Candidate 2.0: Adriel Hampton
California is constantly brewing up complex and often contradictory blends of ideas, affiliations and movements. People who do not recognize the Golden State’s deep internal polarities and conflicting interests, will be continually surprised by what the state does on issues ranging from food to marriage.
The District of California wants to showcase and understand these dynamics from across the ideological spectrum. This blog is open to ideas as long as they are interesting, authentic and, ideally, game-changers.
That was a long wind up to say that I’ve spoken with someone who is running for Congress in CA who has some very interesting ideas that are worth sharing. His name is Adriel Hampton 10th District (D-Dublin). (I’m not a resident of this district.) What initially caught my attention about him is that he is very active in and attuned to Gov2.0 issues. From what I can tell, his political views are in tune with my own, but even if if they were not, he clearly is doing a lot of thinking about the role of technology in government. A crucial and timely topic.
Here are some comments he made to The District of California. This blog looks forward to following his efforts.
“In terms of the idea of ‘Candidate 2.0,’ I think that what is most powerful about my campaign is outreach to non-traditional actors in an attempt to expand the playing field on issues that are important to each and every one of us.”
Adriel Hampton For Congress
“I am deeply concerned that from Eisenhower to the Free Speech movement to today, we really have been consistently losing the war against ‘the system’ of entrenched and wealthy interest groups and political structures that absolutely don’t care for the lives and struggles of everyday folks from the middle class on down. In this country we hardly even have a class war, since the upper class has been so well entrenched. And, we’ve been largely bought off, with an ever-present need to look after our individual welfare, with flashy media, with Hollywood – 24 and American Idol.”
“I’m running for Congress because the only alternative I see to deep cynicism is to keep on fighting. As Mario Savio said, ‘you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop’.”
Tim O'Reilly Gov 2.0 Sketch
“I am a futurist, a digital native, and the kind of liberal advocate for issue-based politics and government reform that is needed for these times. I am finding on the campaign trail that President Obama has really helped to awaken non-traditional political actors, and these folks are joining my campaign as volunteers by the day. We are tired of politics as sport, when so many people’s liberties deeply depend on change.”
