It only took Donald Trump four weeks to wreck the economy. Under the Biden administration, we were headed in the right direction. I understand what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, to decide what you can live without to make ends meet; I’ve been there. I’m there now. Republicans always expect those living on or below the poverty line to bear the brunt of an economic downturn. Our economy will flourish when there isn’t a wage gap based on race or gender identity. Our economy will flourish when we finally raise the minimum wage. Our economy will flourish when we invest in the middle class. Our economy will flourish when everyone pays their fair share. The 1% should pay more than the kid working their first job bagging groceries or the teacher having to pay for supplies for their classroom out of their own pocket. If we held the wealthiest people in this country accountable for paying their fair share of taxes, the phrase “school lunch debt” wouldn’t be a thing.

The founding fathers of this country could have never imagined the scope of what their experiment in self-governance would grow to be. Yet, nearly 250 years later, we stand on the precipice of losing it all. Voting isn’t a privilege for those who can afford to take off work or those who live in a state with mail-in voting. Voting is the most basic right afforded to the people of this country. Election day, at all levels of government, should be a paid holiday. It’s outrageous that in the country that touts itself as “the leader of the free world,” that Republican led states would make it harder for their constituents to vote. Same-day voter registration should be the standard across this country. Voter ID laws are a tool of voter suppression. You can use a fingerprint to cash a check, so why can’t you use a fingerprint to cast a vote?  When a political party works harder to suppress votes and disenfranchise voters than it does to reach out to those voters, then that party has a messaging problem, not a voter turnout problem. The people of this country should be excited and motivated to vote, it shouldn’t feel like a chore. Voting is the most powerful tool in our arsenal for change. The Republican party wants the citizens of this country to feel powerless in the face of their tyranny, we need to hold them accountable in the voting booth. No matter what party you’re a member of, if you want to hold elected officials accountable, do it at the voting booth every election, every time.

I have long said that one of the first institutions that needs to be reshaped is the Supreme Court. At its current size, nine members, it is not only the smallest court of its kind in the world it is also too small to represent the perspectives of a country the United States' size. A larger Supreme Court would reduce the power of the swing justice, ensure the court has "a greater diversity of views", and make confirmation of new justices less politically contentious. Beyond expanding the Supreme Court, the removal of lifetime appointments to the justices should be removed.  Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 78 argued that one benefit of lifetime tenure was that "nothing can contribute so much to its firmness and independence as permanency in office."  In the last three years, Hamilton’s belief has been proven false as the Supreme Court has become an arm of the Republican party in furthering its agenda. It doesn’t make much sense for there to be a lifetime appointment made to the Supreme Court by an elected official who is only allowed to serve a total of eight years. Impose the same limits on Supreme Court Justices that are set for Congress and the Senate. In a government that is of the people, for the people, and by the people, there should be no lifetime appointments regardless of precedent or misplaced deference for the “Founding Fathers.”

This country’s immigration system is broken. We need to help fix the root causes of what drives people to leave their countries seeking a better life. In most cases, you will find that the United States had some part in the instability that these nations are facing. More than that, if the United States truly is the “land of opportunity,” then our immigration system should reflect that. The path to US citizenship should not take ten years. Immigrants have for too long been made to be the boogieman of an election cycle. Immigrants aren’t taking jobs, they’re doing the jobs that privileged white people don’t want to do. The only immigrant who has ever come to this country and “taken” someone’s job is Elon Musk, as we have seen with the mass layoffs of government employees that he is overseeing. The first step to repairing our broken immigration system is to abolish the term “illegal” when speaking of undocumented people. We’re not made a better nation by dehumanizing someone who is seeking to better their circumstances.

All the children of this country should be set up for success, starting in kindergarten. In 2022, the United States spent more than ten times more on its military than it did on education. Imagine what could be done if a small portion of our military budget was used for underfunded schools in underserved communities. That in itself would be a stepping stone to ending the school-to-prison pipeline. We should be doing everything we can to make sure that all America’s children receive the same quality of education despite what the property taxes of their school zone may be. Despite how the Republican party likes to poor mouth, we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Why aren’t we feeding kids at school for free? The government requires that they go; the government should be required to feed them. We should also be offering universal Pre-K to help working families who may not be able to afford childcare. There should be incentives in place for schools that offer after-school programs. I believe that our high school-aged children should be taught real-world skills like how to file taxes and how to apply for an apartment. Civics needs to be taught; the children of this country deserve to know how their government works and how it should work for them. But K-12 shouldn’t be the only focus when talking about education. For many American students, college just isn’t in the cards. We should offer free community college not just for high school graduates but for anyone who wants to further their education. And yes, I fully support forgiving student loans.

Like many of the institutions in this country, our healthcare system is broken. Somewhere along the way, it became more about turning a profit than it did about healing. No one should face bankruptcy or eviction or live in chronic pain simply because they cannot afford health insurance or because their medication is too expensive. We made great strides in coverage with Obamacare, but a country this size demands a public option. If government healthcare is good enough for our elected officials, then it’s good enough for our citizens. Allowing the people of your country to have access to affordable healthcare shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It isn’t a radical idea; it’s not a handout, it’s the right thing to do. If you disagree, your moral compass is as broken as the healthcare system.

