Bird-dogging Candidates in NH in 2015 - Judy Elliott

I am a bird dog in the NH Primary. My mode of anti-nuclear resistance is to question as many presidential candidates as possible about US nuclear weapons policy.

I try to ask them all approximately the same question:

"The United States already has thousands of nuclear weapons in its active military stockpiles, many of them on hair-trigger alert. And yet there is a plan, which the Administration apparently buys into, for a massive rebuilding of our nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles. This includes a new fleet of submarines, heavy bombers, cruise missiles, plus redesigned warheads. It’ll cost a trillion dollars and create profits for Pentagon contractors. Do you support this plan?"

So far, I've asked the question of eight candidates, both Republican and Democratic. (Interestingly, George HW Bush and George W. Bush achieved bigger cuts in nuclear weapons than either Clinton or Obama.)

Most of them don't know what I'm referring to, but at least the questions educate the audience and the candidates a bit. A few of the candidates are at least slightly acquainted with the plan.

I've logged all the encounters on my blog https://gunsvsbutterflies.wordpress.com/.

My efforts are part of AFSC's Governing Under the Influence project, where you can see reports on from all the bird dogs at gui.afsc.org .

Judy Elliott, New Hampshire