Article: Why I Like Mike (Gravel)

[wyldwolf]

The forgotten candidate...

I can’t be the only person wondering when will we elect an openly lesbian or gay president? No one is asking that question. We’re still obsessed with parsing the difference between a marriage and a civil union. In absence of the openly gay candidate, however, I’m looking for candidates who will open a more progressive dialogue on our issues in 2008.

That’s how I came to meet Mike Gravel. Gravel (pronounced Gra-VELL) was a senator from Alaska from 1969 until 1981. Since that time he’s been working on a project he calls The National Initiative, a campaign to bring direct democracy to the United States through initiatives at the federal level.

Yep, he wants voters to vote on issues nationally like we do on local bond issues or statewide ballot initiatives. I thought it was a crackpot idea. Then I met Gravel.

Gravel has other ideas that make him a “maverick,” a moniker he embraces. He believes in universal, single-payer health care. He advocates a “fair tax” with a “pre-bate” which involves eliminating the IRS to make our tax system more fair, transparent and equitable. Gravel wants to invest in education and transportation infrastructure and he wants to end the war in Iraq immediately.

http://www.washblade.com/2007/1-12/view/columns/enszer.cfm

[Jim Sagle]

1. Flat tax is RNC BS. Fuck'm.