{"id":759,"date":"2018-09-13T02:06:19","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T06:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libertyunionparty.org\/?p=759"},"modified":"2018-09-13T02:06:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T06:06:22","slug":"campaign-statement-of-laura-potter-for-us-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/?p=759","title":{"rendered":"Campaign statement of Laura Potter for US Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For too long we have seen the greed of the few take precedence over the needs of the many. We have watched politicians make careers in Congress that span fartoo much time. Some, we know, have kept their positions through gerrymandering of home districts, thus removing the power of many people’s votes. It is time for this to end. Many years ago, Congress placed term limits of the Office of the President(Twenty-second Amendment – ratified February 27, 1951). It is long past due for the same to apply to members of both houses of the Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have watched two political parties become ideological monoliths, set in \ntheir ways, and through their sheer dominance of the political landscape, they \nleave little room for other viewpoints. One viewpoint, that neither is \nlistening to, is the call of the people to end all wars. Of course they don’t \nlisten. They get massive party support from the very industries that build, \nand sell, the weapons of war that destroy families and homes throughout the \nworld. At my age, I have spent most of my life seeing the USA involved in \none war or another. Some of our children have never lived under a peacetime \ngovernment. Meanwhile, these same industries, while profiting obscenely from \ndeath and destruction, often pay little to no tax revenue into the system. \nYet more than half of the annual budget goes to the military and military \nhardware; the very things from which these industries make their wealth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, we have watched as our government, ever more under corporate \ncontrol, parleyed an instance of nearly universal sympathy and support by the \nworld’s countries after the horrible events of 9\/11 – into almost universal \nmistrust and hatred. We’ve seen our daughters and sons sent away to fight wars \nto line the pockets of war-profiteers. Yet, when they return, they find our \nso-called government no longer cares about them. Presidents and Generals wage \nendless war, then disrespect the flesh-and-blood people who do the actual \nfighting; cutting funding for the VA and other services our returning troops \nneed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And not just the troops need good healthcare. There is a disaster happening \nthat our so-called leaders who are supposed to be our representatives refuse \nto sanely consider. That is Universal Healthcare. Obamacare was just a sop \nto Big Insurance. Universal Healthcare, paid for by our normal taxes, needs \nto be instituted immediately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, as a society and ultimately as a species must shift away from War as a \nsolution for anything and everything. War tends to have two major causes \nracism and resources. Either one culture has hatred for another or they want \nthe resources another culture possesses. Often the two coincide. Nor is it \nsolely an external thing. There are significant factions within society and \nthe government that hate anyone different. We have seen a recent upswing in \novert racism, including racist graffiti, arson and even murders. We have seen \nimmigrants become the target du jour. Not just those stopped at the borders \nare oppressed, but also those who have become naturalized citizens. Recently, \neven adults who were born in America, but born to immigrant parents, have been \naccused of having fake birth certificates. There is an active push to demonize \nimmigrants and asylum-seekers for false reasons; reasons repeatedly debunked \nby law enforcement themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This carries over into many other areas as well. The most vulnerable of our \npeople, the disabled, the LGBTQ community, women, minorities of various stripes, \nare finding not only physical attacks, but economic and political attacks, are \non the upswing. How a society cares for its most vulnerable members is the \ntrue sign of how good a society is. Right now there are people serving in \nCongress whose stated goals are to repeal and remove the many hard-won \nprotections put in place over the years. These are not people who care about \nsociety as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, there are misconceptions about Freedom of Speech. I express my views \nwith my Free Speech. Another would contradict or rebut me with their Free \nSpeech. If they feel strongly enough, they might boycott my business ventures; \nand this too, is Free Speech by voting with one’s wallet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there is a great difference between Free Speech and Incitement to \nCommit Genocide. The USA is a signatory to the Treaty on Genocide, and \naccording to Article Two of the Constitution, Section II; duly ratified \ntreaties are the Supreme Law of the Land. This means that if one’s stated \npurpose or ideology calls for harming, or enslaving, or destroying another \npeople and their culture, it is no longer Free Speech, it is an incitement of \ngenocide. There are significant factions whose self-avowed ideologies call \nfor the harming other ethnic or racial groups. That fits the definition of \ngenocide; which is illegal not solely in American law, but in International \nLaw as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I propose a call to action. We need to do a fairly clean sweep of the Congress. \nIt is time for the old career politicians to be removed from power. We need democracy, \nnot a plutocracy. New blood, with progressive, solution-oriented ideas must be \nbrought into the Capitol Building in DC. Representatives, not so-called leaders, \nneed to be in Washington. The Electoral College needs to end. Let our Presidents, \nRepresentatives and Senators be elected by the popular, and preferably ranked, vote of the \npeople – no shenanigans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy is hard work. We must always be vigilant against the creeping growth of\npower by the few, to the detriment of the many. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My name is Laura S Potter, and I am the Liberty Union Party candidate for the \nUS Representative from Vermont. America’s true greatness has always been its’ \ndiversity and creativity, and I am staunchly against any faction or ideology \nthat seeks to limit that. We need to wrest the power away from the privileged \nfew, and return it to the commonwealth \u2013 to the vast sea of people who make up \nthe United States of America. Let’s turn Congress to Progress !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laura S Potter\nlaurapotter4congress@protonmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For too long we have seen the greed of the few take precedence over the needs of the many. We have watched politicians make careers in Congress that span fartoo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty-union-party-member-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":760,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmountainpeaceandjusticeparty.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}