“The federal government has no business meddling directly in your life,” says Mike Turner, who wants to represent us in the federal government, “but it has an obligation to entice you to behave in a way that’s better for all in the long run.”
Turner is one of two Democratic candidates vying for the chance to unseat veteran congressman Frank Wolf in the November general election.
“Lee Atwater and Karl Rove elevated winning above service in the early 90s,” Turner said in an interview on May 24. “Now we have to go back to service with a willingness to entertain all sides of an issue for the greater good.”
Turner has been involved in service of one kind or another since he was 17 years old, much of it military service. During his 28 years in the Air Force, Turner flew air rescue helicopters and three different kinds of fighter planes before being assigned to the United States Central Command in 1988. He served as General Norman Schwarzkopf’s personal briefing officer during Desert Storm, and as a policy planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reporting to General Wesley Clark. Since retiring from the Air Force, Turner has worked as a fundraiser for national nonprofit organizations, including the American Red Cross.
He has also written commentaries for Newsweek and National Public Radio. On March 11, 2003, nine days before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Turner urged the Bush administration to call off the invasion.
“Perhaps we can pull this off,” he said on NPR’s Morning Edition, “but here’s another scenario that’s at least as likely. The war ends within a few weeks, but the crisis deepens. The US is left to administer a political vacuum in Iraq. Iran is emboldened to help the Shiites in the South…. The cost of the war skyrockets. The US economy is dealt a body blow, but the administration can find no credible way out. Britain’s Prime Minister Blair is voted out of office…. Photos of American soldiers amid landscapes of Iraqi civilian bodies blanket the world press, which aligns unanimously against the US…. These are not remote possibilities, but in my view, reasonable, possibly even likely outcomes.”
Uncannily accurate predictions. Turner’s willingness to make them on National Public Radio is an example of what he calls substantive leadership. He believes that one of the reasons many people have lost interest in the political process is that “they don’t see substantive leadership, meaning leaders with honesty, the courage to stand up for their beliefs and ideas, and the intelligence to reason through a problem and arrive at a solution that’s sensible, feasible, and for the public good.”
Another reason for disinterest, Turner asserts, is that politicians have dumbed down the process so far that it doesn’t engage people anymore. He mentions automated phone calls as an example of dumb politics, and mass-mailings with no real message.
Because Turner’s primary opponent, Judy Feder, has raised more money, conventional campaign wisdom would hold that she is better positioned to defeat Wolf in the general election. “But you have to break through conventional thinking to deeper levels,” Turner said. “People stick to entrenched thought lines, and the further you go in the political system, the worse it gets. We’re trying to cause the body politic to pause and think before reacting automatically.”
Turner favors universal health care with a single payer—the federal government. “We’re going to have to fight the private insurance companies anyway,” he said, “so why not fight them for the right answer?” Which is to eliminate them. Administrative costs in the Japanese healthcare system are 2 percent, Turner notes, and it’s one of the world’s best. In America the administrative cost is 22 percent. He would pay for healthcare with a 5 percent income tax increase on the top 1 percent on income earners, plus a .25 percent surcharge on stock and bond transactions, and a 3 percent raise in Medicare deductions for everyone.
That plan may not sound politically expedient, but political expediency is not authentic, Turner says.
“People have asked me if it’s hard to be on all the time while campaigning, and I say the trick to being on all the time is not being on, but merely being genuine. Then you never have to think about who your audience is or what you ought to say. You just speak honestly no matter what.”
For more information about Mike Turner, consult his website, www.miketurnerforcongress.com.
News 
