We need to put the needs of our community first. We must address the outrageous price of prescription drugs, and work with providers to make them affordable for everyone. We must reform our immigration system to help reunify families, recruit workers to fill critical gaps in our workforce, and provide refuge for those facing persecution and certain death. We must continue to defend marriage equality, and guarantee that all people have the right to be with the ones they love. It’s time to lift restrictions on cannabis research so that we can better understand the therapeutic benefits and the risks of long term use. As a proud former journeyman with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 union, she also knows firsthand how critical unions are to growing our middle class. We need to put an end to the for-profit immigration detention system and put a stop to the militarization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She pointed to the Democrats’ version, which focuses more on police demilitarization and de-escalation tactics.Trump’s decision to send federal agents to Portland, she added, was a gross overreach of power that should have been checked by Congress.“We saw this coming when the president walked across the street and held up a Bible upside down after gassing protesters in a show of executive force,” Long said, referring to a June 1 incident in Washington, D.C.“I think Portland shows that it actually escalated the violence that occurred in that community, and I would argue that it was intentionally done to do so.”Long and Herrera Beutler will appear on the general election ballot on Nov. 3. The EPA and Department of the Interior are responsible for much of this work, yet this administration has been working to transform both of these vital institutions into ineffectual husks, too understaffed to do much of anything except repeal policies that have been protecting our environment for years.
We must work for a just transition to renewable energy sources so future generations will benefit from energy independence and robust clean energy industry. Which is probably why Long’s been awfully silent about the Seattle City Council’s proposal to cut the Seattle Police Department’s budget by 50 percent , a move that would result in hundreds of police officer layoffs.
We also need to invest in improving and modernising our utility grid to provide diverse clean renewable energy including wind, solar, and hydroelectric power. We must look for modern, cost-effective solutions that secure our borders without wasting precious taxpayer dollars on useless walls. We need to start treating addiction like the disease it is, and not a moral failing. Policies like expanded background checks, funding CDC research into gun violence, and closing the gun show loophole already have wide bipartisan support and we owe the thousands of victims of gun violence action instead of words. She criticized the White House’s slow response, especially when it came to using the Defense Production Act to manufacture tests and supplies.
We need campaign finance reform to diminish the role of special interest groups and big money donors.
When corporations have the same rights as people, big money drowns out the voices of the everyday American. “Unions make America strong,” Carolyn has said. We must embrace our returning troops, do away with the stigma of receiving or asking for assistance, and do our best to inform and encourage them to leverage what they have earned and deserve. Police officers should inspire trust and confidence throughout the community while honorably performing their duty to tackle crime without resorting to unnecessary force. Substance abuse takes lives, destroys families, devastates the community, and damages the economy.