I support the 2nd Amendment. I don’t, however, support the idea that it states an American citizen has the right to own whatever kind of gun they want. I’m no Constitutional scholar, but I’m smart enough to know that the Second Amendment speaks to the American people’s right to rise up should the United States government fall against or be handed over to a tyrannical foreign power. That being said, I have no problem with gun ownership. If you want a gun, have a gun, but be a responsible gun owner. This country has seen more than its fair share of mass shootings and deaths by gun violence for us not to have common sense gun laws. I don’t want the government to take your guns. I don’t want to take your guns, but not everyone should be able to buy a gun.

My stance on abortion is a simple one. The decision to terminate a pregnancy is between the patient and their doctor. Abortion bans only ban safe abortions. Every person in this country has the right to safe and affordable medical care, regardless of what the procedure is.

The average American voter doesn’t understand why the budget deficit is so high. The US deficit is high primarily because the government spends more money than it takes in through taxes, largely driven by factors like an aging population, rising healthcare costs, large entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, and recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic which led to significant spending increases, all while the tax system struggles to generate enough revenue to cover these expenses; essentially, the government is spending more than it is collecting, resulting in a growing deficit. How do we combat that? We make sure that people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg are paying their fair share of taxes. Those men are using their access to Trump not to help the American people who use their services and platforms, but to put more money in their pockets while rising taxes cripple the middle class economy.

The Trump administration’s foreign policy is “Peace through strength,” when in reality they mean to bully our allies into submission while kissing the ring of Putin and Russia. Strength is not alienating our allies. Strength is not turning our back on the Ukrainian people. Strength is not threatening to pull out of NATO. A true showing of a nation’s strength on the world’s stage is being there when our allies need us most. To achieve peace, there has to be collaboration between like-minded countries to show those who want a third world war that we are a united front against tyranny.

We are in a climate crisis. As an American citizen, it is your right to believe that it’s a hoax, and it is your right to not support climate change initiatives. The US should be a leader in clean energy,  instead, we’re being left in the dust because of men like Tommy Tuberville and Donald Trump, who have lined their pockets with money from fossil fuel bigwigs.. Ten years ago was the time to begin transitioning away from fossil fuels. It’s laziness and greed that keeps the fossil fuel industry from pivoting to renewable energy.

Russia is not our ally and should not be treated as such. Full stop. We were warned by four of the greatest Democrats to ever hold public office that Russia was a threat, and I believe them.

America has a long history of doing wrong to anyone who wasn’t cisgender, heterosexual, and white. It started with the indigenous people of this country, then we enslaved Africans, we overthrew the native Hawaiian government, we implemented segregation, the AIDS crisis, the crack epidemic, the Japanese internment camps of WWII, and so many others that it’s almost hard to keep track of all the times the United States has been on the wrong side of history when it comes to race relations. To improve race relations in this country, the first thing we have to do is accept responsibility for our actions. Only then can we start the journey towards making amends with those the American government has wronged. Despite their treatment, Black people and people of color have always seen this country for what it could be, and they have fought tooth and nail to get us there. We, as white people, have to match that energy. We have to shoulder some of the burden. We have to show that we are just as much in the fight for the promise of what could be as they are.

The United States is the world's largest economy and the largest exporter and importer of goods and services. Trade is critical to America's prosperity - fueling economic growth, supporting good jobs at home, raising living standards, and helping Americans provide for their families with affordable goods and services. Trump’s tariffs and trade wars aren’t going to bolster the economy the way he has promised. They’re only going to drive this country into a recession and, more catastrophically, a depression.

Trans rights are human rights. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Despite what the Trump administration, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Tommy Tuberville, and a host of other Republicans would have you believe, trans people are not a threat to our children, nor are they hiding in public bathrooms to accost you at any given moment.  They’re fearmongering to create hysteria to distract the American people while they strip away our rights. The people we see most often arrested for endangering and sexually abusing children are cisgender. More often than not, those people are church leaders. Trans people just want to live their truth and be left alone. Trans people deserve the same respect and dignity afforded to cisgender citizens in this country. I stand with the trans community and will work to make sure that they are not singled out by radical Christian conservative politicians.  The decision of whether trans athletes should play on teams matching their gender identity should be left to the governing bodies of the respective divisions. Banning trans athletes from those teams is the exact kind of government overreach Tommy Tuberville claims to be against.

The first colonizers of this country came to escape religious persecution, and yet the Republican party shouts that we are “a Christian nation.” I am a person of faith. While I don’t subscribe to one particular religion, I do use my faith as a guide to do the right thing. My faith and my beliefs mandate how I should live my life. They don’t mandate how anyone else should live theirs. Our elected officials should use their faith and beliefs the same way.  The United States is a melting pot of religious beliefs, our government should reflect that. Not all of this country’s people worship the same God, some don’t worship God at all, so we should be making sure that all religions are seen, heard, and represented.