Thursday, March 13, 2014

Voter discussion and debate

My Open letter to Alabama delegation in Washington solicited Senators Shelby and Sessions and Representative Bachus to comment on whether the charges I am making in my campaign were worthy of discussion and debate in the 6th Congressional district election campaign.  Senator Shelby's office called me and gave me a non-response response.  Senator Sessions and Representative Bachus have not replied. Thus far, to my knowledge, none of the other six candidates have expressed anything about the charges I am making.

I will begin reporting reaction and feedback I am getting from voters.  I will do this on a non-identifying basis. I will give the date of the comment and the comment or an extract from the comment,   If I replied to the commenter, I will also give my reply or an extract from my reply.  If something is in bracked in blue boldface below, it is my response to the comment at this time and not something I said to the commenter at the time.

Voter comment on March 8th
You offer no solutions. Got your message about stagnation and big $$ influence in Washington. So what? Tell us your proposals. Are you aware of the problem? Yes. But, what differentiates you from the next one? To me, anyone who complains without offering a logical solution is worse than the ones we already have.
What are your positions on issues that are important to the people of this district? Abortion? 2nd Amendment? States' rights? Deficit? Size of the fed gov? Without CLEARLY defining these, you will not move out of the gate. Define and purpose your solutions. [My contention is that Congress is dysfunctional and is not properly doing its job for the American people to consider and reach agreement (including compromise agreement) for solving or trying to solve the country's problems.  Fixing that dysfunctionality thus has priority and primacy, because good ideas and solutions can't get acted on until the dysfunctionality is fixed.  My diagnosis is that the money monster in politics is the main cause of the dysfunctionality, the political class in Washington personally benefits from the money monster and will not act of its own accord, and the citizens must act in concert to force the political class in Washington to address the money monster problem.]

Voter comment on March 11th
That is your opinion. Not everyone agrees with that assessment. We have adysfunctional Senate and Executive Branch as well and an over reaching
Judicial Branch. A negative campaign is not the way to go. I do not see
anything in your message that is positive or that you are going to do or
propose. So is that what it is coming to? Just a position for someone to
fill at the taxpayer's expense? There are some informed voters in this
district.
I replied to the commenter as follows:
May I ask whether you think what I am raising is at least worthy of discussion and debate?
As my email indicates, to my knowledge, none of the other six candidates has been willing to say anything, one way or the other, about what I am raising (i.e., they are not even willing to say, "this is not worthy of discussion and debate, and to spend any time on it is a waste of the candidates' time and a waste of the voters' time").
If what I am raising is not worthy of discussion and debate, I guess I will endure being ignored for the next three months and will waste some of candidates' time and voters' time.

Comments after Eagle Forum

One person said to me to the effect of, "What you said probably went over a lot of people's heads, but I understood it."

A second person said to the effect of, "You said things that needed to be said."


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1 comment:

  1. As I was reading some of your previous entires, it says you think the ACA is a monstrosity. The Birmingham News reported that you realize that the subsidies for premiums are just taking effect. My question is where do you stand on it? As a citizen in your district, I need a candidate that will stop threatening to take away my health insurance (I just got real insurance for the first time ever thanks to the ACA and I don't get assistance for it). What I need is a candidate who will make amends that might be necessary but not repeal it. So where exactly do you stand?

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