[Sosfbay-discuss] Interview with Kat Swift on her presidential campaign

[Drew Johnson]

Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 04:01:42 +0000
From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at hotmail.com>
Subject: [usgp-dx] Interview with Kat Swift on her presidential campaign
(San Antonio Current)
To: <natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org>


Finally old enough for the Oval Office, Swift throws a lasso in the ring

Greg Harman
San Antonio Current, May 7, 2008
http://sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=68690


Three candidates get all the air time. Ralph?s defected for an Independent
run.
?Green? has become the Holy Grail of marketing kitsch. And San Antonio?s
newest
perennial candidate (and former Current staffer), Kat Swift, is using her
Minervan
powers to shake down the last few uncommitted primary voters to save the
world from
anti-human, corporo-fascist domination.


[Q] I was thinking about that Kinky Friedman saying, ?How hard could it
be?? What
have you found? How hard is it to run for president?

[A] The FEC filing is insane. I mean, I?ve run for [San Antonio] City
Council ? you
go online, it?s straightforward, it makes sense, it matches the paper
forms. You go
and use the FEC free software, you gotta find special characters that only
special
programs create and it doesn?t match the paper. You can see how they sort
of made it
where companies can make money off of the government?s inability to be
simplistic
and straightforward.

Then, of course, you have ballot-access issues, where every state is
different. And
this is a federal election, you know, this should be a uniform ballot-access
requirement nationwide. It just makes it next to impossible. Texas is the
hardest
state to get on the ballot.


[Q] Why is that?

[A] Well, we have primary screen-out. We?re the only state that has primary
screen-out. It?s been ruled unconstitutional in several places, but it
basically is
that if you vote in the primary you can?t petition your government to get
another
party on the ballot, or an independent candidate. So in years like this,
when people
actually vote, which is not common, it makes it even more difficult
because you have
75 days to get 45,000 signatures from people who registered but didn?t
vote [in the
primaries]. And finding those people has been next to impossible.


[Q] How vital is it for the Green Party or any other third party to get
established
in the system?

[A] When your only choice is a corporate-dominated party, I mean you?ve
got a left
wing and a right wing of the same corporate party that?s leading us to a
totalitarian-fascist government, then it?s absolutely essential in order
to keep
democracy, in order to have choices. The people in power want to keep it.
They don?t
want people to have a choice. They don?t even follow the Constitution,
which says
you?re supposed to proportionally represent delegates ? In that case, you
disenfranchise entire demographics in the South.

I think if we?re going to have political parties, we need to have a
multi-party
system or we should just do away with political parties.


[Q] Tell me that the Green Party does not operate in this way like the
Democratic
Party, where we see these proportional splits in delegates and then you
see the
super delegates and then you have the super-duper delegates.

[A] [Laughter.] No, we have, like, normal delegates. Every state is
different. The
way they choose their delegates is different, but what happens is they do
proportionally distribute their delegates. If you get 33 percent of the
votes, you
get 33 percent of the delegates to the national [convention].


[Q] And they?re still not bound, or are they?

[A] Almost every state binds the first round, because we do instant
run-off voting.
Whoever has the lowest votes after the first round will get dropped. Some
states
bind every round, but most don?t. Most just bind the first round and then
delegates
are free to do what they want ? But there are no super delegates and all that
craziness.


[Q] When you?re out on the street, do people ever bring up, say, ?Oh,
Ralph Nader,
he was a spoiler. A third party or Green Party is just a spoiler for
Democratic
Party chances??

[A] It didn?t help that the media made it seem like it was Nader?s fault
or the
Green Party?s fault. The only people who still really say that are people
who are
still really angry, but who also don?t know the facts. It?s hard to deal
with it. A
lot of times, it?s best to just walk away and let them be ignorant. But
the facts
are there were more people on the ballot in Florida than Ralph Nader.
There were
more Democrats that voted for Bush than voted for Nader. The Democratic
Party itself
did not stand up for voter fraud. In 2004 in Ohio there were numerous
egregious
violations of people?s rights and the Democratic Party. The Green Party and
Libertarian Party did but it was thrown out because there was no way we
could have
won with a recount and so it was considered frivolous.

As long as the wealthy have the power, they?re going to do whatever it
takes to
limit your choices and limit your vote.


[Q] And maintain their own.

[A] Right. As soon as people go, ?Oh, wait a minute. I don?t have to vote
for the
lesser of two evils because I?m afraid of the alternative. What if we all
went and
voted third party??

It?s not some foregone conclusion that these are the only people who can win.


[Q] But do you think the ideals of the Green Party represent enough
Americans to
bring that about, to even get established?

[A] Well, whenever you talk to people on the street who aren?t involved in
politics
and they find out what you?re talking about and what we stand for, they
agree every
time. The only disagreements I find are for people who are very key-issue
orientated. Because they?re anti-abortion. They don?t want to talk about why
abortions are so high. Or why unwanted pregnancies are so high, which is
what we
talk about, on addressing the cause of it instead of just making it
illegal. When
you?re dealing with people like that it doesn?t matter what you say.


[Q] What is your campaign strategy and where does the Wonder Woman suit
fit into that?

[A] [Laughter.] My Wonder Woman suit, [she] was one of my heroes. I was
rewatching
the series actually recently and was like, ?Wow. I got a lot of my beliefs
from
that.? Female empowerment. Not fighting with guns. Stopping the bad guys,
stuff like
that.


[Q] And the truth lasso?

[A] Yeah. The truth lasso. Making people tell the truth and stopping
people from
killing people, you know? That kind of belief system. So I thought it
would be fun
to go outside the box and not be the politicians, be the dressed up-super
hero ?
especially for King William ? I?ll probably start carrying it with me just
in case
the opportunity arises.