Seriously, what should you do when the Republicratic Duopoly, the two-parties-that-are-really-one, locks out debate on all manner of important issues every presidential election? You should hold your own conventions as an antidote to the soporific mush they spew.

This is how the Shadow Conventions sprang to life. Two were held, one in Philadelphia during the Republican convention and the second while the Democratic Convention was here in LA. That was only a couple dozen miles from where I make my home, so I was more than ready to come and see Democracy at work. A mix of serious debate and pointed satire, The LA Shadow Convention was the most refreshing political event I've seen in decades. Shadow in name only, it was more like a searchlight of truth than a cloak of darkness.

These conventions were mostly the creation Reverend Jim Wallis of Call to Renewal and conservative columnist Arianna Huffington (see below for a complete list and links) who managed to assemble an unlikely group of non-profit organizations and volunteers from across the political spectrum. Not to be confused with a political party, they organized the conventions simply to open more debate on at least three major issues: Money in Politics, Poverty & The Wealth Gap and the Failed Drug War. Things that the big parties are unwilling to talk or do anything about. Whole days were devoted to each subject and on the last day the topic was Where Do We Go From Here?

Broadcast live on independent media and the internet, dozens of speakers gave their views from the Shadows podium and in various panel discussions. Special Rapid Response Teams were convened each night to dissect the speeches of Bush, Gore and others as they happened. For the most part it was pretty heady stuff, but the discussions were also leavened with the views of our best political satirists, enough so that at least one newspaper mistakenly labeled the Shadow Conventions as a creation of cable network Comedy Central. A few participants have been seen there, but the Shadows were a lot more than a laugh track for the big conventions.

MC'ing at center stage was Arianna, former wife of Michael Huffington, a Republican who failed to buy himself the California Govenor's Office a few years back. Michael was never heard from again in state politics, but Greek-born, erudite Arianna has stayed in the thick of political debate, writing but also appearing weekly on radio and she's a regular on Politically Incorrect. Her latest book is called How To Overthrow the Government--about the last thing you'd expect from a conservative writer. Arch-liberal Al Franken used to joke that Arianna was "beautiful, but evil," since she would rise to the defense of Newt Gingrich like any knee-jerk Republican, but maybe a Comedy Central stunt during the 1996 elections changed her. In a recurring bit called Strange Bedfellows, she literally got into bed with Franken to do commentary on the Clinton-Dole race. It was the best comedy bit by a Republican since Richard Nixon said, "Sock it to Me!?" on the old Laugh In show. All kidding aside, Arianna is very smart and scored debate points on Al quite often. She still shows conservative ire on some things--she pointedly called for Clinton's resignation in the Monica mess--but she's also one of the few Republicans writing about the plight of folks that prosperity has left behind. Maybe she's the only one in that party who could put together a program of "compassionate conservatism" and make it credible.

Ultimately the Shadows were organized as a charity and they couldn't afford anything like the premium skyboxes the Democrats got at the Staples Center. The west coast convention was held in Patriotic Hall, an old sans-central-air building about six blocks from Staples. Originally a meeting place for veterans, it was festooned with exhibits of uniforms and equipment from past wars--things like hundred year old ammunition from sunken Spanish cruisers, a huge three bladed propeller from a Dolittle B-25, a wall map of Desert Storm and a life-size painting of Revolutionary soldiers marching with a flag. Amid all this military memorabilia, the foyer was crammed with signup tables, pamphlets, posters and people. Books were available downstairs and fans were able to meet authors from Jim Hightower to Baba Ram Das as they signed their latest. Some folks could have been among the real campus radicals of 30 years ago. Some were their counterparts from a newer generation, along with lots of minorities in ethnic dress, folks on a thin budget, lots of Green Party T-shirts and buttons, milling about, talking, churning, and overflowing the 500 seat auditorium.

Sadly, these alternative gatherings took place in the shadow of a different sort--an oppressive police presence in both cities, a kind of gloom that made the two major conventions the most depressing political events I've seen in decades. Monday night in LA people were pepper sprayed, clubbed and arrested while Happy Times Are Here Again played for Clinton. As if that wasn't enough, police claimed a van parked outside Shadow Convention's site had a possible bomb. They used it as an excuse to shut down the feed of several independent broadcasters there, but strangely they never entirely cleared Patriotic Hall, as if they couldn't decide if it was a real emergency or not. Panelists and attendees waited three hours for the bomb squad to saunter in and determine officially it was a false alarm.

Later that night in the streets, the someone in authority decided to shut down a sanctioned Ozomatli / Rage Against The Machine concert near Staples because a few in the crowd were throwing rocks and bottles into the ranks of riot-geared police behind some chain link fences. Rage's music was turned off mid-set and the crowd of eight to ten thousand was given ten minutes to vacate the area. When the crowd did not leave fast enough, police opened up with pepper spray and rubber bullets. It wasn't on the scale of what happened thirty-two years ago in Chicago, but the commander of those police forces was certainly deserving of the old "Pig!" epithet.

