Christopher Riley

Disagree

The best way to reduce abortions is not by cutting funding to these providers, especially when they provide other reproductive health services. Women have the right to choose. Funding should also be made available so that all women are guaranteed months of maternity leave. Childcare and preschool should be much more affordable than they are now and a woman should not have to choose between her career and a child, especially if that child will not have the support of their government.

Choose not to answer

It should absolutely be allowed in situations of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the mother. Outside of those circumstances, we should continue to uphold the standards set in Roe v Wade.

Strongly Agree

The important factor is how we redistribute it. It has to be done in a way that is equitable and responsible for the future of our economy.

Agree

We should cut wasteful spending, but there are many programs that shouldn't be cut just for the sake of making cuts. We should be more deliberate in what we fund in a way that is future focused and is responsible in the long run.

The tax brackets should reflect inflation better as well as cost of living. There are many families in California that are making $100k and are still struggling because of the cost of housing, food, and gas, they should not be taxed at the same rate as a family making $170k. There also needs to be a better way to tax the uber wealthy. Billionaires do not generally have a salary or taxable income as most of their wealth comes from passive sources or stock ownership. Billionaires should not be paying lower tax rates than the working class.

Disagree

I do not believe religious liberty is at risk in the United States, at least not from government action. It does have high protection under the law due to the first amendment of the US Constitution. All religions should be welcomed here and no one should be afraid of the Government taking adverse action against them or their beliefs. I do believe that certain religions or factions of religion might feel tension due to cultural shifts in the country.

Agree

If businesses were still able to deny services based on moral/religious reasons, then African Americans, Latino's, Asian Americans, Women, LGBTQ persons and more would not be able to live normal lives in parts of the country. This was the case in multiple States until the Civil Rights movement and Supreme Court decisions of the 1960's. There may be very specific situations that are more intertwined with an aspect of religion, but for most situations Americans should not be denied service.

These are two organizations that should work tirelessly to make the lives of their people better. They should do their work separately from each other and focus on their people that are in search of a better life.

Vaccines have eradicated diseases and saved the lives of millions. We should continue to require vaccines that are safe and tested to not cause harm. It is the duty of the Government to provide for the general welfare of its Citizens, preventing pandemics and saving lives is surely a benefit to the welfare of the American people.

Healthcare should be provided by the government for all who want and need it. I do not believe that we need to deny Americans the ability to access private healthcare. I have received government healthcare as well as private healthcare, and my experience has been much better with government healthcare. Even as a full time employee with health benefits, it was still cost prohibitive to see a doctor. Medicare for all will adda true competitor and help stabilize prices because there will be no middle man or shareholder raising costs for profits. Healthcare is still a top cause for bankruptcy in this country, people's only options should not be debt or death.

The United States should work to grow democracy around the world, but at the same time, military action is a last resort. We need to find better strategies through diplomacy, incentives, and sanctions to achieve our goals. That does not mean that we become oblivious to atrocities around the world. We must maintain our military strength because history has shown us for thousands of years that evil does exist. It was right to fight Naziism and end the holocaust, and we should ensure that we forge strong relationships with our allies so that we can work together to prevent more genocides.

Choose not to answer

Agree

The United States needs to hone our efforts towards conquering the next theater of war; cyberspace. It is vital that our cyber capabilities surpass all other nations because so much is at risk. Our financial institutions, our infrastructure, and our day to day lives all revolve around technology, and all technology can be attacked and hacked. We need to have the best cyber security in the world, not only for our military and institutions, but available to our nations businesses and each person.

We should continue our robust defensive measures because there will always be risk of terrorism. We should also try to better understand our enemies and work towards a solution that could help bring peace and understanding. I do not believe we can try to just kill anyone we suspect of being an Islamic terrorist, and I do not believe that we should stereotype all people of the Islamic faith. Not all muslim people are terrorists, not even a large percentage of them.

Neutral

Securing the entire border with a wall seems like a large expensive solution to a small problem that is not the main source of the larger issue. For nearly a decade, the largest group of illegal immigrants in the united states were those that over stayed a visa. I do believe that the border should be secured against drug trafficking and human trafficking because they can cause dangerous situations. Putting up walls is not the final solution, we need to address the drug demand issue in the US.

Strongly Disagree

People with no criminal record and who have either the funds or support system in place to live in the United States without the need for government social services should be allowed to enter. We should also be taking in more refugees from war torn countries or those fleeing rampant gang violence. The United State was built by immigrants, those looking for a better life, we cannot now turn our backs on the new generation of immigrants also fleeing violence and searching for hope. We should fund a more robust system so that those who can support be productive members of our society can enter and not wait a decade for a stroke of luck. With a simpler and more open immigration policy that can process more people, we should also make it clear that anyone not going through established checkpoints will be considered part of an illicit activity and not allowed to enter. Legal immigration should be simpler, it shouldn't take a law degree and a decade of waiting. A growing population can grow our economy and help spur innovation as it has since this nation first began.

Strongly Agree

Agree

I agree that there are racist shockwaves still being felt from laws and structures that most people living today were not alive when they were instituted. I do not believe that all people are racist, or that all white people are racist. I am from a mixed family, half white and half latino, and I have experienced sterotyping and racism. My understanding of critical race theory is this; even if no single person was racist, the systems in place would still cause racist outcomes.

