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Post-convention analysis

From the Institute for Public Accuracy
Friday, 18 August 2000

DARA SILVERMAN, dsilverman@ufenet.org, http://www.ufenet.org

National organizer of United for a Fair Economy, Silverman said today: "At the marches in the street, at trainings and in the Shadow Conventions, the themes of economic inequality and the concentration of corporate power were the basis of almost every message... Already 66 corporations, including AT&T and Raytheon, have given over $50,000 to both Al Gore and George W. Bush's campaigns for president."

NORMAN SOLOMON, norman@accuracy.org, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/election2000/demconvention/media_8-16.html

Executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Solomon appeared on the PBS "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on Wednesday. He said today: "Let's face it: Most of the words that floated from the podiums of the Democratic and Republican conventions amounted to little more than insipid drivel. Delegates were so eager to stay 'on message' that there was no semblance of political debate. The two major parties are more like public-relations firms serving the interests of corporate clients than like political entities serving the interests of the public."

JOHN MILLER, jmiller@wheatonma.edu, http://www.dollarsandsense.org

Professor of economics at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Miller said today: "On Monday night, Bill Clinton took credit for overseeing the most prosperous economy in U.S. history. And last night Al Gore asked for our support 'on the basis of the better, fairer, more prosperous America we can build together' -- one, he says, that 'will enrich not just a few, but all working families.' But continuing the Clinton-Gore economic policies will do nothing to build a different, fairer economy. In the 1960s boom, wages rose three times as quickly as in the 1990s boom, and the earlier boom added nearly four times as much to the income of the median family."

Dr. COREY WEINSTEIN, coreman@igc.org, http://www.prisons.org

A board member of California Prison Focus and an independent correctional consultant, Weinstein said: "One thing you won't hear from Gore is that his administration has been vigorous in its support of the terrifying experiment of mass incarceration in the United States. We now have 2 million prisoners in the U.S. There are 164,000 in California state prisons; in 1970, there were 20,000. Federal policy has forced the states to incarcerate more people for more kinds of crimes with longer sentences."

Dr. QUENTIN YOUNG, pnhp@aol.com, http://www.pnhp.org

National coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, Young said today: "Both the Democrats and Republicans avoid the issue of universal national health insurance. Their programs are failed programs. Under this administration, we've gone from 36 million to 46 million uninsured people. We spend $4,200 per capita annually, Switzerland is next biggest spender at $2,400 -- and they have universal coverage. The Patient Bill of Rights is empty. The corporate takeover of health care -- which happened under the Democrats' watch -- doesn't need to be controlled, it needs to be ended."

MARIANNE MANILOV, msqrd@igc.org, http://www.commercialfree.org

Founder of the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education, Manilov said: "The shift in education policy discussion is similar to what happened around welfare reform. The Democrats are talking about charter schools as a way to increase 'accountability,' promote 'change' in neighborhoods where there are 'failing schools.' This puts testing over teaching and avoids the real issues: poverty and racism."