When we go to the grocery store, we're seeing huge increases of 20, 30, even 40% in the prices of milk, bread, eggs, pasta-- There's the food crisis. Ethanol from corn sounded like a good idea on paper, but it has become a disaster. Fields previously used for wheat and other food crops are being converted to corn fields, and this has led to massive food price increases. All across the world, food riots are exploding, creating instability, even taking down the government of Haiti over the weekend. It looks like the ethanol solution does not work and is making things much worse.
There are sooo many progressive issues that can use clarification. This protracted conflict between Clinton and Obama offers a great opportunity to get the candidates either on the record or to show that they are obfuscating and avoiding-- doing the smoke and mirrors thing.
Be a dynamic progressive activist. Most progressives I know did not start out supporting Obama or Hillary. Unless you plan to go third party, you will probably be supporting one of these two candidates, probably Obama. So let's get out there and pepper them both with questions that will nail them down on the issues we care about.
Plan and script your question. You won't get to ask any more than one in this election. But you can do a few and share them with your group. Plan them as a team. If your team gets lucky, a few members will each get to ask a question. So don't sit next to each other, fan out through the crowd.
Start off with the basic issue. Then open the question innocuously, talking about some aspect of life we all can relate to. Want to talk about phone company spying? Start off by talking about a phone conversation with your mother, or child. Then segue into the hard question. Then quickly, before Obama or Clinton thinks your finished, re-state even more clearly, so there's less waffle-room. Once you've come up with a script, develop very brief notes you can put on a card that fits in the palm of your hand-- a 3 by 2.5 card..
Make sure you speak loudly and clearly.
Dress conservatively. Don't stand out as strange. Part of the goal is to get on national TV and look credible, not like a kook. If the media ask about who you are, tell the truth. You don't have to talk to them, but if you do, they may use the footage, if you speak in plain English, without political jargon, and come off as a regular person, not an overly intense, angry political operative or activist.
Remember, the goal is not to get either candidate in trouble. The goal is to push the candidates-- to either move to the left or clearly state their positions on progressive issues. We can do this, people. We can use the corpstream media to amplify our message and nail down the candidates' positions.
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Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com
With his experience as architect and founder of a technorati top 100 blog, he is also a new media / social media consultant and trainer for corporations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and authors.
Rob is a frequent Speaker on the bottom up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates, and optimizing tapping the power of new media. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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