In a special election held during the spring of 2001, Tad Daley ran for the office of US Representative for California’s 32nd (later redistricted to the 33rd) Congressional District.
Tad Daley for US Congress
Building A Better World,
One Block At A Time.
Here’s what I will work to accomplish:
Abolish Nuclear Weapons
I will pressure the Bush Administration to take our nuclear arsenal off hair-trigger alert, to eliminate the frightening and still real possibility of accidental atomic apocalypse. I will fight the Administration’s plan to militarize space by building a national missile defense system, which will lead directly to more nuclear weapons pointed at the U.S. — not to mention that the likely $100 Billion cost would become a monstrous waste of taxpayer dollars that could be better devoted to real human needs.
As abstract as they may seem, the truth is that nuclear weapons are actually a local issue. Los Angeles is the largest, most populous city on the west coast of the United States, and even if it were not a sitting target for any nuclear terrorist, an accidental launch could just as easily take out the city. If we don’t rein in our nuclear arsenal — one on which the US spends $37 Billion every year just to maintain — it is conceivable that LA could be destroyed by a 20 megaton nuclear detonation in the next 25 years.
Instead of building a shield in the sky, it’s time to get rid of the swords.
End Crimes Against Humanity
I am appalled that the 1990s saw an explosion of genocide and crimes against humanity like mass rapes while most of the world just watched. I intend to promote new peacemaking tools such as UN early warning and mediation mechanisms, the new International Criminal Court Treaty, and especially a permanent all-volunteer UN Rapid Reaction Force that could act when national military forces are unwilling to do so.
Address Global Warming
Our country cannot forever continue to emit 25% of the world’s greenhouse gas with only 4% of the population. Our country cannot continue to block all attempts to cut global warming -– as we did again most recently at the global climate summit at the Hague.
Julian Dixon voted to ratify the Kyoto Treaty on global climate change. I intend to continue the fight to have the Kyoto Treaty discussed and debated by the U.S. Congress — and ultimately ratified.
Declare War on AIDS
The numbers of those decimated in Africa alone defy comprehension and rival even the two great World Wars of the last century.
13 Million dead.
22 Million infected.
10 million orphans.
Imagine the societal breakdown on a continent already desperately poor.
Imagine the abandonment.
Imagine the hopelessness.
I intend to advocate that we immediately launch a “Marshall Plan” to declare war on AIDS in Africa. I want to motivate Americans to launch a great moral crusade to address this unimaginable catastrophe.
President Clinton estimated that such a plan would cost the international community $6 Billion, $1.5 Billion of which would come from the United States. That’s less than ½ of 1% of the current budget of the U.S. Department of Defense.
I believe Americans are a great and generous people. But we have too many self-serving leaders who are afraid to call upon that generosity because the reward for caring is not tangible or financial. I believe the American people will respond to the crisis of AIDS in Africa. All we need are some leaders with the courage to ask.
I will ask.
Bridge the Chasm Between the Haves and Have-Nots
In President Bill Clinton’s farewell address on January 18th, he urged Americans to come to the aid of “the billions around the world who live on the knife’s edge of survival. Global poverty is a powder keg, that can be ignited by our indifference.”
Fine words. Yet few Americans know that the United States ranks dead last in per capita annual foreign aid expenditures – a pathetic $2 per American. I want to run as many commercials for Peace Corps recruitment as there are now for Army recruitment. I want us to help build growing sustainable economies around the world, grounded on the same kind of health and safety and worker protections that we’re still trying to fully achieve in our own country.
End Gun Violence
The gun lobby says: “Guns don’t kill people – people kill people.” I say: “People with easy access to guns kill people.”
New Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft voted against gun safety legislation in the Senate 13 out of 13 times. We can’t let the National Rifle Association dictate our national gun policies any longer.
I will never be bought by the gun lobby.
If you need a license to drive a car, you ought to need a license to own a gun.
Universal Health Care
I believe that we can provide universal health care for all Americans. American medicine today is dominated by profits over people, HMOs constantly denying treatment, and hospitals throwing people out on the street.
We need to focus on the AIDS crisis right here in Los Angeles. We need to provide long-term care for today’s seniors and tomorrow’s aging baby boomers. And we must build a better mental health care system to rescue the mentally ill homeless our society has so cruelly abandoned.
Clean Energy and a Sustainable Environment
I want to work for long-term environmental sustainability and environmental justice. I will fight to protect our public lands from the schemes of the new Bush Administration. I will help to expand the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. I applaud Nate Holden’s and Diane Watson’s and especially Kevin Murray’s leadership on that issue.
I will work to make long term investments in sustainable technologies. This will create jobs for California! Vast amounts of new energy could be generated simply by requiring new and substantially remodeled residential and commercial and governmental buildings to install solar panels.
And I will continue the leadership of Julian Dixon, building a great public transportation system for the Los Angeles of the 21st Century – especially focusing on “alternative fuel” vehicles, and “reverse commuting” to better connect inner-city residents with suburban employment.
Forge New Tools of Democracy
I want to explore imaginative new structures of U.S. electoral reform after the fiasco in Florida such as same day registration, uniform nationwide voting standards and technology, moving Election Day to a weekend, a single national Election Day closing time, reconsideration of the Electoral College, preferential voting, proportional representation, and serious campaign finance reform. I will demand that Attorney General John Ashcroft aggressively investigate allegations that minority citizens were harassed on Election Day. When people of color are deprived of their right to vote, it’s not just people of color who suffer — it’s the people of America.
Bridge the Chasm Between the Haves and Have-Nots
Los Angeles today has become the nation’s capital of poverty-wage work. Too many of the jobs created during the so-called “Booming 1990s” were part-time, temporary, low-paying jobs, with no benefits, no potential and no hope. I want to help create good full-time jobs, with living wages, real benefits, and the promise of improvement. I will fight to keep film and TV production in Los Angeles. I will strongly collaborate with union organizing efforts, and I will strongly oppose any assaults on unions and worker protections.
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