Mike Gravel on Government Reform Libertarian for President; Former Democratic Senator (AK)

Secrecy makes democracy a sham

[In a 1972 speech, I said], “Our nation was founded at town meetings, where all citizens had a voice in the decisions of government. But the center of decision-making has escaped the people, and has even moved beyond Congress. With its ability to define state secrets, the executive has assumed unprecedented power. The widespread and uncontrolled abuse of secrecy has fostered distrust and division between the government and its people. Separated from the public by a wall of secrecy and their desire for power, leaders have failed to heed the people. The barriers of secrecy have allowed the national security apparatus to exclude those who question dogma. The result has been a failure to give serious attention to alternatives.

Presidents often tend toward monarchy, especially during war

Some presidents, like Nixon & Bush, have found it hard to resist the temptation toward monarchy. None have dared conjure an emergency to suspend the Constitution. They have just worked around it.

There’s a long tradition of accusing presidents of acting like monarchs: Andrew Jackson was called “King Andrew the First,” and Dubya’s been dubbed “King George.” But the worst executive abuses have naturally come during war.

The people’s representatives have let us down, representing not their interests but their elite backers instead. The people are without the kind of Congress or a press it would need to defend itself. Both have been hijacked. Just look at how poorly Congress, the courts, and the media confined George W. Bush to his constitutional role.

1972: Senate presented evidence for 1st time in Gravel case

Saxbe suggested that the Senate, but no other branch, could investigate who gave me the Pentagon Papers. He even said the Senate could turn me in if it determined I’d committed a crime. Saxbe was engaging in fantasy. The Senate never investigated me.

1972: Lost Supreme Court case, United States v. Gravel

We had maintained that informing constituents is a protected legislative act. But we lost, 5-4. The real stinger was that the decision also said both [my Senate aide] Rodberg and I were liable to be criminally indicted. I lost the case.

But all 9 justices reaffirmed that under the Speech and Debate Clause I could say whatever I wanted, even read a top-secret document, as long as it was part of a legislative act. But the minute I stepped out of the Capitol grounds onto the street and uttered the same words in an act not related to legislative procedure I could be indicted if it were deemed a crime. Both Rodberg and I were on the hook. We were only saved by the gravity of Nixon’s crimes [in Watergate, which came to light that same summer]

Senators can & should reveal secret war plans with impunity

Durbin is dead wrong. If his staff had only researched my case he could have indeed walked out that door and onto the Senate floor and spoke his mind about the lies the administration were weaving about Iraq. Had he and other senators done so, a catastrophe may have been averted. Instead, as Durbin said: “I listened to this heated debate about invading Iraq, thinking the American people are being misled. I didn’t feel at the time that the American people knew the real facts.” If only Durbin had recognized his rights and dared to act.

I hate government secrecy; it only protects government

Use political power to accomplish something

FISA was created to check abuse of power

“Domestic intelligence activity has threatened and undermined the Constitutional rights of Americans to free speech, association and privacy,” the Church Committee’s final report said. “It has done so primarily because the Constitutional system for checking abuse of power has not been applied.“ The Congressional investigations resulted in laws prohibiting the assassination of foreign leaders and the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The executive branch is supposed to get permission from this special court before it can engage in surveillance. We saw how effective this law was after September 11, 2001: not very.

Public taxpayer funding for federal candidates

Gravel supports the following principles regarding campaign finance reform:
• Support public taxpayer funding for federal candidates who comply with campaign spending limits.
• “I support clean campaigns and work to reduce the corrupting influence of money in politics.”

Incumbents blocking FEC matching funds for other candidates

“This is politics as usual,” said Gravel. “The FEC has been effectively neutered with respect to policing the entire 2008 election cycle.” More precisely, added Gravel, Sen. Barack Obama is one of the senators who has a hold on these appointments. With only two members, the six-member commission is two votes short of the quorum it needs. As a result, the FEC is unable to certify public funding for presidential candidates. The agency is also unable to investigate allegations of campaign finance violations.

“The two major parties in Washington could resolve this impasse,’ said Gravel. ”But it now appears that their power is being abused to prevent any other presidential candidates from getting a fair shake.“

Public empowerment appeals to progressives & libertarians

It’s this kind of rhetoric that is winning Gravel fans among libertarians. The idea of direct democracy might have broad appeal to an electorate sick of a political system mired in soft money, corporate cronyism, and partisan gridlock. Nearly half the states already have procedures for initiative, referendum, and recall, and California citizens are fiercely attached to their ballot box veto power. In one sense, then, Gravel is just trying to spread this already popular concept to the federal level.

National Initiative criticized as public opinion bureaucracy

However, he also added the idea of considering laws backed by a public opinion poll. But opinion polls can easily be manipulated by the people who pay for them.

Gravel insists the initiative process is “not intended to replace existing government, but to supplement it.“ Gravel’s National Initiative would be carried out by an Electoral Trust, with one member elected at large from each state and a director appointed by the board of trustees. This Electoral Trust in effect creates a new political bureaucrac of people who can draft laws, operate a communications system, set up committees and run hearings. Like the Federal Reserve System, it lies outside the federal government structure, and is not appointed by or beholden to the president.

Americans are getting fatter & dumber; must get empowered!

A: Well, first off, I am prepared to tell you that Americans are getting fatter and dumber. I have no problem saying that. I’ve also said that the Americans are going to get the government they deserve. And so, if things are going bad, just remember who put these people in power. What I’m trying to say to you Americans, and that is you have to become empowered. You’re too busy trusting your leaders, thinking they’re going to do the job for you. They’ve proven they cannot do the job, whether it’s war, whether it’s education, whether it’s health care. Please go to NationalInitiative.us and vote to empower yourself. Because that is the only answer. Representative government and our government is broken.

