As a voter, the most important political issues to me are healthcare, racial injustice, and figuring out a plan or solution for that. I’m hoping to see us progress and move forward rather than feel like we’re going backwards.
For me, I want to see a President that actively participates with their community.
HEALTHCARE
I know a lot of people don’t have affordable health care. Private business owners pay a lot of out of pocket and if you don’t have a job that has union benefits, it’s really hard to afford basic medical bills. For example, calling an ambulance and getting a ride from the ambulance to the hospital costs thousands of dollars, which blows my mind. The price of insulin is outrageous. As someone who has a family member who is diabetic and this is a necessity for them to live, it’s unfair that they have to pay so much money out of pocket for a disease that they didn’t even ask for. I think there needs to be some sort of affordable solution for that. I think that for me, I am extremely privileged to be under my parents insurance. I know it’s something that needs to happen for other people who are struggling.
RACIAL MOVEMENTS
Blue Lives Matter is stupid. That's my honest opinion. My father is a cop and I do believe that it is stupid because of the fact that you choose your occupation, you do not choose your race. No one chooses how they are born. I don’t even know how that’s in comparison. All lives matter I think is stupid too. Obviously we know that all lives matter, but we aren’t paying attention to the lives that don’t matter. There's huge issues there. It’s not even a secret.
Solutions? Everyone is talking about defunding the police and we can look into the amount of money being put into them. What’s interesting to me is that police need more training for sure. We talk about how medical professionals go through years and years of training. A lot of the videos streaming on the media are of cops who don’t even know the law. They don’t even follow the law, they abuse their power. So, more education for sure. I think it’s more or less bringing awareness to them and training them properly.
I get challenged a lot by people who support Blue Lives Matter. My dad and I don’t talk politics. But, I remember growing up he always had a set cop mentality of people should follow the law. I don’t really know if my dad abused his power or not, we never really talk about his work. But, I think people are not understanding. I think they understand the fact that cops do abuse their power, they’re just choosing to ignore it. Media puts a twist on everything. I think that's screwed.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
We need safer communities for children who are having thoughts about what their sexual beliefs are. I felt like as a child I didn’t really have that sense of community. It was not until almost high school that people were starting to come out more. Most of my teachers were straight men or women, so not really having that sense of adult leadership in the community was difficult for me. I don’t think I’ve really had any adult leaders that fall in the LGBT category. I think for me, I was trying to find myself and my place in the world alone, with a little bit of help from friends who were either bi-curious, or curious about their gender and sexuality as well. It’s been something I’m still searching for.
In high school we had a LGBT community club that was available to us. It can be a touchy subject because you can educate about it, but children’s parents are going to manipulate it into something else where it's like, “why are we teaching about sexuality?”. That's where it becomes a touchy subject and I think it’s very hard for people who are in the community to feel like they have a safe place. Gay people feel like they have to conform as children if they don’t have an accepting household. I don’t know how to provide more awareness for other people because I feel like my mom was very accepting. My dad wasn’t. Some people are not willing to change or being open minded about it because of their upbringing and some people are willing to see.
CAPITALISM
I think capitalism is very toxic and was kind of embedded into our blood to have that capitalistic kind of approach to life. I think it’s kind of like a set-up in a way, but it’s also just the way that the U.S. works. I think COVID exposed a lot of the defaults in capitalism and how it's tearing people apart and benefiting other people that shouldn’t be benefitted from it.
I think I have mixed feelings about both. I don’t really know my own beliefs so much. I think it’s my lack of education on the subject matter. I am not opposed to socialism, but I am not 100% for socialism.
CLIMATE CHANGE
100% real thing. You can take an environmental science class and see that the earth is literally dying. Sniff the air quality, taste the water. It’s dry. It was never argued or anything in my childhood. I think I've always been a firm believer in climate change being a real thing.
ABORTION
I think it's a woman's choice, whatever they want to do with their body. I don’t think it’s up for anyone to decide but the woman because she is the one carrying the baby.
