[Iowa-dx] Interview w/ McKinney

[Hart, Holly J]

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Wikinews interviews Cynthia McKinney

March 7, 2008

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_interviews_U.S._Green_Party_presidenti=
al_candidate_Cynthia_McKinney<http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_intervie=
ws_U.S._Green_Party_presidential_candidate_Cynthia_McKinney>

Wikinews: Why are you running for president?

Congresswoman McKinney: It is clear that the country
needs an additional political party that is not
beholden to special interests or corporate lobbyists.
Just 5% of the electorate, voting for a third party
candidate gets the nation just that. Therefore, for
those who are tired of the ability of special interests
and corporate interests to subvert the will of the
people, their values, or change their policy makers,
winning the 5% is the best way to infuse structural
change into our political system.

A victory for the Green Party in this election is
possible and necessary. The alternative we present will
appeal to the large numbers of disfranchised voters who
do not see the major party candidates addressing their
issues. In order for a democratic government to work in
the public interest, it has to be both transparent and
accountable. If 5% vote Green, it will put a third
chair at the table of American politics, and it will
open the door to the people to see what is going on
inside the two-party system that has become controlled
by corporations and the expanding power of a military,
industrial, and intelligence complex that President
Eisenhower warned of in 1960. The Green Party will
represent the voices of the majority of diverse and
disfranchised voters and citizens and will directly and
effectively address their issues.

I spent my birthday last year protesting in front of
the Pentagon. At that rally, I stated that upon winning
a majority of the seats in the Congress, the Democratic
representatives should have repealed the Bush tax cuts,
repealed the Patriot Act, the Secret Evidence Act, and
the Military Tribunals Act. And that the majority in
Congress should have voted a livable wage for America's
workers. And that someone should be trying to locate
the $2.3 trillion lost by the Pentagon to pay instead
for jobs, health care, and education. I was saddened by
the Democratic majority's failure to stop funding the
war, and declared my own independence from a national
leadership that gave us war crimes, torture, and crimes
against humanity. Unfortunately, there is not a major
party candidate in the race that has not voted to fund
this war. And that vote to fund what is clearly an
immoral and illegal war is a vote of complicity in the
torture and war crimes that are being committed as part
of this war.

The deep economic morass which is facing our country
today is not being adequately addressed. We are
witnessing, through the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the
greatest wealth transfer in our history from Black and
Latino households. Yet, while they are being asked to
tighten their belts, the CEOs of the banks that caused
this crisis are reaping maximum pay. Even the solutions
proposed by the major candidates focus on using
taxpayers' funds to reimburse the banks instead of
funding alternative refinancing in the poorest
communities. It is clear that in this scenario,
the banks always win.

Well, I think it's time that the people win. Our
children shouldn't have to graduate from college one
hundred thousand dollars in debt. That is a policy
choice made by public policy makers. We don't have to
have 48 million Americans without access to health
insurance, and even more who are under-insured. Our
Congress doesn't have to authorize an increase in
national borrowing to nearly $10 trillion shrouded in
secrecy. This country should not have racial disparity
gaps wider now than at the time of the murder of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. But these are the facts about
conditions that Americans are forced to live through
every day. Sadly, our policy makers would rather have
our country spend $720 million a day on war. Just
imagine what that amount could buy in a single payer
health care system, education subsidies from Head Start
to university, or green technology home conversions and
sustainable, safe and non-polluting energy sources.

Politics can change things. I have seen that in my
lifetime. But we must have policy makers committed to
the kind of public policy that reflects our values and
those policy makers must be more than marionettes whose
strings are pulled by forces not seen or understood by
the voters. Those are some of the compelling reasons
why I chose to leave the Democratic Party after many
years and to run for President on the Green Party ticket.

WN: You were a Democrat until not too long ago. Why the
switch to the Green Party?

Congresswoman McKinney: The Green Party is an
international party that makes policy in other
countries in the world. Due to the importance of
environmental issues, Green issues are the issues of
today. The Ten Key Values of the Green Party stress us
getting along with each other in harmony with the
planet that gives us life. We need to get along with
each other, and we need to respect our environment. The
Green Party also is not constrained in its policy
positions by considerations of large corporate donors
because the Green Party is supported by individuals who
share its values, not large donors intent on gaining
concessions at the expense of the people and the U.S.
national interest.

WN: If elected, how would you handle Iraq?

Congresswoman McKinney: I would instruct the Joint
Chiefs to draw up a plan for the orderly withdrawal of
all U.S. troops from the country. I would dismantle our
military bases in the area, and I would also demand
that U.S. and other international corporations
relinquish any claims to Iraqi oil or other resources
and withdraw as well. I would encourage the Iraqi
people to select their own leaders through the ballot
box with assistance from the best minds in the
universities regionally and in the world, in very much
the same way that the Constitution of the Republic of
South Africa was written. I would support the
establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission
to inaugurate a just peace and I would deploy a Peace
Corps to the country that would work in concert with
the reconstruction needs of the Iraqi people and their
leadership.

I would go further than Iraq. I would deconstruct
AFRICOM, the new continent-wide U.S. military command
set up in Africa, to show the world that the United
States has more to share with it than its military
might, destabilizing covert operations, nukes, bombs,
and missiles. I would work with the Congress to make
sure that the face of U.S. engagement with the world is
not a military one.

WN: How would you handle abortion?

Congresswoman McKinney: I would not change Roe v. Wade,
I would protect and expand women's reproductive rights,
and I would work with Congress to bolster family
planning and protection against sexually transmitted
diseases here and abroad. I would also support better
sex education in our schools and community centers, as
well as making safe and healthy preventive measures
available through heath care providers and community
programs to reduce unwanted pregnancies and the spread
of HIV/AIDS. Many factors come into any woman's
decision to get pregnant or have an abortion. We are
still missing effective policies to insure safe,
affordable and effective birth control for both
genders, programs that support education and employment
for single parents, courts that insure child support
payments, and available health care through pregnancy
and childbirth, and for children.

WN: There are thousands reading this right now. What
could you say to convince them to give you their vote?

Congresswoman McKinney: People in Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Italy, Nicaragua,
and Spain decided that even during their deepest
national tragedies, they would vote their values, their
dreams, and their aspirations. The governments that
resulted were not just face-changes, but were
governments reflective of the people's deep longing for
real change. As a result, policies are being offered
and implemented that reflect the truest values of the
people--they want to enjoy peace and the right of self-
determination.

I believe in the good that our government can do to
respect civil liberties, the dignity of work,
restorative justice (not just incarceration for
profit), and peace. I believe that whoever wins the
general election right now, Barack Obama, Hillary
Clinton or John McCain, the people will still need a
third party with standing to keep them accountable. But
to achieve these goals, 5% of us are going to have to
do something we've never done before in order to have
something we've never had before. I am taking a stand
for justice and for peace. I hope others willing to
step outside of the two-party paradigm will join me in
an effort to make the structural change in the
political system that our country so urgently needs.