I've been meaning to get back to my conversation with congressional candidate Rebekah Davis. Life got in the way. A visit from Davis this afternoon prompted me to pull out the tapes again. As eloquent as she is, I've decided to let her speak for herself. I'm going to have to do this a bit piecemeal. We'll take it one issue at a time. I'll keep adding as I work my way through our three-hour interview. I hope you'll keep reading. I also hope Rep. Adrian Smith is up to the challenge of a debate with Davis. ON ABORTION: "I don't understand how the quote-unquote 'pro-life' politician [in the Republican Party] can say we need to do all we can to protect the unborn, and yet, once that child is in fact born, the same politician will vote against funding for Head Start, will vote against funding for things like Children's Health Insurance, will vote against things to increase adoptions from our foster-care system. That drives me out. And some might say, well, why is it, when those are the things that matter to you, you're going with the pro-life label? Why aren't you going with the other label? And I say to myself: because I think that is a question of life. That is a question of quality of life."
ON BEING A WOMAN IN NEBRASKA POLITICS: "I do think it helps tremendously that [Republican Rep.] Virginia Smith was in office for almost 20 years -- that, at least, the novelty is gone. ... And the other thing that I point to is that, as a state, we were the first state to have two women face each other in the governor's race [Republican Kay Orr vs. Democrat Helen Boosalis in 1986, when Davis was 4]. ... It still remains that women are a majority of voters in the state, women are very aware of the fact that we are nowhere near parity in gender in terms of either our state offices or our federal offices. And I will be intrigued to see what the final tallies are in terms of where -- especially Republican and independent -- women fall on who they vote for on Nov. 2."
ON APPLYING A GLOBAL VIEW TO LOCAL CONCERNS: "I reject the idea that [Nebraska's] 3rd District is not deeply interconnected with the wider world. I actually think we are; it's just not immediately apparent. When you think of the places our agricultural products go, they cover the world. And I think now, at this moment in time, there is huge opportunity for someone who knows the world, who has traveled the world, to be able to look at what we do best as the 3rd District and to match our agricultural outlook with parts of the world that could use it. And this is one reason why I think it is a huge asset that I have been to over 60 countries, that I speak multiple languages -- because if I have some type of congressional delegation to, let's say, West Africa, one region of the world where we could do a lot more partnering in terms of grain exports, you bet I'll take the opportunity to talk with the prime minister of Senegal or whoever I'm with and say: 'We should develop a stronger relationship.' ... We need to look past the fact that we are a rural district and more to the fact that we are so connected to the wider world; we could do a lot more."
ON TECHNOLOGY: "One thing that I think would be an immediate and huge shift in terms of the job atmosphere in the district is broadband [Internet] access. I am baffled by any argument rejecting the need for broadband access. However, this was a part of a bill that [incumbent Rep.] Adrian Smith voted against. Did anyone call him out on it? Besides me? I didn't see it. I didn't see the local papers say, 'Why did you vote against something that would so greatly increase our economic opportunity in this state?' ... Broadband is new; there are still people who doubt its relevancy. But I think we're kidding ourselves if we don't realize that, as a country, if we don't invest in this throughout our country, there will be huge and growing forms of disparity. If you have students at a school in New York who have access to it but students in Hemingford don't, it puts them at an unfair advantage. And it's not the teacher's fault, it's not the students' fault -- it's just that technology changes and we need to make sure we have an even playing field in terms of the base that our students are starting from."
*ON GREEN ENERGY: "We cannot abdicate this to China. Both in terms of actual construction of mechanisms for windmills, but also implementation of it. We have seen too many things slip through our grasp as a country, in terms of things that China is now the leader of. ... Specific to Nebraska, we have the third highest capacity in terms of generation of wind potential. However, we are 22nd in terms of current capacity. There's a lot of room for growth there. It would be good for our country, and it would be good for our state. ... I think if we look at what it would take for a new type of national energy grid, Nebraska is in a prime location to be part of that, both in terms of transmission lines but also given terms of actual energy generation. ... Now, I don't think wind is going to solve all of our problems. I do think we have to be realistic that right now we are a very carbon-heavy economy. ... In some ways, maybe it's a good thing that this transition would take as long as it will, because if we think now about starting a program at Chadron [State College] or [Western Nebraska Community College] where maybe it's a tech job for not only constructing a windmill but being able to maintain it, for that person five years from now who graduates from the program, that would be a viable job for them. By the time we actually have a green economy up and running -- that would be vibrant and different from what it is now -- the reality is, that person right now who is feeding his family in Wyoming [as an employee of the coal industry] is probably going to be looking to retirement. ... I am extremely empathetic right now to the idea of job loss. ... I do realize so many jobs are on the line and that there will be changes. The people who now work for companies that are very coal-dependent or very oil-dependent will not necessarily exist, but I would say to that this: Did we lose sleep over typewriting companies going by the wayside when we transitioned to computers like we think of them now? Change happens. We shouldn't slow the pace just because it's different and it means some jobs changing."
