People first politics last
Political positions
When making a decision on which candidate to vote for it’s important that you know where they stand on each political issue. I consider myself to be a centrist. I have moderate political views and am the middle ground when it comes to left-wing and right-wing politics which is where a large number of Independents stand. This page will tell you what my political views are and where I stand on various issues.
Abortion
I am 100% pro-choice. I support females rights to have an abortion to the fullest from the time of pregnancy to the time right before giving birth. The right to have an abortion should be a constitutional right. I am in favor of codifying Roe on both state level and federal level. Given that New York is a democrat controlled state and most democrats are pro-choice I see a strong likelihood of abortion rights being added to our states constitution. As far as adding it to the United States Constitution goes that won’t be an easy thing given that many states mostly GOP controlled states have already banned abortion following the overturn of Roe v Wade in 2022 and other GOP controlled states that haven’t already banned abortion are looking to do so. But if we could all come together and add an amendment to the United States Constitution that allows any female the right to an abortion in any part of the country regardless of the circumstances that would be a step in the right direction.
Gun rights and gun control
I am not against gun ownership but I do support regulations on purchasing and owning firearms. In some states the ability to obtain firearms isn’t all that difficult you could just walk into any store that sells firearms and purchase them as long as you are of a certain age(most states go with either age 18 or age 21). I feel that to be able to purchase firearms in addition to age restrictions there should be both criminal background checks and psychological evaluations conducted prior to purchasing. This is to ensure that firearms don’t end up in the hands of those who are mentally unstable.
I don’t put the blame of all the recent mass shootings on guns directly I do however feel that many of them have occurred because guns have gotten in the hands of people who are mentally unstable. We should be able to go about our everyday lives and not have to worry about getting killed. Our children should be able to go to school and feel safe.
Tax cuts
I support reducing taxes but not abolishing them. High taxes here on Long Island is the main reason why it’s expensive to live here. If we could reduce taxes here on Long Island the cost of living would be a lot cheaper but abolishing them would be a terrible idea because there would be no funding going toward our schools, businesses, hospitals, etc.
As far as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid goes these programs must be protected and there should be no cuts to them. They need to be protected to the fullest. Those who are elderly or have disabilities(physical, mental or both) that prevent them from being able to work certain jobs or any job at all need income and health care in order to be able to get by in their day to day lives. Without Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that would only make things harder on them and that wouldn’t be fair.
And last but not least I do not support tax breaks for the rich. If the working class needs to pay taxes so do the rich. Being a corporate billionaire doesn’t exempt you for paying taxes.
LGBTQ+ rights
Members of the LGBTQ+ community deserve to have the same rights as everyone else. I support same sex marriage because I feel love is love and people should be allowed to marry the person they love whether it’s the same sex or opposite sex. I am against someone being disowned by their own family or people choosing not to be friends with someone because of their sexual orientation. We all need to be accepting towards one another for who we are.
Covid-19 mandates and protocols
The Covid-19 Pandemic has been a hard and unprecedented time for all of us. The coronavirus itself has infected millions of people and millions have lost their lives because of it. My condolences go out to the family and friends of those who lost their lives to Covid. While it may no longer be declared a public health emergency in the same sense that it was when it started in early 2020 the virus itself is still out there except it is manageable. Health experts have warned us from the beginning that this virus would be here to stay for a while but I would have never thought it would have gone on for as long as it has and that on occasions we have outbreaks in cases from new variants that emerge. I have a very mixed stance on the pandemic itself and how certain protocols were handled.
In the early days of the pandemic the protocols that were taken to stop the spread of the virus only seemed like common sense. That was before we discovered that these protocols helped to an extent but wasn’t the answer to putting an end to the pandemic. By having a nonessential shutdown where all businesses except those deemed essential were ordered to close, masks were required when going out in public, everyone had to social distance themselves by remaining 6 feet apart from one another, schools closed and went to remote learning for the rest of the year, all workplace settings went remote where everyone worked from home and gatherings were limited we were hopeful this would be the answer to defeating the virus. While
I know that these restrictions were put into place to keep the numbers down it didn’t necessarily put this virus to bed and I feel as if we lived under these restrictions for a bit too long which I feel lead to a lot of mental health repercussions among myself and others.
In the early days of the pandemic I feel as if the mental health repercussions of what lockdowns, shutdowns and restrictions would have on people weren’t given proper attention. I am among one of those who feel as if the pandemic took a huge mental health toll on me. Not so much from the fears of getting the virus but more so from the fact that there wasn’t a lot to do and anything you could do had restrictions to the point it wasn’t even worth it. Gatherings were also limited which made it harder to get together with people plus everyones positions on where they stood on the virus differed drastically. Some people felt comfortable with doing just about anything and others self-quarantined to avoid contact with people so that they don’t get the virus. I was not once fearful of what if I get the virus but did acknowledge that the virus is real and that it’s not “just the flu” as some people claimed it was. I do feel as if we were living under covid restrictions for a bit too long and that’s what I feel lead to a lot of mental health issues among myself and others. I felt completely isolated during the dark days of the pandemic and it took me a while to overcome it. For a while I had forgotten what it was like to have a conversation with people due to not being around people as much. Part of why it hit me so hard mentally also comes from that I was going through hard times in my life in the months before the pandemic hit so when all this started in March 2020 having to deal with the pandemic on top of what I had going on in my life made things a lot harder than they already were.
