Run for Office 3

It’s been five weeks since the race began, and my campaign for U.S. House District 5 grows, in large part because the institutions of democracy – freedom of press and assembly - opened opportunities in print, on TV and in-person. I’ve been able to share my prescription for a healthier America.

First is guns. I am a gun owner and have been since my early teens. I support the Second Amendment, and I oppose outlawing or trying to eliminate all guns. But in order to reduce the number of shootings and shooting victims, I favor strict regulations. To me, it’s simple: a gun plus a shooter plus a human target equals a shooting victim. If we want to reduce the number of shooting victims, then we must reduce guns and shooters. We can do that by limiting access to guns, especially extraordinarily lethal ones, and by reducing the number of potential shooters through stringent background checks on all gun and ammunition sales. I support gun registration. I support Initiatives 43 and 44.

Second, I advocate a universal, single-payer healthcare system. (Skeptics, please note: single-payer is not “government run” healthcare.) Imagine that everything you like about our current healthcare system – private doctors, private hospitals, superior technology, cutting-edge medicine, the freedom to be in charge of your own care, etc. - remained in place. Then add the following: you pay 30% less, you never have to read another insurance brochure, you aren’t restricted to the doctors in your insurance company’s network, you never have a co-pay or bill, every medical ailment is covered, and all citizens receive complete care. That’s what 32 other prosperous countries have done, and there’s no movement in any of them to ‘repeal and replace’. (For a businessman’s perspective, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ZDpYjKVAU)

At every campaign event, I’ve heard mumblings about the incumbent in District 5, Kurt Schrader. While constituents justly praise his across-the-aisle work, they nearly spit venom at his vote for HR-38, the bill that would allow people with concealed-carry permits to carry guns in states that do not allow concealed-carry. This so-called solution to gun violence - give more men permission to carry more guns in more places – demonstrates his across-the-aisle obeisance to the gun fringe. It is the reason I entered this race.

My platform has grown beyond guns to address the political turmoil of our time.

Forces collide. For the first time ever, humans have filled the Earth. The World is ours. We and our products - wastes, chemicals, medicines, toxins - occupy every nook and cranny. We’ve conquered it all. Which means, the social institution essential for expansion and conquest – the male-dominated hierarchy – loses its importance. Concurrently, new institutions rise. The result? A clash of forces.

Dominant males, feeling cornered, fight even harder for relevance. Military strongmen turn their genetic need to dominate against their own people, curtailing freedoms, imposing martial law, stifling the press. Economic dictators guiltlessly pillage the bottom 90%. Politicians bow to these economic overlords with massive tax cuts that barricade wealth from social responsibility forever. Ordinary men, those for whom dominance is essential to male identity, buy guns.

Male dominance collides with the desire for community. If voters acquiesce to male dominance, we’ll end up in a “Hunger Games”-like society, a “MadMax” world. If voters embrace the people’s bottom-up initiatives – Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Enough! – then we’ve acknowledged we are a global village, a community in which all Life matters.