“Imagine a presence in the 2008 Election created by you to represent your interests in the presidential race. Your candidate, The Virtual Candidate (VC) will be the 1st candidate without gender, class, or race to run for public office. Over the next 4 years, you will create the qualities of the candidate that will campaign on your ticket, The People’s Platform (P!P) created between 2003-2008. Working with you, P!P will make sure VC’s speeches, interviews, and debates are broadcast in every conceivable public space across America.”

So begins the pitch born in the mind of Linda Goode Bryant (artist, activist, mother) for a radicalization of the American political process. Her history of merging art and politics began in the early seventies when she opened the first black art gallery on 57th St., the heart of the white art establishment. Her documentary Flag Wars (Zula Pearl Films), which looks at the human cost of gentrification, was aired on PBS in 2003 and has received numerous honors, including a Peabody award and an Emmy nomination. A self-described “chronic non-voter”, she gets why over half of America steers clear of the polls on Election Day and thinks that tapping the people’s imagination will save democracy. Here’s why.

BB: What made you decide to invent a Virtual Candidate?
LB: Well, I was inspired to do this project to create ways that people could effect public policy and the world around them, by having to come to terms with the fact my form of dissent, meaning the fact that I did not vote, was not a viable strategy. It was the day I had to confront this. Which happened when I was shooting Flag Wars and had a conversation with Baba, one of the main characters, and, y’know, I asked, why when a vote was taken on whether or not to make this community-- this neighborhood-- a historic district, the new residents, the gay white residents that had moved in, succeeded, when the majority of the homeowners were still African-Americans at that point. And Baba’s response was “well, I didn’t vote”. “Well, why didn’t you vote?” and his thing was “because to vote means that I would acknowledge that they had power over me. And these people don’t have power over me. I’m not gonna vote for something they want.” And it just landed. It was like that’s my attitude. I don’t believe in this system. So, my form of dissent is not to vote. Is not to acknowledge it. But, guess what—the system affects us.

BB: How does the Active Citizens Project differ from Rock The Vote and MoveOn.org.
LB: Well, I think, first of all in focus. The focus of those organizations is getting people to vote in the system. I’m saying fuck you. I don’t care. I don’t want to do it that way. I want to be able to affect the shape of public policy whether I vote or don’t vote. And I’m not going to vote unless I’m motivated to vote. It’s not enough for me to be told to vote because it’s my responsibility. It’s not my responsibility if I have no connection to that responsibility. But, y’know, it’s not just pulling a lever. Voting is being able to pull the lever for things that represent your interest. And if your interests aren’t on the table, why the fuck would you pull the lever?

BB: How do you plan to get your interests on the table?
LB: I think we should recognize the power of media and figure out ways to use it as an activist tool, as a tool for everyday people to represent themselves. That’s why media and public space is critical to the project. If the voices of underrepresented people have prominence, then, I believe it will have influence and affect the status quo.

BB: What do you hope will be the outcome of this project?
LB: That a broad base of the population of underrepresented people from young people to poor people to African-American people to Native-American people create a platform that’s representative of us. It must say something about our times that this project feels subversive. I mean, at another time it wouldn’t be. But now it is. And I know the powers-that-be will reorganize themselves. If we’re effective and really get people involved, the powers-that-be will take notice and we’ll be corralled again. But then we’ll find another opening. It’s all about those windows, those openings.

To find out more about the Virtual Candidate you can go to www.thepeoplesplatform.com launching in mid-November 2004.