[Peace-discuss] Post-election analysis and thanks

[David Green]

Friends,
Once again I want to express my thanks for your support
during my campaign for Congress in IL-13 in the Democratic Primary election.
This election presented two alternatives to Ann Callis, the
candidate selected by Washington and Chicago Democratic Party power brokers,
who declined to provide specific responses in relation to the most pressing
issues of our time; instead, she chose to run a campaign based on “personality,”
and on the (correct) assumption that the national party’s well-funded and
AFL-CIO-endorsed “middle-of-the road” and “electable” candidate would prevail.
She appealed to the “middle class” and avoided using words like “poverty” and “poor.”
George Gollin presented himself as a “progressive”
alternative to Callis without specifically challenging those power brokers; in
doing so, he avoided criticism of American warmaking policies and of the Wall
Street and corporate roots of economic inequality and wealth concentration. He
avoided a class-based and neoliberal analysis of our current plight. While
presenting himself as an expert on technical educational issues, he failed to
address, for example, the intense class conflict now being witnessed on college
campuses, including that involving student debt and faculty unionization.
Both Callis and Gollin wrapped themselves in the flag of “veterans’
services” without commenting on the advisability and outcomes of our wars of
the past decade.
I was clear throughout regarding my opposition to Democratic
Party corporate politics as usual, which I believe does not represent the
majority of those expected to vote Democratic in general elections—especially
the poor. I was clear in my opposition to warmaking and military bases
overseas, and my support for a New Deal-style government jobs program and an “Occupy”-style
opposition to Wall Street. I also explicitly opposed the war on drugs, an issue
that otherwise would not have been mentioned in this campaign. Needless to say,
I was the only candidate who expressed support for the Palestinian struggle
against Israeli apartheid.
In Champaign County, where both Gollin and I live and 23% of
the Democratic ballots were cast in this election, he received nearly 53% of
the votes, while I received less than 11%. In the rest of this large, 13-county
district, he received less than 25% of the vote, while I received over 15%. Overall,
he received over 31%, while I received 14%. 
The Callis campaign spent over $400,000 and the Gollin
campaign likely spent over $200,000, while I spent $9,000. The first $4,000 was
collected from contributors like you, and was used to put up a website, buy
materials, and put gas in my car. The remaining $5,000, which I lent (donated)
to the campaign, was used to pay two women in Springfield who publicized my
candidacy in the rest of the district outside of Champaign County the best they
could, without the help of mailings or TV ads.
While media coverage was in many ways helpful in publicizing
my campaign, it was also (again needless to say) well within the “limits of
allowable debate.”
My primary goal in this campaign was to conduct myself with
the dignity that causes of social and economic justice demand and deserve by
their very nature. In that I feel I have mostly succeeded, with the added benefit
of the personal growth that results from persistent reflection on the relationships
among means and ends as we seek a better world.
While I don’t know what my future holds in relation to
electoral politics, I do know that this experience provided an invaluable
foundation for the remainder of a life of political awareness and activism,
during which I look forward to working with and walking alongside of people
like you.
Best regards,
David Green
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