Why WOULD you vote for me over someone else?
WHY ME? The all-important question. A question with no simple answer. Why elect an unknown with no support from a major party? Let’s look into it. I believe that the adherence to the major parties is one of the big reasons that we have so much social division. Just as with so many other issues, once you start viewing people as one, generic term you dehumanize them and it becomes very easy to be dismissive. This is how it has become between the “Red Team” and “Blue Team” camps. It’s bad enough that even when you don’t belong to one team or the other if you participate in political discussion you will find that many will “assign” you to one or the other depending on where their own leanings fall.. even if you tell them that it isn’t so. This has been used by the big voices on both sides in order to easily categorize “friendlies” and “enemies” so that you feel comfortable with those who are on your team and animosity with those on the other without much inclination to question those determinations. For example, we can look at the abortion debate. One team says the other is trying to oppress women. The other says that their opponents are slaughtering the unborn for convenience. Now, if you look at either of those arguments as they are you would probably think that each team was championing a noble cause. However, the people on those teams look at the other as monsters. They completely ignore the fact that the INTENTIONS of those standing against them are noble. One team is standing up for women’s rights. One team is standing up for the rights of those with no voice. The political division makes them look at each other as horrible, treacherous and vile people with no decency. This is one of the biggest hurdles that we, as a nation, have to overcome if we want to have peace and the two big parties have no intentions of healing the divide. I believe that if all we have in congress is millionaires and connected people then it seems next to impossible to have a congress that works for the common man. I advocate for a return to the “Citizen Statesman” paradigm. Those who live in high castles can’t begin to understand problems that they do not feel.. and wealth cushions you from the vast majority of what most Americans suffer from. For problems to be solved, they must be UNDERSTOOD. They can’t understand what they have no experience with and no motivation to fix. This is why it’s so important to have representatives from “the masses” in place to GIVE that first-hand knowledge and experience so that workable solutions can be enacted. WITHOUT that experience, we can expect more of the same in our legislation… which is ineffectiveness. Solutions. One word that carries a lot of weight. I don’t come offering answers like “more money” or “get the government out of the hands of the other team”. I have actionable, realistic answers to some of our nation’s biggest problems. Most prospective politicians will come forth with either an allegiance to their team or political ideology and vague promises like “we need to improve (fill in the blank)” with no actual plan to do so. I believe this is the biggest difference between me and other candidates.