WE NEED GOVERNMENT BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE – AND WE NEED IT NOW!

There is widespread agreement among voters that our government, corrupted by money, is now promoting the interests of Wall Street, mega banks, and corporations, instead of promoting the general welfare.

The greatest blessing that we have as citizens of the United States of America is the power to change our government by exercising our right to vote. We the people need to make 2016 a transformative election. We need to support and elect candidates who will represent the common interest instead of special interests.

The serious and immediate nature of the threat posed by the climate crisis infuses a sense of urgency into the need to replace corporatists with populists in elective offices at all levels of government. We must vote climate champions into office and climate obstructionists out of office sooner, rather than later.

WINSTON’S PLATFORM:

Make our government more democratic. We need to level the playing field for our elections by providing a public financing option for candidates for office.

A green New Deal for Missouri. We need to move to clean, renewable energy as rapidly as possible. A proper response to the climate crisis will move people off of welfare and put them to work on New Deal type jobs programs that pay a living wage.

Make health care more affordable. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as “Obamacare”) has made health insurance available to millions of people who were previously uninsured, but it has not made health care any more affordable overall. The cost of health insurance continues to rise. A market-oriented public option for health insurance would reduce the cost of health care by getting both government and private insurance companies out of the way and facilitating direct interactions between patients and health care providers in most cases.

DIRECT DEMOCRACY IS AN OPTION IN MISSOURI

Most candidates for public office talk a lot about what they will do if elected. In many cases, they will not be able to follow through, even if their intentions are good, because they need the support of other elected officials in order to actually pass legislation.

Winston has taken advantage of the fact that Missouri is among the 24 states that offer citizens the option of proposing and passing legislation, without going through state legislatures, by the use of initiative petitions. He has drafted and filed a number of initiative petitions that would allow voters in Missouri to vote directly on proposals that would address our most immediate problems.

Winston is leading a petition drive to put one of his ballot initiative (a public financing option for candidates) on the ballot in Missouri on November 8, 2016. (More information regarding this initiative petition is available on this web site.) This is not politics-as-usual.

CHANGE WILL COME

As the election of 2016 approaches, change is in the air. It is clear that a large number of voters are tired of politics as usual and ready to turn to new leaders with fresh ideas. A populist uprising is clearly underway, seeking to put in place a government by and for the people by electing populists to replace the corporatists that currently dominate our government.

A political campaign is a team effort. With the active participation of enough voters, we can win elections. We can put Winston’s initiative proposal on the ballot and pass them into law. We can get Winston elected as Missouri’s Lieutenant Governor. We can get like-minded candidates elected up and down the ballot.

All that is necessary for the forces of good to triumph in this world is for enough good people to do something.