MW: Well I do get tracked, not much more. In 2012 when the district was fresh, there was a lot of campaign activity that involved multiple candidates. This year, the only candidates forums, or a majority of them were held during the primary, and since democrats didn't have contested primaries, we by and large weren't invited to these candidate forums. Paul Gosar also didn't have a contested primary so he didn't attend any of them either. When we're together in the same room, we're very cordial and positive -- he's a personable man on a social level; he's hardworking and dedicated to his cause -- unfortunately his cause is dismantling things that are good in America so...dang it, I can't give him any more support than that.
Rob: Why aren't you having debate with him?
MW: I have tried. I'm like three deep into requests for debate; A local community college has offered the facilities on various campuses to his campaign and to my campaign encouraging the debate; my supporters around the state have done a letter writing campaign to his office calling for a debate; but as his campaign manager, Tom Van Flein, hasn't taken the bait. As he and I have discussed, it does no good at all for Paul to meet with me to debate me. If he talks to me then it gives credence to the media that there's something to hear from my side. Right now, like I was telling you, the Kingman media is doing their best to shut out news of democrats...
Rob: Yes.
MW: He doesn't have to worry about us getting our voice out in the press unless he draws attention to me. So he's fairly safe. I've had more attention from national press and even international press than I have out of my own, like, hometown. Though, Bullhead City, which is about 30 miles away from where I live, did a really nice article -- I taught there for ten years -- and they acknowledged that I'm part of the establishment left in our community. You need to have an establishment left because the establishment right is always working.
Rob: What do you mean by establishment left?
MW: Establishment left are groups like Move On, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, PDA -- groups that have become institutions in and of themselves, who fight for liberal causes in the public sector and in the political sector. That's what I refer to as the establishment left. About 25 years ago I moved to Springfield, Illinois -- land of Lincoln, state capital -- and became a member of an activist community that was centered around a food co-op, King Harvest Food Co-op...I eventually was the manager of that food co-op for a couple of years; and in that milieu, I saw that there were people of all these different organizations that were progressive organizations that knew each other socially; that shopped at the same store; they went to the same parties, you know? That's the establishment left. Since the battle of politics and the direction of culture is continuous, and you've got people like David Barton out of Texas or Rush Limbaugh always working on pushing the right side, you have to have an establishment left...you have to have people who are dedicating their lives to on and on, fighting for the good causes, either in their personal walk or through the organizations that they're part of. That's the establishment left.
Rob: Have any of them helped you besides PDA?
MW: In Arizona I've gotten quite a bit of support from activists but traditional politics has been slow to get on board. Homespun-ness is a big part of my campaign. I dress like a construction worker -- I wear a white shirt and blue jeans and Chuck Taylor tennis shoes every day, and it's very populist minded, and that's hard for traditional political believers to appreciate because it seems like it's self-marginalizing, but the working man everyman is actually a message I'm intending. So I don't get the buy-in that I would like from groups by and large, but individuals have come through. Like, I'm a member of Code Pink; Medea Benjamin and I have talked -- she personally loves my work...of course there's nothing more that their organization can do because they're a nonprofit. On the other hand, Raul Grijalva, Representative Raul Grijalva made sure that I got the endorsement through PDA because he's on their board of directors; that's some examples of some establishment left figures. Here in Arizona, former head of national ACLU, Roberto Reveles has been a big contributor to my campaign and has made sure that I get to participate in his local community. Like I said the marijuana community has given me some backing; the activist organizations have given me backing; and some environmental organizations haven't given me backing but they speak well of me.
Rob: That sounds like you've put together an amazing array of supports and networking with an incredibly small amount of money. Do you have a staff working with you -- a campaign staff?
MW: I have my wife, Beth Weisser, who should be a hero to people all over America -- that woman is so dedicated. And beyond that I've had people who have occasionally volunteered for me, but because we're so lean of a campaign, you know, we hardly have any money to do anything. And yet, I would say there's probably 30 people around the state where I could go to them tonight and say I need to sleep at your house and they would have me stay there. And I have 14 people who are participating in PDA's Phonebanking campaign for me, and they are mostly in Arizona but there's also people in Oregon and California.
Instead of developing my campaign so much, I worked on working with the local organizations -- either the county parties or the legislative district parties in the metropolitan areas -- to make sure that it wasn't about Mikel Weisser as much as it was about this culture-changing movement. People gave me a lot of crap when I said I wanted to create a movement. They said, 'Well you can't be a candidate and create a movement,' but we need to. You heard the statistics of how outmatched we are socially, how dominated we are culturally -- we won't be able to effect the kind of changes we need if we don't work at the cultural level. Part of the reason that Obama has been thwarted as much as he has -- and I'm one of the people who thought that Obama was a moderate....people can read it on OpEdNews -- but he was thwarted even more so nonetheless because the culture didn't change, the culture remained, you know, conservative redneck; republican values, and that's why he's had an uphill battle. So my thought it, we've got to outplay the conservative rednecks; we've got to outwork the people who say tax cuts are the way to solve problems and call them on their b.s., and eventually, much like the ACT UP movement for LGBT rights, we'll get the change that we need socially.
Oh, earlier when you were asking me about support, I left out the LGBT community. In my early...
Rob: You mentioned it...you mentioned it.
MW: Okay, good...yeah. In my early life I was in part raised by a lesbian aunt, Suzanne Nicholson (I love that woman), and my best friend in high school when he went to college came out...turned out that he was in love with me, Rick Fiero, love the guy; and later I was gay bashed because we were roommates. We couldn't make a romance go but we were roommates and I got gay bashed almost to the point of death -- I had to have my face rebuilt. So since the early 80s I've been a powerful speaker about this issue, and yesterday, even though Tucson is 150 miles away from my congressional district, I was asked to go down and speak to their community so...yeah, I get a lot of support from that group.
And the ACT UP movement is the great example of how progressives can gain ground. The ACT UP movement's success was in this century repeated by unfortunately the Tea Party using very similar techniques. You know, I'm not talking that they have the same philosophy or the same social agenda, but the techniques of the activist community were similar -- direct conflict against your oppressors, large theatrical presentations, over-the-top camp in your presentations to create people's imaginations...to trigger stereotypes that can get the public thinking in the long run...it's worked in these two groups and I believe that it can work for the democrats -- that's what I've been doing...yeah.
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