And where was the regular media reporting all of this? Where was the public indignation? I guess they think that rubber bullets are harmless. But like satirist Will Durst said, the accent should be on the noun, not the adjective. "They were shooting rubber BULLETS." At people like you and me whose only crime was attending a concert featuring bands with a contrary attitude about the present state of American politics. All in a land where Free Speech is supposedly a sacred right.

That was only blocks away from Patriotic Hall, but the chill of the violence did not stop voices at the Shadow Convention from speaking out.

[Pictured: Granny D]

Attendees were treated to politicians like Democratic Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (who showed more fire than his dad has in years) and Senators Russ Fiengold and Paul Wellstone all who spoke strongly on campaign reform. Granny D, Doris Haddock, a ninety year old who walked all the way across the country in protest, scolded the powers that be saying "Big Money Politics must end."

Some speakers were from the ranks of conservatives. In Philadelphia John McCain spoke briefly to the Shadow gathering about campaign finance reform too, which got a fair amount of press. He disappointed the audience terribly, however, when he refused to say anything bad about Bush. But there were many other free-thinking Republicans who addressed the LA group and didn't make the 6 o'clock news. Too bad. It was the most amazing revelation to see that even in the belly of the Greedy Old Party there are courageous politicians like Representative Tom Campbell, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson showing great wisdom and spirit in denouncing 30 years of Drug War. It seemed impossible to hear such straight talk from that side of the aisle; it was almost like watching Bulworth come to life. Equally inspiring in calling for a cease fire on drugs and starting treatment programs were Ethan Nadleman of the Lindesmith Center for Drug Policy and Politically Incorrect's Bill Maher.

In the evening the Convention used technology to listen to speeches and freeze frame them while a tag team of analysts and commedians discussed what was said. This was the format for the Rapid Response Team. Unfortunately, Monday night's session, which would have had Clinton's speech analyzed by Gore Vidal among others, was called off by the bomb threat. Tuesday night I sat in for the second session. On the stage were columnist and documentary filmmaker Alexander Cockburn, Tom Smothers, Michael McKean, Al Franken, Paul Krassner and Time correspondent Matt Cooper. Cockburn remained deadly serious through the session while the others joked through the speeches of flickering lights like Ted Kenndey and Bill Bradley. Wednesday I missed as Lieberman got his turn in the spotlight, but Thursday I was there for a rapid response team of McKean again, with columnists Christopher Hitchins, Bob Scheer and Corey Gifford, The Nation's Editor David Korn and Roseanne Arnold Barr (or whatever last name she's using these days) analyzing Al Gore's acceptance speech. During the Tribute to Al video, there were hoots from the Shadow crowd for the Halloween shot of Al as Frankenstein with a horrific Tipper at his side. Suddenly the overtaxed power in the old hall gave out and for ten minutes, conspiracy theories grew in the rich fertilizer that Monday's bomb scare had provided. Power returned and later Roseanne drew boos when she said she didn't vote. She defended herself saying she couldn't relate to the candidates at all. Then she used the forum to announce her own candidacy for a new women's party. Her planks? War is illegal and plastic surgery is free, people who work hard should be compensated for it, genetic engineering should be used to make us more polite and docile. Not bad in a bent sort of way.

[Pictured: Huffington & Franken]

More important, though, was the overall thrust of the last day: Where Do We Go From Here? Panel discussions were held most of the day airing ideas. Arianna gave various attendees 20 seconds each with the mike to say what we should be doing. Many people focused on their own pet issues -- gay tolerance, Indian rights, and many others -- some were not focused at all. There were quite a few who advocated voting for Al Gore in spite of their hearts really being with Nader and the Greens. Many in the audience argued vehemently that it was better to make a statement, that the Democratic party could not count on their blind obedience any longer. Many others expressed genuine fear of a Bush presidency and wanted to avoid that at any cost. The unequivocal agreement was that Ralph Nader should be let into the debates. Arianna said to work for that by writing letters and making it known that the present debate system is not acceptable. She hinted there might also be some sort of Shadow event for October's debates.

To counterpoint that thought, exiting Patriotic Hall after Gore's speech, all the Shadow people found the police out in force. Dozens of them, with helmets, flak jackets, clubs and riot guns, were on every corner for blocks around. Before getting to my car I counted 18 police cars parked nearby. Two prison buses cruised by on their way back to the barn, thankfully empty. That is not what Democracy should look like.

