Political Platform

I have written a lot on this blog over the last 9 years, and I have written about a lot of different topics. Here is a summary of my political values in a bullet format.

Local elections (Bellingham and Whatcom County)

• Investigate the ability to have fare-free buses
• Have a local carbon tax, like in Portland
• Use ranked voting for all elections.
• Expand access to high speed broadband to every household.
• Internet access is a natural monopoly and as such should be a public service. Same with electricity. Private companies provide good service in a competitive market, but these are not competitive.

Washington State

Easy

• Ban Multi Level Marketing Companies 
• Comprehensive sexual education (like Our Whole Lives) in every school. Mandatory for every student.
• Expand access to high speed broadband to every household.

Medium Difficulty

• Increase Cascades service, study expanding a train working with AMTRAK which would serve Spokane and Tri-Cities.
• Make it easier for people who are laid off to claim unemployment. 
• Eliminate the statute of limitations for sexual assault

Hard

• Implement a Carbon tax with few exemptions.
• Make our tax code more progressive.
• Fund the Working Families Tax Credit
• Increase State employee's wages to market rate for their position, in order to attract and retain talent, and it is the right thing to do.
• Tuition free college

Practically impossible

• Replace our sales tax with a progressive income tax. Individuals with incomes below $100,000 don't have to pay an income tax.

Federal Level

Easy

• Ban Multi Level Marketing Companies
• Oppose wars which are not authorized through the United Nations General Assembly
• Roe v. Wade is settled law, and it is the best case scenario for the issue of abortion. This is the most controversial plank of this platform.
• FEMA must be used appropriately to fight natural disasters.

Medium

• Increase AMTRAK service to currently under served high demand routes, and give AMTRAK the ability to increase service where there is demand. 
• Support inner-city public transit expansion to the areas which are under served.
• Bring back the WPA. This will function as a jobs guarantee, so people who are unemployed can go to the WPA to find work.
• Make DARPA ARPA again, significantly increasing basic science research, supporting excellent good pay jobs.
• Increase the number of SBA loans available, and increase the amount.
• Public option for health insurance or Medicare for All.
• Negotiate for lower drug prices with Medicare.
• No bailouts for any company, no matter what their size.
• Tuition free college at any public university.
• Significantly increase federal grants for local schools.
• Public schools which teach creationism lose federal funding.
• Tuition and fees for Private schools which teach creationism are not tax-deductible.
• Everyone has the right to move their retirement account to a different provider of their choice once per year for no fee, maintaining the normal restrictions the tax advantage comes with. Everyone has the right to change how their retirement account is allocated at any right for no penalty.
• New gun laws:
• Anyone of age who can pass a background check with a clean criminal record may own a gun. However, in accordance to "a well regulated militia" anyone under the age of 65 who owns a gun must be a member of the National Guard Reserves and may be called into service at anytime.
• People under 21 may not purchase or possess a firearm unless they are enlisted as active duty in a branch of the armed services.
• Mandatory background checks, insurance, and licensing for gun purchases.
• Owners of guns are required to keep their guns secured when not on their body. 
• The police may demand a firearm license for possession of a firearm outside of the home or a designated firearm range. Not carrying your license on you with possession of a firearm is a felony. Possession of a firearm which does not belong to you will come with the presumption of theft, and you will be charged for unlicensed carrying of a firearm. 
• Allowing someone who is not licensed to get access to your guns will be a felony with a 5 year prison sentence.
• The legal guardians of minors who get access to guns will be charged with negligence, with a minimum sentence of 5 years, and life in prison without parole if their child kills someone, as well as the owner of the firearm.
• Possession of an unregistered firearm will be a felony punishable with a 5 year prison sentence.
• Felons may not own or possess guns.
• Open carry will be a felony.
• Penalties will be increased for the second and third offenses.
• In short, if you are of good character, and want to own a firearm, you will be allowed. But, you must keep the firearm secured, and you will be called for paid military service.
• We need to combat human trafficking by punishing the traffickers and offering amnesty to those who were traffic.
• Treat drug addiction as a health issue, not a military problem. End the war on drugs. Rehabilitation needs to be available and free. The only sentence anyone should have for possession and usage of drugs should be high quality rehabilitation. Usage of drugs should never send someone to prison.
• De-escalation training for all military and police.
• Aggressively go after and prosecute predatory lenders who mislead their clients with false promises. Pay out the damages to their victims.

Hard

• Nationalize the railways
• Tax capital gains as regular income
• Implement a national carbon tax which increases exponentially over time with no exemptions for special interests.
• Replace Social Security Old Age Insurance with a Basic Income over a 40 year transition plan. Do not cut benefits from any people currently receiving benefits. I have written why Old Age Insurance is highly flawed here. The posts on Social Security from before 2014 were before I studied economics when I was in community college, and I didn't understand it, which is why I want to reform it significantly. At a bare minimum, allow individuals to opt to put their Social Security contributions into an IRA, which will benefit American families.
• Have a negative income tax for low income households. Details
• Comprehensive sexual education in every school.
• Amend the Constitution to replace the Electoral College with a direct vote for the President.
• Have all House of Representatives Districts be elected using Single Transferable Vote with multiple members per district.
• Negotiate an open border agreement with Canada following a full comprehensive study on the costs and benefits to having a closed border which will likely prove that the costs exceed the benefits.
• Increase the number of nationalities who can visit the United States visa-free based on more reasonable criteria. Nationalities which are part of the ESTA will be able to visit the United States without a visa.

Values

• Torture is immoral and violates the 8th amendment under all circumstances.
• The death penalty is inherently flawed and needs to be abolished as a violation of the 8th amendment.
• Every vote must be counted accurately. Every adult American citizen needs to be able to vote. Voting should be easy to do for all adult American citizens.
• Everybody is important. Everybody matters. Everybody deserves a chance.
• We need to provide support to people who have been left behind by inequality, and provide financial remediation for people who have suffered from racism. People who are discriminated by the police deserve financial remediation.
• LGBT rights are human rights.
• People deserve to be fairly compensated for their work. We need to pursue effective policies to end the gender pay gap.

Key economic realities which inform this platform

• Competition when possible is the best way to democratize the economy, and give everyone the opportunity to succeed in industries where there can be many competing firms. Monopolization must be countered with strong anti-trust laws.
• Natural monopolies (electricity, internet, water, sewage) need to be public services provided by governments.
• The single best investment we can make in our future is in the education of people, it gives dividends into the future perpetually through people having better paying jobs via more specialization, better health outcomes, and more. This needs the funding to match its return, which means tuition free public college.
• Improving internet access is one way to significantly level the playing field.
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