by Sam Sabzehzar | MedicalMarijuana411.com
Substance Over The Sound Bite
10Questions.com poses questions to candidates and asks us to vote on how accurate the answer is in conjunction with the question asked.
Ten questions are given to candidates throughout the country to provide a platform for them to share and express their ideas beyond the sound bite based on questions posed from real Americans, enabling voters to reward politicians and the political process by recognizing candidates who chose substance over the sound bite.
“Prop 19 The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 claims passage will generate billions of dollars of new revenue for the State of California. Opponents say public health and safety costs will rise exponentially. What say you?”
On 10Questions.com, the site made famous for it’s user generate questions that were delivered to President Obama in 2008, Republican Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina dodges the question…while admitting much more.
Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina is outspokenly opposed to Prop 19 and the legalization of marijuana, because of the amount of serious $ it will generate for our economy. She admits and recognizes the huge financial potential of legalizing marijuana for the California deficit, but spins the answer by explaining that,
” sending billions of dollars in new tax revenues to sacramento is exactly the problem…because sacramento has a spending problem and will continue to spend the money we send them.” — Carly Fiorina
This campaign is quite unique in that it is the type of organic viral message that allows transparency into a candidate’s ethos, rather than a scripted advertisement (although hair and make-up is involved). For example, also on the site is a clip from gubernatorial candidate Michael Arth in Florida (a state without medical marijuana currently) where he explains his support for ending a “failed” drug law, as well as his emphatic support of patient’s rights when it comes to medical marijuana, emphasizing the need to re-schedule the plant out of Schedule I status (because according to the official US Government policy marijuana is “highly addictive” and has no medicinal value”).
California candidate for Senate Carly Fiorina takes heat for avoiding question she had weeks to prepare for.
There are candidates from 10 states for this election cycle and 10Questions.com encourages all participants to help spread the video of the candidates they would like to see elected (or defeated). The site also shows by default which ones declined to participate or failed to meet the deadline so you can see which candidates you have to choose from and hear where they stand in their own words on the issues that matter most to you.
This is a very good type of tool for democracy, and if we can have it in more states and with more candidates, especially outside the two-party system, we are on our way to breathing the air from the light at the end of the tunnel after all. Because if we don’t think they answered a question, we can rate them on that too. Holding candidates more accountable for directing a clear message will be the thing to watch for in 2012, and hopefully holding ourselves accountable in the (democratic) process will become more well-defined too.