**ON THE FUTURE OF RAILROADS: "The railroads will always be part of our country, and I think Warren Buffett's recent purchase of BNSF cements that in the national psyche. Right now, the Panama Canal is being widened so that the largest supertankers in the world will soon be able to pass through it. However, at the present, it is actually faster for a ship from China to unload in L.A. and traverse the country using rail to get to the Eastern Seaboard.... There are a myriad number of ways that railroads will always be important to us, regardless of what the status is of coal being drawn out of Wyoming."
**ON AGRIBUSINESS: "I don't think our current ag policy is working. I think we have a system in place that almost rewards a farmer or ranch the larger it gets -- to the point of driving out the small and middle-sized farmer-rancher. It's something that could be political suicide [for Davis' campaign to challenge], but there are some definitive things that I think we could focus on: One would be a ban on packer feeding -- that's a system in place where some of the huge conglomerates, the packing plants, are able to mitigate changes in beef prices by importing, in sealed trucks, cattle from Mexico or Canada at times when prices have fluctuated above what they want to pay.... Cattle producers here don't benefit, people at the supermarket don't benefit, but, again, the conglomerate packing houses definitely benefit. ... In terms of realizing that our food security in many ways is also a national-security issue, I think it would behoove us to realize that it's not just senators and reps from Middle America who should be concerned about this. ... Two groups that I greatly respect, actually three, come to think of it -- I like their pragmatic approach to some incremental changes, again, that wouldn't be a shock to the system but that would allow for positive changes to take place over a duration of time -- are the Independent Cattlemen's association, the Farmers Union and the Center for Rural Affairs. I really like what they have to say. I think a lot of what they point to are things that most people would probably agree with -- reforming our system without causing a shock to it."
**ON HEALTH CARE: "I do not understand the argument for allowing millions of people in a country as wealthy as ours to not have access to health care. ... People want health care; people deserve health care. And so, in my heart of hearts, I think if we can have a system that actually works for people -- I don't think we're going to have single-payer ever in our lifetime in this country, but if we at the very least recognize that the reforms that have already passed no different in the Senate and the House would benefit our country -- if we can actually do that last little step to make sure that this becomes signed into law, that would be, to me, a wonderful thing. The reality is, Social Security and Medicare were both opposed by Republicans when they were first floated as ideas. Now who paints themselves as the defenders of Medicare and Social Security? Republicans. ... I think health reform would be the same exact thing 20 years from now if we can just get it passed. I think people will recognize the benefit it brings to our country. It will bring fluidity to the job market, because right now most people would not leave a job with a large corporation to start their own business, to become an entrepreneur, if it meant losing health care. I don't think the system we have in place, of tying our health care to our employment, works. I think we should reward small-business owners in being able to create innovation, create demand and supply for products that we don't already have, and it shouldn't be a burden to them to have to compete with large corporations in terms of health care."
**ON WHY SHE'S RUNNING: "There are a lot of other things I could do in life that would be far less tumultuous than this, but I can't think of anything else that would mean as much to me as being able to represent this state -- with all the ups and downs that go with holding public office. That doesn't frighten me. What frightens me is when people do not believe facts, do not believe truths, and instead follow sensationalism and don't look at the reality of what things are. I think one of the growing things that we've seen in the political climate is people being motivated by fear. That, to me, is such an oxymoron. You can't be motivated by fear; you can only be cowed by fear."
*added Thursday, March 11, 2010
**added Monday, March 15, 2010
NOTE: All these quotes come from the same Jan. 31, 2010, interview. Many have been abridged (as indicated by ellipses), but none altered.
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