Asks candidates to pledge to use existing public finance law

When you use political capital, more capital flows your way

I was a state representative. And that first year, as a freshman, when they say, “Oh, I can’t use my capital, because I’ve got bigger things to do.” I’ll tell you what I found out in life as a political leader -- use your capital, because more is going to flow your way. Because when you win, then more capital comes over the side for you.

Obama avoids PAC money, but takes lobbyists’ bundled money

GRAVEL: Barack Obama says he doesn’t take money from lobbyists. Well, he has 134 bundlers. Now, what does he think that is? And, besides that, he has received $195,000 from the head of a foreign-owned bank who has lobbyists in Washington.

OBAMA: Well, the fact is I don’t take PAC money and I don’t take lobbyists’ money. And the bundlers--the reason you know who is raising money for me, Mike, is because I have pushed through a law this past session to disclose that. And that’s the kind of leadership that I’ve shown in the Senate. And that’s the kind of leadership that I’ll show as president of the United States.

Without paper ballots, they’ll steal the next election too

A: We can talk about voting rights, but the basic power you have is the power to vote and I have fear right now that when we go into the general election, that they’re going to steal it one more time. Pass all the laws you want. They’ll still steal it. We have to got to get paper ballots for this next election, period. Forget all these machines.

Congress is Constitutionally more powerful than President

Congress is Constitutionally more powerful than President

It’ll be vetoed by the president. We expect that. You’ve got to get 2/3 in the House and 2/3 in the Senate. Generally what you hear is, you have an override vote, “oh, we can’t override it,” so we quit. No way. You have on override vote on Monday, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday Saturday. and no weekends off, and no vacations, they just stay there. I guarantee you, in 45 days, [any bill] would be passed into law.

People protest because they cannot participate in power

People protest because they cannot participate in power

Freedom is participation in power, but the American people cannot participate except once every 2 years or 4 years. In the meantime, they go protest. Whenever I see a protest, I see that our democracy is not yet fully mature. Freedom is sharing power, and we don’t have enough power.

Institute healtharereforms by people’s National Initiative

A: I’m talking about using the National Initiative. I’ve copied the procedures that are used in the Congress and every legislative body in the world and I’ve put them into a law called the National Ballot Initiative. And that is to equip every single American to become lawmakers--to come into the operation of government as lawmakers and partners with their elected officials. We trust the people, rather than the politicians who say “I’m going to do the job for you.“ I’ve got news for you, can’t be done that way. And we have historic precedents to show it. And if that doesn’t convince you that we’re not going in the right direction electing various personalities president and thinking that’s going to make the change, I’ve got to tell you, the change lies with you, not the leadership. The leadership has been screwing up by the numbers for the last 50 years. Haven’t you had enough yet?

I’ve got no money; of course I’m for campaign finance reform

A: My God, he’s asking me that question? Of course! There’s nobody running in this race that’s got less money than I have. Make no mistake about it. The [other candidates] say, “we’re going to opt out of public funding.” Hey, I’m trying to opt in--and I need whatever you can give. I’ll take public funding. All I need is $10,000, and I can win with that.

You can be empowered to vote on issues that affect your life

There is a law: NationalInitiative.us. You can vote for this legislation. It will take 60 million Americans to pass it into law, because the Congress will never pass this legislation, because people who acquire power are not wont to share it with the people they got it from, and that’s you.

If you want to empower yourself, you’re as qualified as any member of Congress to vote on issues that affect your lives. We can bring about, for the first time in US history, not only a government of and for the people, but we can bring about a government by the people

Repeal the Electoral College; enact federal term limits

The Gravel Agenda: When elected President by the American people, I will:
• Repeal the Electoral College;
• Enact term limits at the federal level;
• Make the The National Initiative part of mainstream political discourse.
• Ask the American people to enact The National Initiative for Democracy so that you can decide on our agenda and all of the issues that affect your lives.

National Initiative to allow citizen law makers

Start with public financing of campaigns

A people’s platform must insist on the public financing of elections. Only in this way can public officeholders be made responsible to the majority of citizens they supposedly represent.

Public subsidy of campaigns is not a new idea. In 1907 President Roosevelt recommended that political campaigns be paid for by public funds. His proposal was rejected in favor of a limitation and disclosure approach. However, limitation and disclosure are not sufficient by themselves. They may help control campaign costs and reveal where the money is raised, but they in no way address the problems of who puts up the money and what the contributor’s pay off will be.

Abolish voter registration as precondition for voting

States could continue to enroll voters just as they do now. However, if an individual fails to register before election day, he could sign an affidavit swearing he is a qualified voter in the precinct and that he has not voted elsewhere in the same election. He then would be allowed to vote, unless there was reason to doubt the sworn statement. In that instance, the voter would be required to cast a challenged ballot and before it could be counted, the same checks could be made as are used under present registration systems. In addition, election day should be declared a national holiday.

Replace electoral college with direct election

The much-touted interest in preserving consensus politics cannot be squared with the people’s interest in free and public debate of genuinely alternative government actions. The people need representatives who will speak up for them in an adversary fashion against executive government, instead of politicians who subscribe to the philosophy of not rocking the boat in order to preserve their own power. Going along to get along hardly serves the public need for constructive political dialogue.