The more you watch Donald Trump and awful people elected to state legislatures such as Michele Fiore of Nevada, the more it feels like this country has entered into a nightmarish episode of the Twilight Zone. Every time I watch Donald Trump give a rambling speech with no policy ideas besides violence and ignorance, I hold out hope that the TV camera will soon start panning to the right where we will be greeted by Rod Serling smoking a cigarette.
"Imagine if you will, a major U.S political party hijacked by extremist all backing a political opportunist."
Sadly this is reality. The people from our nightmares are now either in government or currently seeking office. Unlike Sterling’s Twilight Zone, there is no moral lessons to be learned from this, just a dire warning of what will happen if we do not vote this November. The last two mid-terms confirmed that Republicans will be coming out to vote this November, we can’t continue to concede progress across America to a loud minority. Make no mistake about it, we are the new silent majority in America. The majority is with us on raising the minimum wage, universal background checks on guns, climate change, women’s rights, LGBQT rights, healthcare, etc. Americans agree with us on virtual every issue. The only thing the silent minority has on us is four critical things,
1.) Citizens United, which allows Billionaires to buy state legislatures and candidates. You no longer have to bribe politicians, just buy them before they even get to Washington D.C. or state capitols. The endless cashflow kills our message and distorts the truth.
2.) Republicans are better at marketing and building a political bench in most states. One of the worst things the DNC has ever done in the past few years is throwing out Howard Dean’s fifty state strategy. Building the party from top to bottom is a very flawed way to run a party and we greatly need to focus more on state legislatures and House race because the Koch Brothers are already way ahead of us currently.
3.) Fear & anger. If the Republican Party and Super PAC can turn this election into fearing immigrants and fringe terror groups in the Middle East, they win. Instead of offering a response to every insane comment made by someone like Mrs. Fiore and Mr. Trump, instead we should advertise our ideas and plans for making America even better. We are the party of ideas, when we get our ideas out there the Republican Party doesn’t stand a chance.
4.) Voter ID laws & gerrymandering. Ohio has become ground zero for partisan gerrymandering. Ohio, the mother of all swing states currently only sends 4 Democrats to Washington D.C. and 11 Republicans. Voter ID laws also does a great job at ignoring the will of the majority. Republican voter ID laws are so effective that they are keeping Republican U.S Senators out of the ballot box.
I am running for Congress because I am sick of a small minority in this country getting everything while the majority is asked to stay silent. A democracy isn’t suppose to be ran by those who shout the loudest and give the most asinine solutions to America’s problems. In order to combat this problem we must once again reenter areas not friendly to our cause and start fighting. If Republicans can win in Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois then we can surely start winning in red states and red districts. We can’t just let our focus be on the east and west coast.
My race to replace former Speaker John Boehner in Ohio’s 8th district is a tough battle but as a stage-four cancer survivor of Neuroblastoma I am not one to shy away from a tough battle. On March 15th I received more votes than any other Democrat ever has in the 8th district in a Democratic primary with 32,214 votes.
My opponent in this race, Warren Davidson, has already had $1 million in outside money spent on him from the Koch Brothers FreedomWorks, Senate Conservative Fund and the Club For Growth. The House Freedom Caucus has also endorsed him, I don’t think we have to imagine much about what kind of Representative he would be in Congress. He is proudly against women and gay rights, a supporter of religious “freedom” bills such as the one Indiana passed last year, supports ending birthright citizenship, killing the Affordable Care Act and will simply be another Tea Party member that will go along with political stunts in Congress instead of doing the work of the people. We need a representative that won’t deny climate change and will regulate Wall Street over women.
I hope with my candidacy I can inspire the youth of America to get politically active and get more progressives to run for office. I have long lurked in the shadows of Daily Kos while growing up. I remember how this awesome progressive community came together to support Ned Lamont and defeated Senator Joe Lieberman in the primary. We need the great people who make up the netroots and grassroots of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to start running for office. Blogging and pushing the party to remain true to its core values are vital but nothing betters the Democratic Party and America than when progressives run for office. We need more progressive candidates on the frontline bringing our message directly to voters. It is an honor and greatly rewarding to be able to talk and represent progressive values in an area where conservatives get all the airtime and the headlines. If you can chip in please help out.
I look forward to writing weekly updates on Daily Kos. I invite everyone to follow me on Twitter @CoreyFoister, like our Facebook page, and visit our official campaign website. Also feel free to add me as a friend on my personal Facebook account.