2007 Congressional Press Conference 
May 30, 2007

    
Fellow Citizens, I am Vic Roberts, an old retired coal miner, and I am seeking the Green Party's nomination for Congress in the IL 19th Congressional District.  While campaigning for public office, I wear my coal miner's hat as a symbol of the everyday way of life of the laboring class people.  My every thought, my every action has been shaped and molded by laboring class people; this is who I am, this is what I am.  To be sure, if elected to Congress, I, Vic Roberts, can and will best represent the interests of the laboring class people because I am one too. 

There are those who question why former Democratic Party congressional candidate Vic Roberts is now an IL Green Party candidate.  The answer is: Because I believe the Green Party's core values are based on the common good for our citizens and the general welfare of our nation, and I believe the IL Green Party encompasses and personifies my political ideology and goals far better than today's Democratic Party.   Also it is my goal to give the voters who feel "enough is enough," those who want real change in Congress, an alternative candidate and party to the monopolistic Republican and Democratic political parties.   For more details concerning why I am a Green Party candidate please visit my "Green Party" web page at www.vicroberts.net; also, my views on many other political issues can be found there as well, and I welcome your visit.   

There are those who question why this old retired coal miner, after many years of toil in the hazardous environment of underground coal mines is sacrificing a happy retirement life style for the trials and tribulations involved in taking up the challenging gauntlet of candidacy for Congress, while knowing that my candidacy is considered by many as "token" at best and a joke at worst.  Indeed, why do I, Vic Roberts, invest much of my meager Social Security and United Mine Workers of America pensions on self-financing my grotesquely under-funded quixotic appearing candidacy for Congress?  Why: Because of my deep and abiding belief that we laboring class people are in desperate need of more and better representation in Congress, and, if elected, I, Vic Roberts, can and will provide some of that much needed representation; representation that will work toward repealing such treacherous and traitorous, for us laboring class people, legislation as the Taft-Hartley Act, N.A.F.T.A., C.A.F.T.A., and the Permanent Normal Trade Relations Status with China legislation.  My candidacy is also about representation that will work toward returning to our nation's founding fathers economic policy of tariffs; tariffs that protect our nation's industries and transform anti-labor global free trade into labor friendly fair trade economic policy; also, tariffs that provide us tax payers with a form of tax relief. 

To be sure, my candidacy is about more than winning an election; my candidacy is also about such issues as promoting the Green Party's platform and putting into the political arena the question: Why are we tax payers paying mega billions of dollars to borrow our nation's currency from the Wall Street Banker and global financier privately owned Federal Reserve Bank System when our nation's Constitution clearly mandates that Congress is responsible for "coining and setting the value thereof" of our nation's currency?   For more information concerning that question, please visit my web site page on Federal Reserve Bank Reform at www.vicroberts.net.

Indeed, why am I, Vic Roberts, a candidate for Congress while facing what appears to be formidable odds against achieving my political goals?  I believe the answer to that question can be found in the spirit of the word HOPE.  Hope based on the fact that I did win a primary election in 1978, and became the coal miner candidate for Congress in the former IL 20th Congressional District.  Although I lost in the general election to a long time incumbent, I have the satisfaction of knowing my votes came at a cost of mere pennies per vote.  HOPE based on the fact that as a candidate in the IL 19th Congressional District's 2002 Democratic Party's Primary election, while challenging an incumbent Congressman, I received almost 17% of the votes at a cost of around 52 cents per vote, while in the general election incumbent Republican Congressman Shimkus, in a very strong leaning Republican district, spent around 16 dollars for each vote he received.

Indeed, my candidacy is based on the spirit of the word hope; HOPE based on the fact that in the 2006 19th Congressional District Democratic Party's Primary election I received 12,835 votes or 38.4% of the votes cast; I won in 4 counties while only narrowly losing in 7 other counties.  Those election results were achieved with campaign expenditures of around $3,000, which translates into a cost per vote ratio of about 23 cents per vote.  I believe those election results are phenomenal; especially when compared with the average of eight other losing IL Democratic Party Primary election congressional candidates who received an average of 26.41% of the votes cast at a cost ratio of around $12.46 per vote, which was over 54 times my 23 cents cost per vote ratio. In other words, the average for those eight candidates needed campaign expenditures of almost $160,000 in order to receive the same number of votes my candidacy received at a cost of around $3000.  From another perspective: Had my cost per vote ratio been their $12.46 average, I would have gotten around 240 votes rather than the 12,835 my candidacy actually received.  Indeed, in my opinion those are phenomenal election results on the part of my candidacy, especially considering my very creditable competitor's candidacy outspent mine by a five-to-one ratio.  I believe those election results is a very strong indicator that my HOPE to eventually win is based as much on reason as the spirit of the word hope. 

