Editor’s note: these are the candidate’s responses to questions provided by RIPR. The views expressed are the candidate’s alone, edited only in cases of inappropriate or libelous language. No changes have been made to correct errors of fact, spelling or grammar. 

If elected, what will be the candidate’s top three priorities?

My top three priorities will be (1) to begin to move US foreign policy from one based on the threat of-military or other punitive intervention to one based on diplomacy and negotiation: (2) to take action in an international context to reduce the human impacts on the environment that are causing global warming and other forms of climate change, as well as pollution and species extinction; and (3) through a more steeply progressive income tax scale, the closing of corporate loopholes, the restriction of corporate welfare, and targeted reductions to the military budget, to increase the tax revenues available to provide a decent and dignified  standard of living for all our families and individuals, including excellent, comprehensive health care for all, an inspiring education for our children and young people, safe and evermore serviceable infrastructure, and retirement security,

If given the opportunity, how would the candidate vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court?

I very much wish that Judge Kavanaugh would withdraw his acceptance of President Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court on the grounds of both (a) the investigation to which Trump is now subject and (b) the recent history of Supreme Court appointments, especially just before elections which might affect the balance of power in the Senate. If I were elected to the Senate and action on Kavanaugh’s appointment were to be taken then, I would participate actively in the hearings on his appointment and make my decision based on all the evidence and arguments presented. As things stand at the moment, I would vote against his appointment, largely on the grounds of his anti-labor and restriction-of-voting-rights record, his opposition to gun control and to net neutrality, and his record on environmental protections.

What are the candidate’s positions on immigration reform?

My positions on immigration reform are heavily influenced by the fact that I believe that the US government has been so negligent in its responsibility that it has effectively nullified  the current law by failing to enforce it. How, otherwise, did 11 million undocumented immigrants end up in the country undetected and unchallenged? Who profited from this wink-wink, nod-nod system of providing cheap labor? As far as I am concerned a sort of statute of limitations has run out on the “illegal” acts of these long-term residents of our country. The present DACA enrollees, as well as those who would have qualified if they had applied, should be granted citizenship through a secure and simpler process than the one in operation. The other adults should be permitted to apply for citizenship in the normal way and without causing any prejudice to the entry and citizenship applications of persons who have been following the “legal” immigration procedures.

The US should learn a lesson from this sad immigration experience, and from the equally sad refugee experience, the lesson that it ought not to implement trade or military policies that contribute to so many people’s being driven to leave their own countries in order to enjoy safe and dignified lives elsewhere.

Do you support the ACA or should it be repealed or replaced by Medicare for All?

As a proponent of some form of universal single-payer health care, I disapproved of the ACA. It was better than nothing – except for the fact that it generated so much negativity that it has made the struggle for single-payer even more difficult. I have lived In two European countries, each with its own form of universal health care, and have had long friendships and professional relationships with people from several others. I refuse to believe that the US cannot devise an at-least-equally just and effective single-payer health care for all its people.