I'm tired of presidential candidates zipping into the San Joaquin Valley and only meeting with people who pay to see them at fund-raisers. Gone are the days of the political rallies where you could take your children to see presidential candidates -- introducing them to democracy in a very direct way.
Now most of us only see the candidates in TV ads, news coverage or campaign mailers sent to our homes. My column today talks about this impersonal way of campaigning and praises the Fresno City Council for inviting the candidates to Fresno for a presidential town hall meeting.
Now that would generate interest in next year's election. In the past, rallies built enthusiasm for the candidates, and I'm convinced they drove up voter turnout. We could use that today. But there's only an occasional event where the public is invited.
Here's a portion of today's column discussing the benefits of a presidential town hall meeting in Fresno:
The town hall concept was the idea of Council Member Brian Calhoun, who said the region deserves more attention than generic stump speeches. He'd like to see a major discussion of the immigration issues by the presidential candidates.Calhoun is right. The Valley is ground zero in the immigration reform battle. This is where the issue collides.
Debate immigration here
We have conservative Republicans who say the problem can be easily solved by just shutting down our border with Mexico. We have farmers who don't want immigration reform to block their supply of cheap labor. We have politicians complaining that illegal immigrants are overwhelming our schools, hospitals and other public facilities. We have activists who say the undocumented should be accepted and given a path to citizenship that would take them out of the shadows of illegality.
It all comes together in the Valley. Every argument for and against immigration reform has been made here. What better place for the presidential candidates to explain their plans to reform the immigration system?
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