Mark's Menil Speech

I am Mark Roberts, the Green Party candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Texas's Second Congressional District. Like many of you out there, I have grown tired of hearing politicians propose the same tired solutions, year after year, to a list of problems that never changes. Often, the problems that now need to be solved came from previous attempts to implement the same solutions they now propose. If the proposed solutions played a role in creating the problems, how could doing more of the same solve the problem? That's the one question I have never heard anyone answer.

The path we're on isn't working. The cavalry isn't coming. Eomer and the riders of Rohan will not be appearing at the top of the ridge at dawn. Instead, we have waited patiently for a generation, while our leaders assured us that the market would fix the problem. In reality, for most Americans, the market has become the problem. The time has come for us to acknowledge that those we have elected to lead this great nation have failed.

In election after election, we Americans have chosen either a Democrat or a Republicans to run this country, as if there were no other choices. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have been successful in meeting the needs of the American people. The problems we face today are the same problems we've faced for at least the last century. If those we have elected have proven themselves to be incapable of developing solutions to the problems we face, then it is time to make a different choice. The Green Party represents another choice, a better choice.

If we look as far back as 1912, Theodore Roosevelt campaigned to fix an unequal society, and against the increasing concentration of wealth and the consolidation of industry. Twenty years later, in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's campaign contained much of the same imagery and message. Two decades passed between Teddy and FDR and the problems still remained.

In 1960, twenty-eight years further on, in his Farewell Address, Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation against the growing power and might of the military-industrial complex. People applauded politely and his message has been quoted, over and over again, but no one seemed to take it to heart. Today, forty-four years later, the same drum beat continues, even louder. The concentration of wealth and the consolidation of industry that Eisenhower warned us about, continues unabated.

In today's world, however, not only does wealth continue to accumulate and concentrate, but the wealthy and powerful now control the media, the message, and our political process. Only once over the last century, has this drumbeat been diminished. During the Great Depression, when our nation faced total economic collapse, some of our elected leaders opted for bold and innovative actions to address the problem.

During that brief window of clarity, our nation hired fourteen million Americans. We put those Americans to work, on thousands of infrastructure projects, many of which are still in use to this day. Today, we have millions of unemployed Americans, and millions more who are underemployed. According to American Society of Civil Engineers, our national infrastructure is falling apart under our feet, and yet not one of those that we elected will propose recreating the jobs programs that were enacted during the Great Depression. Instead, our elected leaders tell us that we are too poor to do those things that we somehow found the will to do in the heart of the Great Depression.

This is unsurprising. Even during Roosevelt's time, those innovative programs faced stiff resistance every step of the way. By, 1950, five years after the end of World War II, most of the programs enacted during the Depression were gone. Most, but not all. Today, our elected leaders seem determined to eliminate the last remaining fragments of those bold actions, taken eighty years ago, to avert crisis. In the process, they seem determined to recreate that crisis.

By any definition, our nation does indeed face a crisis. We live in a world that has grown increasingly hostile. Today's global corporations pit American workers against the workers of the world in a contest they are both destined to lose. Outsourcing and innovations in technology continue to create unemployment. They force workers to replace the middle class supporting industrial jobs they once held, with poorly paid service industry jobs. To make matters worse, the modern throw-away lifestyle we have become accustomed to is burning rapidly through the biological capital that our economy and we ourselves depend upon for survival.

The currently popular solution to this crisis, has been a program of austerity measures proposed by conservatives, for the purpose of deficit reduction and the repayment of debt. These programs, like those enacted in Greece, Spain, Ireland, elsewhere across Europe, historically have a very poor track record. As a whole, these programs have led to increased poverty, failed to reduce deficits, and failed to reduce debt.

If these programs will not work, then what else can we do to help our nation through this crisis. The Green Party advocates an approach that has several components. These components are largely community-based and include; the organization of truly democratic unions, the formation of and support of consumer and worker cooperatives, the encouragement of ecologically sound lifestyles, the creation of and support for cooperative banks, credit unions, and community controlled economic development corporations. Greens also believe that we should guarantee employment to all those willing to work, and that we should enact a single-payer health care system.

These programs can be easily be paid for by enacting a tax code that treats each individual fairly by ending special favors and special treatment for the wealthy and for corporations, and by not promoting harmful activities. We also believe that tax codes should be structured to reward companies that reduce the social and environmental cost of their activities, and to reward individuals that adopt ecologically sound lifestyles.

Greens propose that an additional source of funding should come from ending our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reducing our overall military expenditures. We also propose that our government stop programs that are wasteful and counterproductive like the War on Drugs and the criminalization of poverty. By doing these things, we can bring about a healthy, sustainable economy that benefits all Americans. We will also be encouraging the development of healthy communities for us all to live in. I ask for your support to help myself and the other Green candidates bring about this bold new vision.

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