Saturday, August 14, 2010

Tea Partier, Action Figure, Green Partier

Will Jim Demint, Alvin Greene or Tom Clements Win the SC Senate Seat?

South Carolina’s US Sen
ate race is a media extravaganza. Jim DeMint, the radical right
Republican i
ncumbent and tea partier and Alvin Greene, a mysterious, unknown Democrat and action figure enthusiast who has been indicted on a felony obscenity charge are joined by Tom Clements, a peace and environmental activist. Newcomer Clements is the Green Party nominee and a life-long activist involved with vital public interest issues affecting South Carolina, the United States and the world. Clements excels in political research and advocacy.

DeMint, a former paper salesman and ad executive, is the hero of the far right. Media is drawn to the enigmatic Greene, giving him more coverage than any candidate in America according to the Pew Research Center. DeMint is the most ultra-conservative Senator in Congress. Greene would stimulate the economy by selling action figures of himself, which could include a jailbird, considering his indictment for showing pornography to a teenage student. But Clements’ record of public service and activism gives him the credibility to be a Senator for all the people.

I don’t know Jim DeMint or Alvin Greene personally. I do know Tom Clements. The candidates should have debates on critical issues such as war and peace, jobs with a living wage, economic and social justice, climate change, clean green energy, conservation of natural resources, health care, education, immigration reform, regulation of the finance industry and the national debt. The media has let us know plenty about DeMint and Greene. South Carolinians need to see and hear Tom Clements on these issues and understand why he will be a great senator.

The State in Columbia, SC reported that Clements has worked for Greenpeace International for 13 years. He has challenged leaders on nuclear issues in Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Europe. In South Carolina Clements led the environmental organization’s nuclear weapons watchdog efforts on operations at the Savannah River Site (SRS).

South Carolina has the most nuclear industry activity per capita of any state. This includes making nuclear weapons and electric power generation. Clements has led efforts to clean up deadly radioactive waste at the “bomb plant” aka SRS. He led the organizing of our demonstrations there which drew positive media coverage. Tom opposes bringing more nuclear waste to South Carolina and advocates a clean energy park at SRS that would help develop offshore wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable technologies and would create new jobs in our economy.

Clements led the fight in South Carolina against rate increases for utilities whose plans for costly nuclear reactor projects will force consumers to pay a decade in advance, and divert resources from developing energy efficiency and sustainable, non-polluting alternatives.

Clements has been recognized for his work as the Southeastern Nuclear Campaign Coordinator for Friends of the Earth, and received the Grassroots Activist of the Year award from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.

Working with Greenpeace International and as Director of the Nuclear Control Institute, Clements interacted with official representatives of other countries, at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, and at embassies in Washington, D.C. and abroad. He was a human rights activist in Central and South America, is fluent in Spanish and served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. He also worked for Peace Brigades International in Colombia, verifying human rights violations by the army, and paramilitary and guerrilla forces.

Clements says DeMint works for corporate interests rather than the people of South Carolina. “Jim DeMint is obviously more concerned about raising money for questionable radical candidates in other states than he is about listening to the people of South Carolina,” said Clements. “DeMint is AWOL and needs to come home and join in the discussion about who the people will choose to represent them.”

Clements contends that “military madness is killing our people, undermining our economy, and threatening our security. Costly and misguided military adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan and expensive military bases around the globe continue to severely undermine our economy and threaten to bankrupt us financially and spiritually.” “The military budget for the Pentagon and other agencies comes close to $900 billion. Including costs for expenses incurred by past military spending, the tab comes to a whopping $1.4 trillion, or 48% of the budget. We now see the highest military spending in the past 60 years with over $1 trillion having been spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.”

South Carolina can do better than Jim DeMint and his radical right agenda. It is time to turn away from our legacy of militarism, racism and fundamentalism.

We have the highest ratio of military personnel and civilians working for the military to non military related people of any state. The military brings big bucks to our economy. Much of our media glorifies and romanticizes war even more than the national media. The Christian Coalition was founded in South Carolina and Lee Atwater brought fundamentalists from their revival tents into the "big tent" of the Republican Party.

The three bumper stickers on my car say "War is Terrorism, With a Bigger Budget" and "Peace on Earth" with “Tom Clements for US Senate” in the middle.

Tom Clements wants to end war and make peace. Find out more about him. I support Tom, a green partier who works for peace and social justice.

7 comments:

  1. Jim DeMint is no more radical right than Obama is radical left.

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  2. I want to thank you for spreading the good word. Tom Clements is the obvious choice. Period. But isn't it funny how the weakness in Jim DeMint (read: everything about him) is exactly what appeals to so many people? War has become such a "normal" reaction to so many Americans that waging peace seems radical. Our right to use as much wasteful, deadly fossil fuel - as well as nuclear energy - seems God given to so many and any ideas to the contrary are viewed as subversive. There is also the ever present idea that if you are not voting one of the two major parties that your vote is unpatriotic.

    I want to thank you for the links you have on your blog too. When I want to get informed opinions I come to your blog and click on a link I've never read before. While I don't always agree (Brad Warthen for example), it is cool to read informed opinions and meaningful stories.

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  3. Andrew Bacevich has a new book out, Washington Rules. I can't wait to read it. He and Clements would see eye-to-eye. And your Anon. commenter is a diptwad.

    I've often thought that Alvin Greene was a Jim DeMint plant and TN's Basil Marceaux was the Left's back-atcha.

    Thanks for the good word on Clements. He's got my vote.

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  4. Thanks for the comment, Anonymous.

    I'm not a political scientist, but if I characterized the politics of Obama and DeMint on the left-right scale I would put Obama in the middle of the road and DeMint on the far right. Obama could become road kill by having moved to the middle of the road and turning off his original base of progressives who elected him. DeMint is so far to the right that he could end up in the dirty ditch of Fascism where big corporations run the government with an iron fist.

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  5. Thanks for your comment Tim.

    It is especially gratifying coming from such an excellent writer as you. (check out our blog list for Ordinary Guy).

    We have been sold the two party system by corporate and special interests for a very long time. Big monied interests have institutionalized their control by lobbying and funding both parties that they pretty much get what they want. The Democrats are marginally more progressive, but we need vigorous new parties and leaders to emerge. The corporate media mostly sings the praises of the magnificent two party system that "made our country great".

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  6. Thanks for you comment, Nance.

    Andrew Bacevich was a career military person who became a colonel and was in the Vietnam debacle. He is now a professor at Boston University. His son was killed in the Iraq war. Bacevich was a guest on my radio show a couple of times in 2009 and I've seen him being interviewed on television about his new book.

    I hope readers will check you out at Mature Landscaping on our blog list.

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  7. If Clements can't make it in SC, he can come over here to TN. We could use someone with brains. But I'm beginning to think they're in short supply these days no matter where you look.

    Until now I've always respected Pew Research. No way they can convince me that Greene has received more coverage. Assuming they mean the current elections only, idjit Angle has done pretty well and so has Brewer.

    I delete Anons ad people without real blogs, which ads up to the same thing. If people don't have the courage to use their own names, they don't need to comment. Do newspapers publish letters from "diptwads." ; ) Have to remember that one.

    Great article and good luck.

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