by BAR Editor and Senior Columnist Margaret Kimberley
Although only Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, among Democratic presidential hopefuls, can rightfully claim to be a progressive, the rest of the pack will eventually have to face scrutiny from the party's grassroots "base." Under no circumstances should the political evaluation process be left to shallow corporate media and celebrity chatter. Ms. Kimberley has assembled a list of ten questions with which to challenge the candidates, ranging from Katrina to Iraq to national health care.
Freedom Rider: Top Ten Questions for Would Be Presidents
by Margaret Kimberley
"None of the Democratic candidates should be given a pass by the rank and file."
It is early 2007 and the 2008 presidential race is already in full swing. Not that
you would know it from the level of discourse the corporate media presents to the public. Republicans get positive coverage while Democratic front runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trade nasty barbs through surrogates in the entertainment industry. Dennis Kucinich, the most progressive candidate, is either ignored or ridiculed.
What should you say if you bump into Hillary, Barack, Dennis, John Edwards, Chris Dodd or Bill Richardson? None of the Democratic candidates should be given a pass by the rank and file. Fund raising prowess plays too large a role in the nominations process but it would be even more shameful if progressives shrugged off efforts to engage candidates and ask them hard questions about important issues.
Fortunately all of the candidates will have to debate one another and occasionally interact with the public. When they do they should have to tell us how they will restore democracy and end the terrible wrongs committed by the Bush administration. Here are ten questions they should answer before getting progressive support.
1. Will you end the occupation of Iraq?
The invasion and occupation of Iraq is a terrible crime committed against the Iraqi people. More than 600,000 of them have been killed by the U.S. military, their resources have been stolen, and Uncle Sam replaced Saddam as the Abu Ghraib jailer. Halliburton and other corporations have grown fat thanks to welfare provided courtesy of the American tax payer.
2. Will Jose Padilla still be in prison? Will you close Guantanamo?
Before George W. Bush became president, the United States government put suspects on trial. They had to be indicted and were then tried before juries comprised of civilian citizens. Even suspects in terror cases, whether American citizens or not, were entitled to due process. There were no "enemy combatants" driven to suicide by physical and psychological torture.
3. Will you enact a plan for universal health care?
The health care system currently in existence is the most expensive on the planet yet doesn't provide the best care or any care at all for millions of people. Insurance companies make enormous profits because they deny coverage to 
sick people. Only Americans are subjected to such an awful system.
"Insurance companies make enormous profits because they deny coverage to sick people."
4. Will your administration demand that Israel cease committing human rights abuses and waging war against its neighbors?
Of all the presidents since Truman, Bush has been the worst proponent of letting Israel get and do whatever it wants. If young Israelis claiming to be art students attempt to penetrate DEA and FBI offices someone should ask why. If Israel wants to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure and kill children with cluster bombs the United States should join in the world wide condemnation. Only the United States government can force Israel to live up to its billing as the only democracy in the Middle East.
5. Will you keep abortion legal?
The Christian right has never given up hope of overturning Roe v. Wade and superstar candidates Osama and Clinton have been less than resolute on the issue. Obama wants to credit anti-abortion activists because some of them are nice people who won't bomb clinics. Clinton calls abortion a "sad choice." Neither one gives hope of protecting a right that is supported by most Americans.
6. Will you reverse the Patriot Act and other attacks on civil liberties?
The president has given himself the right to tap our phones, read our emails and find out which library books we read. A Democratic president must not only end these practices but make it impossible for them to be enacted again.
7. Will you rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast?
The federal government is responsible for the destruction of this city and the dispersal of its population. It is an outright lie to say that "all levels of government" failed that city. There is no municipality or state, especially a poor one, that can rebuild a major city. The U.S. government must repair homes, rebuild businesses, hospitals and schools, and bring residents back.
8. Will you decrease the prison population?
The United States has a greater percentage of its population behind bars than any other nation on earth. In the near future fully half of those prisoners will be black. A Democratic president should make a commitment to reduce the number of incarcerated citizens in every state and punish those with disproportionately large black prison populations.
"Americans must be given a clear chronology of Bush evil doing that began in Florida in November of 2000."
9. Will you expose the criminal acts of the Bush administration?
If a Democrat manages to win in November 2008 there must be no expression of kumbaya bipartisanship. Americans must be given a clear chronology of Bush evil doing that began in Florida in November of 2000 when black Floridians eligible to vote were not allowed to do so. That was the beginning of a reign of terror on the American people that required them to have passports to enter their own country, waged wars of aggression in their name, gave enormous tax cuts to wealthy people and corporations, threatened incarceration without trial, and even peeked at underwear in the airport.
10. Will you protect voting rights?
Bush is president because of polling place chicanery (see number 9).Voting roll purges, ID requirements, and "spoiled" paper ballots from black voters that end up in file G, all work to keep Republicans in power. What is the candidate's plan to end voting rights violations?
(Bonus question.) Have you now or have you ever used media mogul David Geffen as a spokesperson?
Give a thumbs down to anyone who answers yes.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BA R. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.
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