Is this little convention the start of something bigger? A new party, a new movement? Perhaps it is. Go to www.shadowconventions.com and learn more. Remember, Thomas Jefferson expected to have some sort of revolution in this country every twenty years or so. America's way overdue.


© 2000 - Rusty Pipes


Overheard at the Shadow Convention and Around LA

"As we enter this period of great struggle, let us be willing to have short term losses for long term gain. This means that we must vote our hearts and let the chips fall where they may." -- Granny D (Doris Haddock) on Nader taking too many votes away from Gore.

"This is what democracy looks like!" -- Susan Sarandon addressing the convention with Tim Robbins.

"Our challenge, even as we protest is to built a more perfect union for all Americans, because the rights that the founding fathers have talked about are not so self evident. We are hoping that among these rights will be the right to a public education of equal high quality for all Americans. That right needs to be a constitutional right." -- Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. on education.

"What's interesting is what he omitted from the speech, what issues were not talked about at all. After child labor there was no mention of globalization, of the impact of NAFTA or the World Trade Organization, no mention of the Drug War, no mention of our astronomical growth of prisons, no mention of the death penalty and no mention of labor unions whatsoever." -- Jello Biafra former lead singer of the Dead Kennedys on Al Gore's acceptance speech.

"We've got to curb our appetites. 17 acres of rainforest have been consumed by Barbara Streisand alone." -- Al Franken on global warming.

"It is the War on Drugs. A war that was manufactured for political gain. A war that has backfired on the American People viciously and relentlessly. A war that history will forever condemn as poorly conceived and pathetically, yet brutally executed...In the process we have increased the tax burden on the American People. We have destroyed families--disproportionally African-American and Hispanic. We have ripped apart the lives of hundred of thousands of our citizens and we have filled our jailed and prisons to the point where the United States competes with Russia for the distinction of having the highest incarceration rate in the world...The War on Drugs as it has been carried out has not been a war against drugs, it has been a war against the people of this nation and against our fundamental freedoms." -- Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.

"The Clinton Administration is like Camelot Lite." -- Michael McKean.

"What we are seeing on television are not really party conventions where representative delegates come to confer and choose. Rather these are now corporate trade shows for the delegates, while the main show is behind closed doors at big dollar soft money fundraisers. And those soft money contributions, make no mistake, are setting the agenda for the American Congress and for the United States as a whole." -- Senator Russ Feingold.

"The statistic that really sticks out in my mind is the 500,000 people who are in jail for this. 500,000! If that was a disease we wouldn't tolerate it, there'd be commissions, there'd be marches on lawns, there'd be people demanding action all over the country. Zero tolerance--I hear that phrase a lot. How about zero tolerance for injustice?" -- Bill Maher on the Drug War.

"Brothers and sisters, our democracy has been hijacked." -- Zack De La Rocha of Rage Against the Machine before the police shut down the sound system.

"(She doesn't support needle exchange) because she says it sends the wrong message to children...You want to want to send a message to kids about drugs? Take them down to a needle exchange program. The message they will get is: I DON'T WANT TO GROW UP TO BE IN A NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM." -- Ethan Nadleman on the policies of NJ Governor Christie Todd Whitman.

"Where can we get money for treatment? The President has just requested and Congress has approved an additional $1.3 billion to fight a war in Colombia. Even if every penny were spent on eradication in Colombia, this investment would be less effective than spending it on treatment. 23 times less effective, according to the Rand Institute. But you know every penny is not spent on eradication. No, this money is to buy 63 new helicopters, to send in advisers, to help the military of Colombia fight an insurgency that's been battling for 35 years... Sound familiar? All that's missing is Robert MacNamara's signature." -- Representative Tom Campbell on the Drug War.

"They say to me Johnathan, just remember this could take another ten years, be patient. Let me tell you, it does no good to tell poor children six years old to be patient. Once their years of childhood and innocence are gone, they're gone for good. And all the patience and civility of acquiescent incrementalists in Congress will not give these children back the childhood that has been stolen from them. It does no good to tell a little girl who's two years old today, 'wait ten years and then we'll give you Head Start.' Ten years from now she won't be a baby anymore. This is a crime whose victims are entirely innocent, these little inner city children who have done absolutely nothing wrong, no matter what they tell you at the Heritage Foundation." -- Johnathan Kozol on the lack of quality education for the poor.

"Me? I'm an ignoramus!" -- Tom Smothers.

"It is drug prohibition that is tearing this country apart, not drug use." -- Judge James P. Gray.


THE ORGANIZERS

Reverend Jim Wallis of Call to Renewal
Scott Harshbarger of Common Cause
Ethan Nadelmann of the Lindesmith Center--Drug Policy Foundation
Deepak Bhargava of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support
Ellen Miller of Public Campaign
Chuck Collins of United for a Fair Economy
Arianna Huffington, Conservative Columnist