Alan Grayson sent me the following letter. In it he outlines his platform, one that I wish every Democrat would adopt:.
We spend so much time thinking about who will be elected to office, and so little time thinking about what they will do when they get there. Campaign consultants tell candidates that promises are inconvenient; you might have to keep them. And candidates dance around the issues as though they were lit firecrackers. Not me. Here are my goals, after Nov. 6:
- Full employment.
- Universal healthcare.
- Taking corporate money out of politics and government.
- Reinstituting progressive taxation, to reduce the deficit and the debt.
- Ending corporate welfare.
- Improving labor standards, including pensions, sick leave and paid vacations.
- Ending discrimination against minorities, women and gays.
- Providing higher education to every student who wants it.
- Ending the war, bringing the troops home, and reining in the military-industrial complex.
- Reducing the brutal and pervasive inequality in American life.
When he was last in office, Alan Grayson was a hard working progressive Democrat. He campaigned as a progressive, and when he got elected, he delivered. On campaign finance alone, he introduced 8 bills to help take corporate money out of politics. Some of his achievements:
Audit The Fed—Grayson showed true bipartisanship by championing a 26-year-old bill by Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) to audit the Federal Reserve. Grayson signed up more than 130 Democratic co-sponsors. The Paul-Grayson “Audit The Fed” Amendment became law, and exposed $26 trillion in secret bailouts by the Fed.
Pay For Performance Act—Grayson became the first House freshman in the 111th Congress to pass a substantive bill. His bill prevented Wall Street executives at failed banks from using bailout money for their bonuses. The bill passed in nine days.
No-Cuts Petition—In 2011, after leaving office, Alan encouraged people to sign his “No Cuts” petition, which expressed opposition to any and all cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He personally delivered more than 100,000 petitions to the White House.
In 2010, he lost to Tea Party candidate Daniel Webster. Grayson’s controversial ads, highly critical of Webster’s views on women, were criticized in the media for being inaccurate and exaggerated. But on substance, Grayson was not wrong. Webster had a terrible record on women’s rights.
This time he is running against Republican Todd Long in Florida’s newly created 9th district. This Orlando-area district is 41 percent Hispanic and gave Obama a 60 percent vote in 2008, so Grayson is a heavy favorite.
Grayson is a true progressive. When it comes to standing up for progressive ideals, he’s fearless. I look forward to having him back in Congress.