Howard Switzer for Tennesse

well, saw this on Tennesse indy media...thought it would be fun to flag up another interesting green candidate, depressing that even making health insurance a little fair is a radical policy in the USA, here in the UK Greens are fighting to preserve the National Health Service that presently provides free health care for all.

The framining with 'socialism@ ohmygod and 'Jesus' shows the culture gap, anti-globalisation has been used to keep working people voting Republican and here has been exploited by the neo-fascist British National Party.

well, if you are state side get involved with your green candidates, politics is about slogging around the streets persuading voters.


Green Party Activist Howard Switzer Announces Candidacy for Governor of Tennessee Current rating: 0
by Chris Lugo
Email: christopher_lugo (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) 02 May 2006
Howard Switzer announced his candidacy for the Governor of Tennessee this week. He was nominated as candidate for Governor at the Green Party nominating convention on March 6th. He submitted his petition on April 6th, andit has just been verified by the Federal Elections Commission. Howard is not a typical Gubernatiorial candidate, and prides himself on that. Howard is critical of candidates who are beholden to special interests and do not represent the concerns of everyday Tennesseans. Howard supports a single-payer health insurance system for every resident of Tennessee, similar to the program which is currently being considered in Ohio. He is concerned about the nearly half million people who have lost their health care coverage in Tennessee due to the Tenncare cuts and intends to make health care coverage for all his most important campaign priority.

Green Party Activist Howard Switzer Statement from the Candidate:

Hello, my name is Howard Switzer and I am running for Governor of Tennessee. As you can tell from my photo I am not a typical candidate for Governor but I think, and you may agree, the typical candidates running for high office lately have not been serving us very well. I think it is because many are ethically challenged, serving the concerns of their wealthy corporate contributors, instead of the interests of most Tennesseans. I think this corruption is reflected in many Tennessee government policies, and works to the detriment of the working people of this state.

I am an architect who likes to help people build straw bale houses--so why am I subjecting myself to the dirty tricks and smears of our political system? It is because I think it is time we changed how government treats the majority of people and I don’t see anyone else working to do this--so as someone once said, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

I am asking those who have benefited most from this tilted playing field to meet the rest of us in the middle. The first thing is to immediately restore healthcare coverage to the nearly half million Tennesseans who were so rudely dropped from TennCare. I simply thought that was not a Tennessee sort of thing to do. I would then implement a state single-payer healthcare insurance system based on the one currently being presented in Ohio. For a few to make huge personal profits from people’s misery is wrong and a heavy burden on our society. Public health should be a public responsibility, not a “profit center,” as it is called on Wall Street. It is especially important today with so many new diseases and threats to our health.

Tennesseans spend nearly $30 billion on healthcare annually, but with a single-payer system that would drop to $14 billion due to much lower administration costs and no profit being made on your healthcare dollar.

Don’t believe the myths that you won’t get good healthcare or that it is “socialism” and is against “our” principles. The main thing Jesus did besides kick the money changers out of the temple was to heal the sick, so I don’t think it should be against the principles of the people of Tennessee to "go and do likewise."

I think the wealthy corporate interests who misuse their corporate charters to the detriment of our planet and all who live here need to change their motivations. Unbridled growth is the philosophy of a cancer cell, not a prescription for a sane society. Corporations have succeeded in evading the responsibility of taxation, putting the burden of paying for government largely on the shoulders of individuals. We need to change that.

From 1947 to 1979 the bottom, middle and top 20% percentiles, even the top 1% of American incomes, rose together. From 1979 to 2001, income for the lower 80% of households in the country essentially stayed flat, while the upper twenty percent rose fifty percent and the upper five percent nearly doubled. This has been the case in Tennessee to an even greater extent than elsewhere in the country. Attempting to fund state government on the sales tax, again, puts the burden of paying for government most heavily on Tennessee's poorest citizens. That is wrong and there is something we can do about it.

My candidacy speaks for many Tennesseans--the hundreds of thousands cut off Tenncare; the hundreds of thousands who struggle from paycheck to paycheck; those who live in the chemical shadow of out-of-control, polluting industries; the rural residents who have seen their counties stripped of once-abundant natural resources, and who find themselves poorer than before. I believe that together we can forge a movement that will shake the foundations of political power in this state and move Tennessee in a new, saner, more compassionate direction. If you want to see that change, vote for me in November.
See also:
http://www.H4gov.com