THE ECHO CHAMBER, Chamber, chamber…

Here are some issues that the corporate media would likely emphasize if they were to acknowledge my candidacy, let’s call it my pre-emptive rebuttal.

1. I am pro-choice. I feel that a woman's decision regarding her ability to bear children is her own decision to make and not ours. That is a choice she must make for herself or in confidence with her partner. End of story. Furthermore, the Hyde Amendment should be repealed in order to allow low income women to receive financial assistance for safe reproductive treatment. Reproductive freedom is just one of many freedoms that are currently under attack by the right wing.

2. I support socialized medicine. Do a little research, spend some time abroad, don’t believe the corporate propaganda. If it wasn’t a really desirable alternative, then big insurance and pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t spend so much time and money lobbying against it and misinforming us about it.

3. I want to drastically reduce military spending. Protecting our country and maintaining an Empire are two different things. How many other countries have hundreds of military bases all over the world? How many foreign nations have military bases on U.S. soil? Why is the military uniform of our nation desert camouflage? The last time I checked, the U.S. was not a vast desert… (well, not yet anyway, but the millions of barrels of oil used each day by our military operations might help out with that soon enough). Furthermore, an increasingly large percent of the hundreds of billions of tax dollars spent on militarism go into the pockets of for-profit security contractors, weapons manufacturers and consultants. The Homeland Security industry is the most recent market bubble and investors are just going wild over it! Privatized warfare is a very bad idea…what do you think increases profits in this industry? That's right, more war.

4. I am a Socialist. I believe that capitalism as an economic system is the root cause of most of the world’s injustice, inequality, warfare and environmental destruction. The ‘S’ word refers to democratic socialism, NOT state planned authoritarian communism. The Soviet Union was neither democratic nor socialist… more like state run capitalism. To learn what real democratic socialists believe I recommend: “You Don’t Have To Be A Saint To Be A Socialist” by Edwin Laing, “Parecon” by Michael Albert and “From Capitalism To Equality” by Charles Andrews.

5. I support complete nuclear disarmament. As with global warming, the U.S. is in the dubious position to be a world leader on this issue. We could lead by example in a coalition with other arms bearing nations to eliminate this global threat to everyone and everything.

6. I am not particularly religious. I was born a Protestant, but find value in the teachings of many religions without participating in any particular organization.

7. I have collected unemployment when out of work. I have been unemployed and collected unemployment insurance. While that is the nature of commercial construction work for tradesmen, it becomes quite apparent why programs like these are so necessary. You work a job until it’s completion, get laid-off, collect unemployment and call the union hall to get another job when one starts. Along with social security, minimum wage, and age and hour restrictions, unemployment insurance is one of the many great successes of the labor and socialist struggle in America.

8. I support gay marriage. Denying certain groups of people the ability to be married because of their sexual orientation is plain and simple discrimination. This is just another case of one group trying to force their belief systems on to others.

9. Undocumented immigrants are casualties of capitalist policies. No human being is illegal. Every man and woman that is a citizen in this country would also do whatever they had to in order to support their family in hard times. Immigrants are workers who don’t have jobs at home because of policies like NAFTA. Capitalists are profit seekers that love having the option of extremely cheap labor. Are there really a whole bunch of U.S. citizens waiting in line to be the next tomato pickers for Taco Bell at $10 a day? I feel that the appropriate action would be to help these workers organize and win a fair wage, as well as repeal NAFTA and other trade agreements that make nations like Mexico into our little sweat shops of horror.

The so called liberal voices in media will likely pose this sort of question:

Won’t a left third party candidacy just help throw the election to the republicans? Hmmm, I say, Is there really any noticeable difference in daily life whether there is a democrat or republican? I will not be a scapegoat for their inadequacies.

Third parties are the ONLY left parties. Democrats on the whole (with some exceptions) are centrists at best. Citizens must vote for what they truly believe in! I am not running against Joe Courtney, I am running against the two-party choke hold on our democracy. I am running to represent the interests of the working class and that’s it. I strongly feel that a greater diversity of voices are needed in our government to expand the scope of debate. Perhaps then, the 50% of eligible voters who don’t participate would be inspired to become involved in our democratic process. (As a side note, I actually like the way Mr. Courtney voted on most of the important bills. I however would vote against ANY more funding for the war and I would introduce new bills to end the war immediately, slow global warming, impeach the current administration and reform our broken electoral system.)

*Here are some organizations I have been a member of or to whom I have contributed money: The ACLU, Democracy Now, WHUS-Storrs, NPR, The Sierra Club, The IWW and The Socialist Party, USA.