Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

I met Chris on the progressive meetup circuit in Brooklyn. He is a member of Democracy for NYC and of New Democratic Majority and was an early Dean supporter. He marches in anti-war protests and plays concerts to raise money to protect neighborhoods from corrupt developers. He calls for impeachment, mainly based on the illegal wiretapping scandal, and has been endorsed by ImpeachPAC. He calls for a withdrawal from Iraq. He supports marriage equality. He supports instant runoff elections. He supports campaign finance reform. Hell, there is hardly any issue I disagree with him on!

I have written a summary of the race on Daily Gotham focusing on all five candidates based on a candidates forum hosted by Lambda Independent Democrats.

Here is the core of his post on MLW (there is more if you go there):

We have less than 10 years to take dramatic steps and halt global warming or everything else will soon pale in comparison.  These steps include the development of alternate energy sources and new policies regarding our oceans.  Six years have already been lost, so there is no more time to lose. I will be a force for the changes we need.

We have less than 5 years to establish a new set of military and economic relationships with nations such as China, India, Iran, and North Korea, as well as blocs such as the Caribbean, South America and the Middle East.  (Yes, we should promote a regional economic structure for Yemen, Israel, the Palestine state, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Iraq region, Iran, Kuwait and the U.A.E.) I will be the gadfly and a leader in these efforts.

We have less than 2 years to involve the international community in a comprehensive effort to address Iran's nuclear issues and its involvement with state-sponsored terrorism.  We must also assist our ally, Israel, and the Palestinian people during this time to move closer to a permanent peace, and work diplomatically with Pakistan to strengthen its civil society.  And we must resolve the outstanding issues involved with oppressive debt of poorer nations, and the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa and Asia. You will hear and see me in the Congress working for these outcomes.

And we have no time at all to stop the reactionary forces abusing Presidential power, promoting torture, eroding women's rights - including the end of reproductive choices, diminishing the rights and opportunities of people of color, dismissing the well-being of Gulf States and New Orleans residents, packing our Supreme Court, consolidating corporate power at the expense of workers, and exporting employment opportunities.  And there are numerous other crises that are imminent. I am fighting now and I will continue fighting.

But we need a philosophical basis for our work - a foundation for our message. I believe that "equality" must be the new moral and political standard for progressives in America.  The hollow sound of "equal opportunity" must die away, and the call for "equality" sounded across the land. What does this mean?  We need to pursue national policies for universal and single-payer-based health coverage, for quality and affordable housing rights, for excellent public education, for equal rights regardless of race, sex, religion and sexual orientation, for a national right to vote, a national full-employment standard, and for a national energy policy.  If we need to set forth Constitutional amendments, so be it.  The right-wing has no problem pursuing Constitutional changes that exclude and harm people.  We need to provide the counterweights.

My role as a Representative will be to push our new standards forward.  This century will be one of ideological warfare such as we have never seen.  Democrats willing to fight this war are the Democrats we need in office today.  If we love America, we must win. Defeat is not an option!

One reader of my national newsletter is an 80+ year old, very progressive woman who lives in the reddest part of Tennessee. She tells me that she subscribed to my newsletter because she wants to see a new Patrick Henry or Tomas Paine whose oratory and rhetoric will reignite the passion of the people and restore heart and soul to the Democratic Party. I think her implication was that she had hoped I would be such a person but that I have not lived up to her hopes. Well, she is still and avid reader and I never imagined myself being the next Tomas Paine or Patrick Henry. But her point is that the Democratic Party lacks inspiring leaders. When I hear David Yassky speak, I do not hear a voice that would impress the 80+ year old progressive woman in Tennessee. When I hear Chris Owens speak, I hear someone who would at least raise an eyebrow of even that old veteran of so many years of America politics. Maybe Chris won't be the great orator she is looking for, but he sure comes close. And who knows, maybe he would be the leader we all want.

So that is what I think about Chris Owens. I think he is a candidate that would be ideal for the Netroots to get behind. But don't take my word for it. Please visit his diary on My Left Wing, read what he has to say, and please comment. If you like what he says, please consider helping him out.