Yeah, Romney? Gonna run
our country the same way you ran Bain-Capitol. Who you gonna downsize this
time? Wisconsin? Deregulation of Wall Street, deregulations of banking, Chicago
School type shock doctrine, quote “Free Market Capitalism” cut your way to
prosperity, while their corporate donors export all the good paying jobs then
whine because of our sluggish consumer spending. Chuck Glass-Steagall and let
banks gamble with grandma’s pensions? What could possibly be a problem with
that, huh? AND, how is it that when they ran back in 2010 promising to save the
economy, what they gave us instead was 900 statehouse bills to restrict women’s
reproductive rights. Yeah that’s creating jobs, con jobs.
And
when it comes to foreign relations, they have been dead wrong. Don’t forget
that these same guys who want to sell you Ryan Budget, and the Norquist pledge
once tried to sell you 900 lies about weapons of mass destruction. I could go
on and on, but then Jackie Adams would throttle me, besides, I know, I’m
preaching to the choir. What I don’t know, my fellow Democrats, is what you are
going to do about it. I know there are lots of campaigns and they’re always
asking for something, sometimes it seems all we want is your money (and don’t
get me wrong: if you try to chase me down with a fistful of hundred dollar
bills I will let you catch me). But that is not what I am asking for here. I am
asking each of you to start your own campaign about whatever you can campaign about
and get out there save America, while we still have a chance. I cannot
guarantee you little old ladies will bring you their moms to gawk at you, but
it could happen. I can guarantee you every time anyone of us try to save the
world, it does get that iota better and each time we do nothing, the other side
just makes it worse. Like my hero Howard Zinn said, the people have the power.
This disaster is still ours to avert. Let’s make this difference. It may be our
last chance. Please and thank you.
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