Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast

People always talk about politicians’ positions. I’m not sure why they do that. Followers and opponents alike post articles describing a candidates’ detailed views on subjects from finance to Roe v. Wade. The reality is that many of those views are not those of the candidate. They are the views that special interests have paid for the candidate to adopt.

In 2008 I painfully watched as Mitt Romney spun many of his moderate social and financial views to those much more aligned with those with mild success. A perfect example of this is Mitt Romney’s full flip flop on abortion¹. It’s not that Mitt wanted to flip his views, but the reality is an intelligent human with complicated world views is not what works in the national spotlight. In a world where labels are everything and Buzzfeed’s short-form “listicles” reign as the supreme form of journalism, all anyone sees is “Red or Blue”, there’s no time for purple anymore. Back to 2008, Mitt Romney’s on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and is desperately trying to out-conservative the other guys. I can’t help but feel a sense of loss when the only candidate (besides Ron Paul) who shares most of my views (Obama being too fiscally liberal, and the other Republicans too socially conservative) is on live television damning one previous stance after another.

Most Americans don’t live on the bleeding edges of the left and the right wing ideologies. Most Americans fall in the middle. And yet most Americans don’t share their views with their friends. Instead we play into and share the narrative delivered by politicians who are so black or white, so red or blue that it is almost a joke. If only there were one candidate out there, from either party, who delivered views that fell in line with the vast majority of Americans, everyone would be a lot happier.

This actually is happening in North Carolina. A political candidate registered as “Deez Nuts”expressed moderate views, and is hovering around 10% of polls in North Carolina, 8% in Iowa, and 7% in Minnesota²³. Imagine if a legitimate candidate were to do that? In any case, I think it’s important to share the views that so often get glossed over come election season…ours. I hope that in reading these comments, whether you agree or disagree with any of them, that you consider posting your own perspective on the issues facing our country, and disseminate views of the average citizen, not those of expensive special interest groups. So if I were to file a FEC Statement of Candidacy (FEC Form 2), my positions would be something along the lines of what is laid out below.

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Defense & National Security

It is important that the United States maintains a powerful and advanced military. A strong defense system is key to keeping our citizens secure while they conduct business. Currently the United States spends more on its military than any other country, ⁴ with military spending accounting for around 3.8% of our GDP⁵. We occupy approximately 900 bases across 130 countries⁶. In an effort to bring down the cost associated with these astounding numbers I would like to close a number of our bases across the world being and slash the standing personnel from 1.4 million⁷ to half that.

With the resources freed from these initiatives, my administration will focus military expenses and programs on technological advancement so that each of our combat personnel are able to be more effective in the field.

Education

Education is the key to our nation’s future. It is important that we take the most effective and efficient steps to prepare our students for ever evolving roles in the workforce.

The U.S. is one of the leading nations in spending per student, however our students’ results are not reflective of this

In order to increase effectiveness of our education system I believe curriculum decisions need to be made at the district level by the people that know their students best, teachers, local administrators and parents. Research has shown that a country’s GDP is directly proportionate to the capital invested in STEM roles ⁸⁹. While I believe in flexibility at the district level, I also understand the need to set goals for the nation and provide some amount of consistency in today’s transient world. As your legislative representative my administration will do all that it can to promote effective STEM opportunities for students and increase it’s importance in today’s curriculum.

My administration does not believe funding is the primary factor in disappointing U.S. education metrics and educations funding will likely not be dramatically affected during my term.

Energy

As our population grows, so does our need for energy. The United States has pioneered various manners to efficiently bring heat and electricity to hundreds of millions of individuals. Luckily we have been blessed with a nation rich in natural resources. This is beneficial to our national security as well as our economy, keeping our energy prices low while preventing reliance on unstable countries in the Middle East. We must be aware that our energy usage comes at great expense. Our country’s landscape is often left barren from decades of mining, and it is no secret that we our utilizing our resources at an unsustainable rate. It is our obligation to future generations to find more environmentally friendly manners energy production and increased energy efficiency while researching the future of sustainable energy sources and not significantly hindering the economy with imposed regulations. I support the use of nuclear reactors as a clean method of large-scale energy production.

Health Care

The average physician receives too much monetary reward, and is overtrained. As digital information becomes ubiquitous it becomes less and less imperative that a physician memorize all 68,000 ICD-10 diagnoses¹⁰. Other nations across the globe have far lower healthcare costs without significantly sacrificing the quality of patient care, while the United States spends approximately 14% of it’s GDP on healthcare ¹¹. The healthcare system needs to shift from PPOs to HMOs and ACOs, and this process is something that is already occurring organically. Currently, over 74 million Americans are enrolled in HMOs, an increase of 20 million enrollees over the past decade¹².

A health maintenance organization (HMO) is defined as

Jobs & the Economy

-Private industry is what makes our country strong. The wealth our nation has accrued in its relatively short tenure was acquired from the sweat and hard work of everyday Americans striving for personal gain. Fortunately those advances benefit the rest of society, making goods more affordable and more widely available to the rest of us. As such I believe in a laissez faire style approach to the economy. The role of the government should be to set up the proper regulations for businesses to operate in, to prevent abuses by corporations on their shareholders, and to ensure dangerous products fail to reach the hands of consumers.

Family Issues

Marriage

Marriage is a union or agreement between two spouses that establishes rights and obligations between them. It is a commitment. I believe marriage is an institution that should be recognized between two individuals if any race or gender, provided they are of legal age and sound mind.

Abortion

Abortion is a difficult issue, and there is no easy solution. I believe the mother of the child has the right to make the choice to life during the time in which the fetus is considered not viable. Viability is defined as the ability for the fetus to survive outside the uterus. Currently modern medicine enables the majority of fetuses to be viable by 24 weeks ¹³. At that point I believe the fetus to be considered an individual and deserves the right to life.

Second Amendment Rights

As defined in one of our country’s most sweeping list of amendments, the Bills of Rights, I believe it is the right for every American to lawfully own a gun, and I encourage the public to learn how to safely operated and handle a firearm. I also believe it is a responsibility and a privilege. With that in mind It is important we have laws requiring background checks and other safety measures deemed necessary in order to restrict firearm purchasing to sane, law-abiding individuals.

Spending & Fiscal Issues

The government’s balance sheet should look no different than that of a company or a family. As such, we cannot spend money we do not have. Forbidding any catastrophic event, a primary goal of any administration I run is to have a sound balance sheet, building a rainy day fund should we ever need it.

In other words, under standard circumstances, my administration will not spend money it does not have.