Civic Participation
November 4th, 2005 by Vihar ShethPosted in Politics
On Wednesday night I attended my first general meeting for Democracy for America / Change for Missouri (DFA/CFM). I was actually asked to moderate the meeting and did a fairly reasonable job; no complaints is a sign of success! About 30 or so attendees heard from a number of our members and a few guests regarding a variety of issues.
Jeff Smith, who’s running for the Missouri State Senate’s 4th District seat next November, led off the meeting with a talk on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. He gave the audience a historical perspective on Supreme Court nominations over the last century and how more recent nominations - those in the last few decades - have been met with a much different response than in past, which is to say they have actually seen resistance. This was exceedingly rare prior to the mid- to late-twentieth century. Jeff also opined that Alito’s confirmation was fairly certain due to the make up of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Arlen Spector’s allegiance to the Republican party. He’s apparrently the only one who could swing what is predicted to be an 11 to nine vote in favor of bringing Alito’s nomination to the Senate floor into a 10 to 10 tie. Keep your fingers crossed.
A representative from Jane Bogetto’s office then talked briefly about her campaign and some last minute volunteer opportunities available before Tuesday’s election. I’m not too familiar with her campaign but I wish her the best of luck. Unfortunately there’s not much time to help out before the big day.
“It’s like-a torture!” The focus of our next discussion was John McCain’s Anti-Torture amendment 1977 to House bill 2863, the 2006 Department of Defense Appropriations Act 2006. The White House wants the amendment watered down. Yes, this is the same amendment which was voted for by a margin of 90 to nine in the Senate on October 5th. Our very own Kit Bond was one of the nine. Please call and let him know he’s a buffoon, and that holds regardless of the economic benefits he’s delivered to the region. Many of the people even hand-wrote letters to Bond and other Senators asking for them to reconsider their position. This issue is about the torturing innocent people (some to death) using unacceptable methods without formally charging them. The amendment re-standardizes what was once accepted practice in the military. Waivering from these standards has put soldiers’ and suspected criminals’ lives in jeapordy. The vote should have been 100 to zero in favor. All nice of the desenters should be ashamed.
Following this we heard from Democratic National Committe Chairman and Vermont Governor Howard Dean, his brother, Democracy for America Chairman Jim Dean and Democracy for America Executive Director Tom Hughes. None of them were actually at our meeting but what we experienced was something truly new to politics. On a conference call of about 500 people we had a former presidential candidate and chairman of a major political party address us in such a casual manner the significance of the moment was almost lost. Jim Dean and Tom Hughes, two individuals driving one of the largest progressive movements in the country, also answered questions but we didn’t stay on the call that long - Howard Dean’s participation was limited due to regulations governing fundraising and involvement in political organizations.
Some miscellaneous issues were discussed at the meeting also, and in the end, I was left with a feeling of empowerment and accomplishment. While my involvement in the development of (failed) amendments to the city of St. Louis’s charter was grassroots, this was my first experience in some time conducted by the people, for the people.
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