Bonoff Sounds Off on Wedge Issues

Read Part 1 of my interview with recently announced congressional candidate Terri Bonoff.

A major issue for many in the progressive movement in recent months has been FISA — the Foreign Intelligence Services Act — and a perceived unwillingness on the part of congressional leaders to strike back against Bush administration bootprints left on civil liberties. I asked Bonoff about the current FISA revision working its way through Congress, which would essentially provide amnesty to telecom companies that assisted the administration in illegal warrantless wiretapping programs. She said Congress has to start at the top. “It’s our responsibility to uphold the Constitution and people need to be held accountable. Wherever the power is that ordered that [the illegal wiretapping program], that’s where we ought to be focused.”

We went from there to a side discussion on Net Neutrality — the issue of whether internet service providers will be able to create a two-tier internet or obey the flat, fair architecture upon which the Internet is based.  Bonoff admitted she is not an expert on the issue, but that led to discussion of the music industry’s adventures on the Internet. She and I found room to disagree on how badly the industry has been injured by the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing and subsequent growth of pay services, such as Apple’s iTunes.

Besides, there were other issues to get to. I’ve written before about the fiscal conservative frame, a term conservative leaders conflate with fiscal responsibility, but one that some Democrats seek to graft to liberal social policies, i.e. the social liberal, fiscal conservative frame.  It’s one that has been used in connection with Bonoff before so I asked her about tax issues in the context of their use as a wedge issue.  It was a challenge question, a rhetorical test of sorts.

“People are very tax-sensitive in the Third,  not because they have more money and they just want to hold on to it but because they’re discerning voters and they think about value,” she said.  “People here don’t mind providing more of their income if they’re getting value for it.  We have to look at every level of government.  At the state level there needs to be serious reform in many budget areas, but it isn’t about `fiscal conservative’, it’s about ‘economically sound’; it’s about innovation and creativity.”Other wedge issues we discussed:

Abortion:  “The most important thing is to teach young people how to avoid unplanned pregnancy,” she said.

Intelligent Design in schools:  “People here understand that it’s not the role of the public schools to communicate ideas better taught in churches and synagogues,” Bonoff said. “Intelligent Design is manipulation, using those ideas to divide, and people here are too smart for that.”

Immigration:  “It’s such a complicated issue. It’s been used as a wedge issue to promote fear and to tap into natural prejudices… and it’s so important that we attack it on many levels,” she said.  “Border control is the big issue we haven’t fully handled but we have to ask ourselves, ‘why are these people coming?’  Because they find work, well, who’s paying them?  What kind of sanctions are we putting on those businesses?  That’s a huge issue.  I agree with Congressman Walz that we need a path to citizenship for undocumented workers already living here.”

With Monday’s official kick-off Bonoff’s campaign is up and running.  With precinct caucuses three months away Bonoff will have to make things happen quickly if she is to be sworn in as the Third District’s next representative in Congress in January 2009.  Of course, the short timeframe applies to the other candidates in the race as well.