I am a Christian. I believe that all people are created equal. I do not believe that people are any lesser because of their race, gender, or orientation. There is no room for racism or hate in this country. Love is love and the government has no business telling people who they can love. I believe that we are all different, and yet we are all human and connected so we should not hate each other or divide ourselves. I believe in freedom and democracy. This nation is built on the idea of self governance so it is our duty to participate and be involved in the electoral process. I believe that all people from all ideologies and beliefs deserve respect and deserve to be heard. I believe in listening to those that disagree with me because it will make both of us better. I believe that we need to return to respectful debate and disagreement that leads to consensus and innovation. I believe in telling the truth. I believe in service, to each other and to our nation. The best leaders are those that serve their followers.

Agree

Vote by mail is statistically safer and more accurate than in person voting. It should be expanded for those that want it. The systems in place using individual barcodes make it almost impossible to vote tamper or send in fake ballots. If a voter ID law is passed, then it should be the burden of the state to create and deliver the ID for their residents, especially for those with special needs or circumstances. If an elderly woman lives alone and without a license, 50 miles from the nearest ID center, then the state should make available to her a mobile ID unit that can come to her residence. If the purpose of these laws is to prevent fraudulent voting, then we need to ensure it does not create a barrier for legal voters to participate.

Choose not to answer

It is absolutely a threat. Any group that professes hate for others is a threat. We can look back at years of history that show domestic acts of terror and violence against people of color. There is no place for that in the United States. Racism affects the freedoms and liberty of all peoples in a free nation.

Strongly Disagree

Stricter environmental laws and regulation are absolutely worth the cost. I am from the younger generation but I still remember the stories of rivers catching fire and burning for days before the EPA and clean water standards. We cannot take our planet and our natural resources for granted. The older generations do not own these resources, they are renting them from the younger generations. We need to leave behind a planet that is habitable. We cannot trade in the future viability of this planet for todays corporate profits.

Lean Liberal

I don't like this question at all because it is divisive. Most Americans are moderate but are pushed to the fringes because of one or two issues or because the label of conservative or liberal forces them into a corner. I grew up Republican and became a Democrat when I was in College. I do not believe that all issues are black and white, most things in life live in the grey. What best describes me? I believe in Democracy, Freedom, and Self Governance. I believe in serving people, not ideologies

I don't believe I have any media reports about me. In the election security documentary I produced (Interference: Democracy at Risk) I made sure to explain the law and show discussions from different parties. I tried to avoid any partisanship and show only facts or juxtapose differing opinions.

No.

I believe that I, and my generation, can be the bridge to a new way of governing and a new form of leadership. We cannot continue to vote for the same representatives and expect a different result. We need to return to a place of respect and understanding of one another. One of my father's mottos he frequently repeated was this: "seek first to understand, then to be understood." I believe that we have become too enticed by beating the opponent instead of understanding and learning from them. We have not been curious but judgmental. We have continually divided ourselves by party, ideals, region, race, religion, rather than uniting and trying to build consensus. The way our representatives act and work is important because it sets a standard. When it comes to the political process, it has become so expensive that regular Americans from the middle and working class cannot afford to attempt a candidacy. We can only choose from the wealthy that try to tell us what they think is best for us. I am running because I believe we need a representative that has lived the working class life, and has shared experiences with us. I am a mixed race son of an immigrant from a working class family. A first generation college graduate that had to bury myself in student debt in order to climb the ladder and achieve the American Dream. Now at the top of this ladder it is hard to imagine the American dream still being alive for the next generations. The middle class is shrinking as the nations wealth becomes more and more concentrated at the top. The streets are being filled with homeless fellow Americans while some people have so much money that they could never spend in many lifetimes. More Americans are being squeezed out of home ownership and into more expensive rentals that do not allow them to build equity and pass on security to their children. There are many issues that the next group of representatives will need to address, we need more of those leaders that represent us to actually know and have experience living the lives that we live.

Choose not to answer

Neutral

I think we need to stop thinking of this issue as binary. We need both to be funded. Police need better designed training that addresses issues of implicit bias. But the work we give police is also so vast that we are almost setting them up to fail. No officer should ever have to patrol alone, for their safety and for added accountability. Training should be in depth and funding should be spent researching new nonlethal tools as well as new nonlethal tactics for detainment and deescalation

California has many restrictions and licensing procedures to own a firearm, but other states do not. The standards for buying or owning a gun in states like Arizona are much lower, and there is always a possibility of a legally bought firearm crossing the border into California. There should be a more uniform structure for gun purchasing that sets a baseline in all 50 states using Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce. There are certain weapons that can cause such great harm in such a short amount of time that they should almost never be sold for personal use. There should be a mental health failsafe for every gun owner that incorporates a system of due process.

Agree

I agree that dealers should have liability if they broke any rules or should have had any cause for concern during a sale. Manufacturers are a harder case to make unless again you can connect some sort of illegal actions or reckless sales made. If a manufacturer sold a gun to a store legally, and that store followed all the proper protocols and laws in selling the gun, then I do not believe a manufacturer should be civilly liable because that gun was then used in a crime.