Given that I was among those considered essential workers I was able to get vaccinated before those not considered essential were. By April 2021 I was fully vaccinated against Covid-19 which was before a lot of the covid restrictions were lifted by then governor Andrew Cuomo. I received one booster shot in December 2021 and don’t plan on receiving any additional booster shots. Although I am fully vaccinated with one booster shot I was never supportive of vaccine mandates and still don’t support them to this day. I was against the whole concept of required vaccination in order to attend certain events. I never supported firing employees who didn’t want to get vaccinated against covid. I am against the idea of adding the Covid-19 vaccine as a requirement in order for children to attend public schools. It should be a choice as to whether or not someone wants to get vaccinated and it should be up to the parents to decide whether or not they want to get their public school children vaccinated or not.
At this point I can’t see any covid restrictions being reinstated but should any of them be reinstated I would be against the idea to the fullest. Here in New York when our mask mandate was temporarily reinstated between December 2021 - February 2022 I was against it and will be if it’s ever reinstated at any point. In the beginning I believe that these restrictions were put into play to help put an end to the pandemic but as time went on and the longer we lived under these restrictions and when some of them were reinstated all it did was politicize the pandemic and I was never a fan of how it became politicized. It eventually became depoliticized and it needs to stay that way. If people still want to wear masks and follow other covid protocols that’s fine by me I won’t criticize them for it. It’s just we can’t go back to any mandates.
Election integrity
I believe that all elections that we’ve had over the course of time have been fair and people need to accept the results of elections whether they are satisfied or not. Any candidate that loses in an election whether it be during their parties primary election or during the main election needs to concede to their loss and not make any claims that their election was rigged or stolen.
There are too many people who still believe that the 2020 Presidential Election was illegitimate. Those people are wrong Joe Biden was legitimately elected in 2020 and it was a fair election. Too many people make these baseless claims that the election was stolen over the fact that there were a lot of mail-in ballots and absentee ballots that were cast during this election. Truth is mail-in ballots and absentee ballots have been a thing for years except weren’t used as often in most prior elections. Because of covid in 2020 there were more mail-in ballots and absentee ballots than previous elections. Others attribute their stolen election beliefs to aspects such as being displeased with the results, Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the election and conspiracy theories.
It wasn’t soon before long that some people that were displeased with the 2016 Presidential Election started to believe that the the 2016 election was rigged or stolen. They are also wrong. While Hillary Clinton did in fact win the popular vote she did not win the electoral vote which is what determines the winner of a presidential election. Donald Trump’s win in six battleground states(sometimes referred to as swing states or purple states) Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona gave him the electoral votes needed to win the election which exceeded the electoral votes that Hillary Clinton had. These same six battleground states are the ones that Trump lost and Biden won in the 2020 election. Anyways back to my point in order for Hillary Clinton to have been the legitimate winner of the 2016 election would mean that the Electoral College system would have to have been abolished which to this day has yet to happen.
As I said before I feel as if all elections that have taken place are legitimate. I do however feel that there have been cases where the results of the election seem as if they should have been different. This is mostly the case in party primary elections and local elections. That is because not as many people vote in these type of elections. With less people voting that could have a significant impact on the election. That’s why sometimes some elections have surprise results or an election that’s predicted to be solid Democrat ends up being won by a Republican or an election predicted to be solid Republican ends up being won by a Democrat.
In short my belief is all people need to vote in all elections even the smaller ones. If everyone that’s registered to vote went out and voted every election we’d have more of an idea of who is truly the preferred candidate in the election.
Cancel culture and political correctness
I am against political correctness. For the most part I am against cancel culture with a few exceptions. I don’t like the idea of consumer products and forms of entertainment(tv shows, movies, music, etc) being cancelled because it’s considered offensive by a small group of people.
If a certain movie or tv show offends you then don’t watch it. Change the channel or choose a different show or movie to watch. If a song offends you simply don’t listen to it. It’s entertainment it wasn’t created for the purpose of trying to offend certain groups of people.
The area where I stand favorable toward cancel culture is when someone says remarks that are deemed to be offensive and are meant to target a specific group of people. This would be if someone went on a live TV, radio or podcast program or social media platforms and said something or posted something that’s considered racist, sexiest, homophobic or antisemitic. In cases like that I support the idea of these people being banned from going on TV or radio programs or having their social media accounts banned as well. Being banned from the media or social media platforms for spreading misinformation and/or conspiracy theories is also something I am favorable towards.
Bail reform and prosecution of criminals
I don’t support the bail reform laws that were passed under the Andrew Cuomo Administration. Several other states have passed bail reform laws similar to what we have here in New York. I feel that all the bail reform does is give those who committed smaller crimes the east way out. Anyone who breaks the law needs to be held accountable regardless of who you are and the circumstances.
