Eighth Congressional District Candidate Forum at George Mason ... >
May 5, 2014 - Mark Levine.

Opening Statement
My name is Mark Levine.  I'm known as the aggressive progressive, and people have asked me where I got that nickname.  I think it started when I used to work for Congressman Barney Frank because he was so aggressive and progressive and effective and many think— or they used it a lot more when I used to go on television and confront people like Bill O'Reilly and pull out my Constitution and remind him all the parts of it that he didn't want to think about.

But I actually think it's more a part of who I am.  I was trying to think back to my very first protest.  I do remember I marched on Hollywood because they didn't have positive gay characters before Will and Grace.  Before that I went after a bigoted speaker at Yale Law School and organized the student body to protest.  But I was thinking back to my very first protest and it occurred when I was five years old.  I had just learned that smoking was bad for your health so I took an entire carton of Kent cigarettes from my mom and broke every one and flushed it down the toilet.

I'm the kind of guy who when I see something wrong I can't rest 'til it's better and injustice particularly makes me angry.  The very first law I ever wrote was to protect victims of domestic violence and the law passed unanimously.  It was actually relatively easy to pass; all Democrats and all Republicans voted for it. 

So I wrote another law.  This law wasn't so easy but it was the first law ever in the United States introduced to give gay and lesbian couples full marriage equality rights under state and federal law.  That one was harder to win because even the gay and lesbian establishment in the 1990s opposed marriage equality.  So I know what it's like to fight the establishment.  And it took a few years, but ten years later when I crafted DC's law it was pretty easy.  Eleven to two.

See I don't believe those people that say we can't win battles, that universal health care is an impossible dream, that we can't clean up the Potomac River, that there's nothing to do in a dysfunctional Congress.  When I see the Tea Party going out there and attacking working people and women and union, immigrants, I say we can win these battles because I know how Washington works.  I've been there.  I've been in the trenches. 

And I know what Barney Frank taught me, which is that you work quietly behind the scenes, you come up with creative solutions that Republicans can join you with.  And if they do, that's where you go.  And if they don't, you go on television, you call them out.  I've got to tell you Republicans were a little afraid of Barney Frank and that wasn't such a bad thing, because if they're a little afraid of you on the front end then you can work with them quietly on the back end.  Jim Moran, like me, was no quiet fellow. 

So I believe in being aggressive and progressive.  I also believe in creative solutions.  Check out my education plan.  The way we can use the federal government to negotiate down college loans, and not just student loans but the cost of college in general.  We can come up with these creative solutions if we don't ever say it's not possible. 

Dare to dream.  Vote Mark Levine.  Thank you.
next >