MoveOn "Big Ideas Forum"


MoveOn video

Saturday, June 1, 2019 in downtown San Francisco, CA.

8 CANDIDATES: Booker, Castro, Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar, O'Rourke, Sanders and Warren.

Background: This forum coincided with the California Democratic Party Convention.  The candidates' big ideas were: stop endless wars (Sanders), wealth disparity (Booker), fight back against the corruption (Warren), immigrants treated with dignity and respect (O'Rourke), national paid family leave (Gillibrand), equal pay (Harris), criminal justice reform (Castro) and register every 18 year old to vote (Klobuchar).  There was a scary moment when an activist from Direct Action Everywhere went on stage and took the microphone from Sen. Harris as she was speaking.  A couple of weeks later the group issued an apology.





MoveOn

By Brian Stewart. Thursday, May 9 2019

Castro, Gillibrand, Harris, Sanders, and Warren To Appear On Stage At MoveOn’s “Big Ideas Forum” June 1 In San Francisco

2020 Democratic presidential candidates Secretary Julián Castro, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Senator Elizabeth Warren will all appear on stage at MoveOn’s “Big Ideas Forum” in San Francisco, California, on June 1.

At the event, each candidate will present “One Big Idea” that will change people’s lives for the better. Afterward, they will answer questions from moderators and MoveOn members. Each candidate will be on stage for 20 minutes.

The event is being hosted by MoveOn.org Political Action, and the audience will be made up of MoveOn members and streamed to MoveOn members across the country.

MoveOn, one of the largest progressive organizations in the country, has members in every county, state, and congressional district—adding up to millions across the country. MoveOn members are among the most active members of the Democratic Party’s base, engaged and likely to volunteer, vote, and organize in the primaries and caucuses. In addition, hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members donate to MoveOn.org Political Action each year to support our electoral efforts, and bundle millions for candidates.

A survey of MoveOn members in late 2018 showed the majority of the membership had not made up their mind about whom to support in the 2020 Democratic primary.

“We are thrilled that these candidates have accepted our invitation to present their big ideas to MoveOn members and the nation,” said Ilya Sheyman, Executive Director of MoveOn Political Action. “Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have dug our nation into a huge hole through their harmful and cruel policies. It is going to take big and bold ideas to reimagine and create a country that works for all of us. The Democratic primary contest, with this large, diverse, and impressive field, should be a race about ideas, policies, and vision. We’re happy to hold this forum to allow these candidates to advance this debate.”

The forum will take place from noon to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Saturday, June 1, at a location in downtown San Francisco.

More speakers are expected to be announced in the coming days.


Excerpts
Sanders
...All of you know there are many enormously important issues including the need for Medicare for All, forgiving student debt and making public colleges and universities tuition free, raising the minimum wage, criminal justice reform, immigration reform, and addressing the global crisis of climate change—among other issues.  But there is one issue out there that does not get the attention that it deserves, a very big idea, and that is the need to stop endless wars and to bring, to bring the world together to find diplomatic solutions to international conflicts...

Booker
...My campaign, we've got a lot of big policy ideas, but I want to get to the heart of one of the issues that is most threatening to our democracy, which is wealth disparity.  We are a nation where too often the destiny of chiidren is defined by the wealth of their families—the kind of schools they go to, the kind of housing they have.  We are allowing wealth disparity in this country to grow to gargantuan proportion...

Warren
...Big Idea.  I want an America that doesn't just work for a thin slice at the top.  I want to build an America that works for all of us.   Now so how do you get there?...

O'Rourke
...Here's my big idea.  What if we said that we really wanted to ensure that every immigrant, who's come to this country of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees, was truly treated with the dignity and respect that they deserved, and we did not try to mirror Republicans by saying but first we're going to get tough on them—break up those families, deport them, internal enforcement, walls—none of that stuff...

Gillibrand
...What does the United States have in common with Papua New Guinea and no other industrialized country in the world.  Can you guess it?  Come on ladies, can you guess it?  We don't actually have a national paid family leave program.  So let me tell you about why this is important...

Harris
...I've got a lot of ideas but I want to share one of them with you and it's about equal pay.  Okay so here's the thing.  1963.  What happened?  Many things.  Equal Pay Act was passed.  So that said, hey look women aren't paid equally as men for the same amount of work so we need to obviously have a law about it because otherwise we can't get people to do the right thing.  1963 it passed. Fast forward to the year of our Lord 2019..."

Castro
.. it made me think then what about Eric Garner? And what about Castillo?  And what about Pamela Turner?  And what about Jason Pero? And what about Tamir Rice? And what about Laquan McDonald?  And what about so many others?  What about Stephon Clark?  And what about Antonio Arce?  What about all of those young men and women whose lives were lost because of police violence.  We're going to say their names.  The thing is that how many of thesee videos do we have to watch to understand that even though we have some great policy officers, this is not a case of bad apples.  The system is broken...

Klobuchar
....My big idea is this.  Once we take back that presidency, and we will, okay.  Look what we just did in 2018.  Once we do that and we keep the House and take back the Senate, what we have to do is have a national federal law to register every kid to vote in this country when they turn 18.  That is my idea.  Not just the 17 states, not just the 17 states that are doing it now, but all across the country..."