Dear Candidate,
I am a 76 year old woman, retired, living on a limited income in a semi-rural part of Arizona who is horrified at the current state of our country. Until last year I was a registered Republican (for 58 years), though I have voted for Democrats in the last two election cycles.
One of the things that greatly concerns me in the current Democratic candidate feeding frenzy is the total lack of a clear message. Many pundits have used the term “circular firing squad” and it often appears that way. There seems to be so few opportunities for the candidates to sit down and discuss what’s going on in our country and suggest directions - its all yelling and talking over each other and tearing each other apart.
This election is more important than any one of you in particular being elected. No matter which of you perseveres, the hope is that sanity, morality and ethics might return.
The clearest message I hear so far is from the former NYC mayor. What I hear is to the effect of “this needs to happen, I’ve made it happen before and we can do it again on a larger scale”.
When talking with like-minded friends, there are so many things we don’t hear being addressed. And I hear NOTHING that might appeal to some of my conservative friends who seem to have drunk the Trump kool aid.
- Many of us went through college as single Moms working full time and paid back out student loans, sometimes by working them off in specific jobs or locations. The idea that someone can get a “free” education without somehow earning it is an anathema to many of us. There can be many roads to debt forgiveness - military service, some other kind of universal service but a free ride shouldn’t be one of them.
- Health care needs to be accessible. People keep talking about “coverage” - that is wrong; we should be talking about access to health care. There are some existing models which can be expanded utilizing community and neighborhood resources already in place (schools, churches, YMCA’s, etc.). Some things should be absolutely free: basic care and meds for chronic disease such as diabetes and asthma, well baby and pediatric care. Basic cancer care. Palliative and hospice end of life care. Most basic, chronic disease and pediatric routine care can be provided by nurses and pharmacists. There needs to be a starting point. Remember, it was the GOP which made the ACA about “insurance” instead of about “health care”.
- Corporations need to be held responsible for their impact on our country as a whole for the privilege of being an American company. There’s no denying we are a global economy but requiring a corporation to do a percentage of their manufacturing on US soil, meet labor, wage and fair trade standards, tax foreign profits does not necessarily limit their ability to provide an equitable return to investors. Require corporations to provide apprenticeship programs and paid internships in trades, tech, health care and manufacturing, especially in areas where traditional manufacturing and mining employment has become limited.
- Demilitarize our police and strengthen our military. Return the funds scavenged from our military budgets so we have the best equipped military in the world and, at the same time, provide needed repairs and upgrades to military housing so our deployed troops know their loved ones are being cared for. Meanwhile, as much as possible, return our police forces to “protect and serve” and allow our police to regain their status as community partners.
- Regain the respect of the international community. Become, again, the leader of the free world — a position which has been abdicated.
- Secure our food supply; industrial farming has seriously damaged the safety of our food supply and mono culture, wherever practiced in the world, is vulnerable to changing climate conditions. Industrial farming exacerbates the drought/flood devastation brought on by climate change; supporting and expanding existing USDA programs which support small farmers, sustainable farming practices and crop diversity can lessen the impact of climate change and help ensure our food supply.
- Secure our pharmaceutical supply; the recent outbreak of the novel corona virus in China is already impacting the pharmaceutical supply chain. In addition, failure to provide timely aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria greatly impacted available of many pharmaceutical products produced there. (The impact both to PR and to the supply chain has still not been resolved.) We need to require pharmaceutical companies to resume manufacture of essential medications on US soil.
This is only a partial list of things we talk about. We recognize that there is a younger demographic that sees dramatic change as a way to move forward, and that this demographic has a different concept of the term “socialism” than older generations which may equate socialism and communism. There is a large segment that wants a “return” to a safe normalcy. There are a lot of conservatives and undecideds who are afraid that they are losing their “rights” or values and fear those who don’t look, talk or act like them. So not only do we need a strong clear message, we need to let these people know that the GOP is disenfranchising them by canceling primaries, while the Democratic party is working to preserve all the rights guaranteed by our Constitution. (See my blog post on the GOP threatening their own voters’ rights.)
Please, please, despite this being a competition, get together and find some common ground. Talk to each other. Consider that the survival of our Republic, our Constitution, our Democracy may be more important than if you win the nomination. You all have strong points and good ideas that will be needed by our next President. Show strength together instead of individual ineffectiveness. If you can’t resolve your differences now, how in the world do you expect to bring the undecideds and disillusioned conservatives to our side?
It’s not “May the best woman or man win”, it’s “May the best team win”!
Respectfully,
Patricia Kuvik
Vail AZ
“Typical” Independent Voter: Retired RN, retired IBM engineer, former volunteer firefighter/paramedic, current poll worker (and during past three presidential election cycles), former registered Republican, multiple cancer survivor, equestrienne.