I am against the whole idea of being soft on crime. I believe that anyone who committed a crime needs to be prosecuted and held accountable. I am unsupportive of the whole idea of only prosecuting major crimes and not prosecuting smaller crimes. While I do feel that prosecuting major crimes should be a higher priority smaller crimes must be prosecuted as well.
Aside from my approach on crime I do believe that people should be given second chances in life and not be held back because of past mistakes. Those who broke the law and did their time should be allowed opportunities in life and people should refrain from calling them out on the fact that they did time in prison. People make mistakes in life and the idea is to learn from the mistakes made and if they learned from their mistakes they should be allowed the same opportunities as everyone else.
Another thing I was never supportive of and still don’t support is the Raise the Age Act which raised the age of criminal responsibility in New York from 16 to 18. It was done citing studies that were done stating that teenagers didn’t do well with being placed in adult prisons. It was also done because New York was one of few states that had the age of criminal responsibility set at 16. There are a few states that have the age of criminal responsibility set at age 16 or 17 but most states have it set at age 18 which I feel had influence on the Raise the Age Act. The reason for me being against this law is that I feel that it lacks the teaching of self discipline to young people by making the consequences less harsh to the younger offenders. I feel that people from a very early age need to be taught life skills and self discipline so that when they start to become adults they know how to handle the situations better that they will be up against.
Student loan forgiveness
In almost all cases I would say you took
out money you pay it back. But when it comes to student loans I was supportive of the idea of student loan forgiveness. I was displeased when the Supreme Court struck down the plans for student loan forgiveness. The reason why I was supportive of this idea is because many Americans are struggling with student loan debt and this would have been a relief for them as it would have been one less expense for them but unfortunately the student loan pause is over and we’re back to repaying them.
Millions of Americans live paycheck after paycheck on a regular basis. That’s because the cost of living is expensive and a lot of people don’t make enough money to be able to get by with one full-time job alone. Millions of Americans are working second jobs(some even a third job) or doing independent contractor side gig work to be able to pay their bills. Not having to pay student loans would have been a slight weight off their shoulders.
Any job that requires a college degree or certificate program needs to pay a living wage. The cost of higher education needs to be made cheaper so that people won’t have to take out as much in student loans or work as hard to be able to afford higher education.
Solicitation of person information
Anytime you create an account online for any sort of service whether it be for social media platforms, online banking, streaming services or any sort of online services personal information such as name, age, e-mail address, mailing address and phone number are asked to be provided. While that information is required to create an account the disadvantage is a lot of that information is sold off to third party companies. This is the reason why so many people for years have been receiving spam emails and solicitation texts from people who are looking for your support or looking to pull a scam.
In 1998 Congress passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act(COPPA) which was signed into law by the Clinton Administration and went into effect in the year 2000. This law prevents online services from obtaining personal information from children under age 13 without consent from the childs parents or legal guardians. This is the reason why almost all online services require you to be at least age 13 or older to create an account. This is the reason why only a parent or legal guardian can create a Google account for their child if they are under age 13. This is also what promoted social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok to create kids versions where only age appropriate content can be viewed, accounts can’t be created and commenting on videos is prohibited. At the time when this law was passed the internet had only broken into mainstream popularity just a few years prior and the internet has evolved so drastically since the time it was passed that I feel that it was smart that this law was passed in the earlier days of the internet.
What Big Tech needs to stop doing is soliciting our personal information to these third party companies. If we never gave them permission to do so they shouldn’t be doing it. We are all tired of all these emails and texts that we receive as a result of our personal information being solicited.
Term limits
I am against the implementation of term limits. I feel that term limits should not be implemented in areas that currently don’t have term limits such as US House, US Senate and state and local offices that don’t have term limits. I feel that too many people believe in term limits because they feel it will put limitations on candidates they feel are unfit for office. But everyones definition of an unfit candidate is different. While term limits may limit candidates that are deemed to be unfit it also prevents candidates that are a perfect fit from serving multiple terms and having a strong legacy as a congressman, senator, governor or any other political office.
In areas where term limits do exist such as the presidency and certain state and local government offices I really don’t have much of an opinion on. Term limits for the President of the United States were set when the 22nd amendment to the constitution was ratified on February 27 1951 which limited US presidents to two consecutive four year terms. This was set long before I was born. My parents who brought me into this world weren’t born yet. My fathers parents hadn’t even met yet both of whom are deceased as is the case with my grandparents on my mothers side except my mothers parents had already been married for a few years when presidential term limits went into effect. Because I wasn’t alive at the moment when they set term limits on presidents it’s hard for me to have an opinion on it because my whole entire life presidents were term limited. Same goes for state and local offices that are term limited. Because the term limits were either set at a time when I either wasn’t born yet, wasn’t old enough to vote yet, didn’t have the option to vote on it or had no idea that term limits were going to be set it’s hard for me to have an opinion on it.