This just in: I have decided to write a series of blog posts about Trump. Each post will focus on a specific issue such as Foreign Policy, Sex, Business etc. I’ll try to minimize guesswork and stick with the facts; providing links where possible.

To do this, I think it only fair that I first lay out my political positions. While I’m a registered Democrat, I have zero party loyalty. I vote for the person that best aligns with my positions.

To set the stage, let’s start with my favorite quote from Abraham Lincoln: “The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves — in their separate, and individual capacities.”

For example, I can’t fight off Russia but as a country we can. I can’t build every road I need but as a country we can. There is a bit of socialism here in that we are nationalizing certain tasks for the common good because that is the most, and often the only way, to get something done.

Here are my political positions:

1. The military needs to only as big as it needs to be to get the job done. If we don’t need more ships, we shouldn’t build more ships just because a congressman lives in state that builds ships.
2. Education should be free. This includes trade schools and post-high school education.
3. Healthcare should be free.
4. By “free”, I mean I am willing to pay higher taxes for these things to take place.
5. The Supreme Court of the United States should be held to the highest standards of ethics, judgement and impartiality. It should be easy to remove any of them that takes a bribe or attempts to interpret the law in a way that favors a political bias.
6. Campaign finance should limit funds any one person or organization can give to a person running for office. By “limit” I mean something like $200 per candidate. Not the hundreds of millions Elon Musk will donate to get Trump elected. Money wins elections. We need to accept this fact and take steps to limit the money involved.
7. If a politician knowingly posts or says something untrue, they should face an ethics ruling; one that could possibly expel them from Congress.
8. We are a nation of immigrants. This is what makes us strong. Our immigration reforms should focus on streamlining the process for legal entry. We need the bodies. Diversity makes us stronger. Yes, keep out those that we don’t want or that come in illegally but our real focus needs to be on letting in those that want to do so legally.
9. Russia is not our friend. I fully support the Ukrainian efforts to fight back. My biggest fear with a Trump presidency is that he will abandon Ukraine and embrace Russia. He is already Putin’s “useful idiot.”
10. Promote science and fight back against “fake news”. The idea that people are not vaccinating their children is astoundingly uneducated.
11. Diversity, in all of its forms, makes us better, stronger and much more interesting. There is no room for racism, for anti-LGBT, for antisemitism or anti-immigration. Let’s get rid of the hate.
12. Get rid of guns. Maybe not all guns but we have to realize that we have more gun deaths than any other industrialized nation because we have more guns.
13. Get religion out of schools – completely. Your belief in magic is different from mine.
14. Age limits for elected national officials. I think Biden has done a great job. He is too old for another 4 years. Still, I’d vote for a rotten tree stump before I’d vote for Trump.
15. Make voting easy.
16. Make lobbying illegal.
17. Keep NATO strong.
18. Reel in Fake News media. I think Twitter/X has a lot of fake news. I think Fox News is a lot of fake news. I think MSNBC misleads by reporting with a strong left-leaning bias. I don’t know how to fix this but I know people watch Fox News and think the last election was stolen.
19. Support the fight against Climate Change.
20. Make high speed internet available for free (I know the taxes will go up) for everyone.
21. Make sure no child goes hungry, ever.
22. This may sound way off track but, I think the drug trade is ruining way too many families. I think we need to knock on the door of some neighboring countries and say, “Hi, we’ve given you a chance to clean things up and you haven’t so, we are bringing 20,000 soldiers down to clean out the trash. It won’t be pretty so you may want to stand back a little bit.”
23. I think aid to Israel needs to be contingent on not killing civilians. At least indiscriminantly.
24. Taxes on the top 1% need to go way, way up. I’m not jealous of their money but we need to tax money and they have it all so there you go. Don’t tell me about trickly down economics.
25. Abortion needs to be legal everywhere in the country.

I’ll probably think up a few more but I think these are the Big Bites of my political positions. Looking out for each other, less anger and hate, more common sense…that can’t be too much to ask for.

My next post will cover Trump’s history of sexual misconduct.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away.

Jim