To be sure my candidacy for Congress is based on hope; HOPE that I will eventually win because a winning majority of voters will realize that my meager Social Security and United Mine Workers of America pensions financed candidacy is a virtue rather than an act of foolishness to be mocked. Yes, it is my HOPE that I will eventually win because a winning majority of voters will realize there is virtue in a candidate who chooses to continue being a solitary quixotic appearing perennial token Congressional candidate full of HOPE rather than being a politician whose political allegiance is put on the auction block for sale to the highest bidder, with the highest bidder usually being Wall Street bankers, global financiers, and global CORPORATE ARISTOCRACY.

Indeed, my candidacy is based on hope; HOPE that someday soon our nation's present capitalistic financed electoral system will be replaced with a CLEAN MONEY public financed electoral system, thus making a populist candidate, such as myself, more competitive with the capitalist's big money campaign contribution legally bought and paid for puppet politicians.

Yes, my candidacy is based on the spirit of the word hope; HOPE that I will eventually win because enough senior citizen voters will realize the virtue of having a candidate for Congress who understands the issues of Social Security and Medicare from the retiree's perspective because he too is, and has been for many years, dependent on his Social Security and Medicare benefits also.

To be sure, my candidacy is based on hope; HOPE that I will eventually win because enough voters in the southern counties of the district will realize the virtue of having a Congressional candidate who can and will give them excellent geographical representation in Congress because for the first 36 years of my life I lived and worked among them in the coal fields of Southern Illinois.  Also, it is my HOPE that many voters in the coal fields of the IL 19th Congressional District will support my candidacy because they value a candidate who is knowledgeable about the coal mining industry from the laboring class people's perspective.           

Yes, my candidacy is based on hope; HOPE that voters will choose Vic Roberts to be their Congressman because they agree with me that the best economic policy for our government is to create prosperity among the masses, and protect that prosperity, as our nation's founding fathers did, through a system of tariffs is far superior to today's "trickle down" economic policy and the global "free trade" agenda; both of which make the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

Indeed, it is my HOPE that I will eventually win because a winning majority of voters will appreciate the virtue of my age. Yes, the virtue of age that develops a degree of  knowledge and understanding, a wisdom, that is gained only through experiencing the everyday trials and tribulations one faces as they go through their journey in life; a wisdom that cannot be bought with any amount of campaign money. 

Fellow Citizens, it is often said "knowledge is power;" however, that is only half true; knowledge is power only when appropriately used.   My personal era of acquiring knowledge and understanding began on Nov. 19, 1932 when I was born into a poor coal miner's large family during a hideous national depression.  Over the span of around three quarters of a century I have acquired a considerable amount of knowledge and understanding concerning the everyday ways of life of the laboring class people by being one too.  Now it is my HOPE that I can appropriately use this acquired knowledge and understanding in Congress on behalf of the common good and the general welfare of our citizens and our nation.  And it is my HOPE that with each losing campaign I endure, I am building a stronger political base for my next candidacy and eventually I will win;  until then, my journey in HOPE is rewarding me with a good conscience, peace of mind, and self-satisfaction for doing what I believe is the right thing for me to do. 

Fellow citizens, I believe the following words encompass and personify my political ideology very, very well: I, Vic Roberts, am a candidate who believes as a great statesman once said: If this government of the people, by the people, and for the people will abide in the spirit of the words "right makes might" this government shall not perish from the earth.  And I, Vic Roberts, am a candidate who believes as President Kennedy when he said: With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking HIS Blessing and HIS help but knowing that here on earth God's work truly must be our own. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.  Fellow Citizens, I, Vic Roberts, am a candidate who does not intend to do nothing, and I am a candidate who believes in promoting the general welfare of our citizens and our nation for the common good.  And I am a candidate who will deeply and sincerely appreciate your support of my candidacy for Congress.

In the words of a great lady, Mother Jones: Let us pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living.

Vic Roberts, Candidate, IL 19th Congressional District  

Click here to send email to Vic Roberts: vicforcongress@chipsnet.com

The text of this web site is a direct communication from Vic Roberts, Congressional candidate.

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