Reply #31: Thanks for honestly asking [View All]

If you poke around into our backgrounds, you will find that a disproportionally high percentage of Clark's strongest grassroots supporters are heavily oriented to the liberal/progressive/left radical side of the political spectrum. We all have our own stories about how surprised and almost unnerved we were at finding ourselves feeling so strongly positive about a Four Star General who wanted to be President. Lot's of internal double and triple takes, going back and researching him more, going to see him in person, back to doing more researching etc. went into our choices to support Wes Clark. Even then most of us held onto some skepticism for awhile, but Clark kept coming through for us on matters of importance, not only on the issues but also on his openess with us and his support for our initiatives. The man truly values what we do and makes that clear to us in person.

Keep in mind that Wes Clark was asked to run for President by Jimmy Carter, and was endorsed for President by George McGovern in 2004. More telling perhaps was the endorsement Michael Moore gave Clark in 2004, one which he sent out to everyone on his mailing list. Michael spent many hours with Clark in person before deciding to endorse him. I am not saying that Clark is the most liberal/progressive Democrat who can win an election in America. But I do think he probably is the most liberal/progressive Democrat who can win a Presidential election in America. I realize of course that not everyone will reach that same conclusion, but the evidence that Clark is in fact liberal is strong and compelling. He has stated that to solve the health care crisis in America we need to move toward a single payer insurance system for example.

When you have time you should visit the archived web site that still contains the issue specific platform that Clark ran on in 2004. Here is the link:

http://www.clark04.com/index.html

The stance Clark took on taxes was strongly progressive. Clark had no hesitation at all stating that those who had the ability to pay more in taxes should pay more in taxes. In other words he didn't weasal around, he defended the basic concept of progressive taxation. When he announced his full tax plan, which many observers thought was among the most progressive if not the most progressive plan offered in 2004. This is how one media story covered his press conference call out of Karl Rove when it was unveiled in public:

"If Karl Rove is watching today, Karl, I want you to hear me loud and clear: I am going to provide tax cuts to ease the burdens for 31 million American families -- and lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty -- by raising the taxes on 0.1 percent of families -- those who make more than $1,000,000 a year. You don't have to read my lips, I'm saying it," Clark said.

"And if that makes me an 'old-style' Democrat, then I accept that label with pride and I dare you to come after me for it."

I always loved that quote, and when I went looking for it to post here for you I came across a few more to share:

"But you don't have a chance if you can't find a job. I don't think it penetrates the minds of this Administration what it must be like for a factory worker to arrive home to his family with the news that he's been laid off. What it must be like not to know what the future holds for your children, because you don't know what the future holds for you. What it must be like to see the government take hundreds of billions of dollars that could be used to fund job training, unemployment benefits, or jobs programs — and instead to send that money off to people who have such staggering wealth that the new money won't make the tiniest improvement in their lifestyle. What it must be like to be told that tax cuts for the rich are necessary to create jobs for working people, and then to see jobs fall month after month for more than 30 months. If that doesn't break your heart, you don't have a heart."

"Well, last I checked, there was no 'if' in the 15th Amendment. One person one vote isn't just a slogan — it's the highest law of this land. As president, I will not rest until every single American can cast their vote, and every single one of those votes is counted. We shouldn't have to wait for another Florida to fully fund election reform."

"Maybe it's because I've never been in politics, but I don't believe that America is run by politicians in Washington. I believe it's run by people like us, in places like this."

All of the above are sourced at the Wesley Clark Wikiquote site:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark

But what absolutely sold it for me was when I heard Wes Clark say this during an interview on National Public Radio in New Hampshire:

"I think we're at a time in American history that's probably analogous to, maybe, Rome before the first emperors, when the Republic started to fall... I think if you look at the pattern of events, if you look at the disputed election of 2000, can you imagine? In America, people are trying to recount ballots and a partisan mob is pounding on the glass and threatening the counters? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine a political party which does its best to keep any representatives from another party — who've even been affiliated with another party — from getting a business job in the nation's capital? Can you imagine a political party that wants to redistrict so that its opponents can be driven out entirely?...it's a different time in America and the Republic is — this election is about a lot more than jobs. I'm not sure everybody in America sees it right now. But I see it, I feel it."

You can listen to that interview archived here:
http://www.nhpr.org/node/5339