James Andrew Peters

Strongly Disagree

Reproductive healthcare is a private conversation between an individual and their selected healthcare provider. The government, insurance companies, and employers have no business or voice in that room.

Strongly Agree

Every person deserves dignity and the right to choose aid in dying if they are suffering from a chronic illness that is slowly killing them. Every human has a right to dignity, and death, illness, and the decisions made by government or family should not override that fundamental right.

In any circumstance where the baby will be born lifeless, the mother's life is endangered by giving birth and there are no other viable alternative methods to save the mothers life, and in any circumstance in the first trimester. Even then, it's not my place to have a voice in the room regulating what happens with a woman's reproductive healthcare. Those are decisions of conscious to be made by her under medical guidance from her doctor and any voices that she chooses to invite to the conversation.

Strongly Agree

If you look at the level of taxes paid in the 1950s by corporations and the top 1% today compared to the stagnation in wages despite the rise in productivity from the 70s onward, then it becomes painfully apparent that the wealthiest in America pay nothing in taxes but benefit most from the economy, financial infrastructure, physical infrastructure, & human capital paid for by middle and working class tax payers. It's time to raise corporate tax rates, raise the estate tax, & create a wealth tax

Disagree

The government needs to lower the military budget, cut down on waste and corruption in the pentagon, and eliminate subsidies for Big Oil, Big Pharma, and the defense sector. We can also probably reduce spending by eliminating waste and corruption in general government agencies, but social services, social security, Medicare, and human services should be the last thing cut.

It's time to make the wealth and powerful pay their fair share in taxes. I would support a wealth tax on fortunes worth $50 million or more, reversing the Tump "tax cut", raising the estate tax on estates worth over $10 million, raising the corporate tax rate back up to levels not seen since the 1950's and taxing oil and gas companies on windfall price gouging profits.

Strongly Disagree

The first amendment clearly states that the church and state are separate in the United States of America. Government has no role in protecting, promoting, or attacking religion. Religion has no space for commenting on current events.

Strongly Agree

Discrimination against people because of your sincerely held religious beliefs creates a justification for treating your fellow American as a second class citizen worthy of being discriminated against, and that's wrong.

If the Church/Synagogue/Mosque/Temple/etc preaches on politics, they should lose their tax exempt status. The government should not push any kind of religion on the populous, and should not allow for religious exemption requests for programs/services/agencies funded by tax payer dollars.

The government has the power to mandate vaccines to protect the public health. That's under any circumstance of a known vaccine being able to stop the communal spread of an infectious disease. Public Schools have mandated vaccination for attendance for decades, and the SCOTUS has found in its 1905 decision Jacobson v. Massachusetts that state governments can enforce immunization laws. Employers are a private business and if they want to require a vaccine for the safety of their employees, then I believe that is their right to require that.

A) Healthcare is a human right. Nobody should have to choose between their child's life saving medicine or paying the mortgage. When I went to Germany for the first time when I was 14, I had to go to the emergency room, and it ended up being 20 Euro. Nobody should be facing bankruptcy, financial ruin, or homelessness because of the cost of healthcare in the richest most productive country in the history of the world.

B). In the light of the atrocities of WWII and The Holocaust, the United States built a post-war order based on free trade, democracy, and the global recognition and protection of human rights. This world order paved way for the information age that we live in today. It is in the interest of the United States to support the free people around the world who seek to fight the yoke of tyranny. Democracy, liberty, and a fair and free society is one that can only be maintained by remaining united with the free people around the world in the face of authoritarianism. If we allow dictators in Russia, China, or anywhere else around the world to call the shots for free societies, then we face an inevitable backslide of democracy at home, a reduction in the free flow of trade that affords us the lifestyle we live today, and a world ruled by fear and dictatorship.

Disagree

I support a two state solution that creates a state that provides a safe haven for both the Jewish and the Palestinian community.

Strongly Agree

China is the one power in the world who can upend the international order created by the West post-WWII. If China upends the place of the dollar in the world, if they build quantum computers that overpower our own cybersecurity capabilities, if they create hypersonic missiles and anti-satellite weapons, then America and our freedom we enjoy today is endangered by a world order beholden to the authoritarian Chinese communist system.

We need to invest in our smart power around the world. We need to harden our hard power capabilities to respond to terrorist attacks, but we also need to hone our soft power via the state department to invest in relations with communities on the ground. Empowering women and girls lifts communities. Educating women creates economic opportunity that draws in men and reduces the pull many lost people around the world feel towards the sense of fulfillment offered by extremism.

Neutral

We could do more to secure our borders, but we also need to invest in case workers, legal resources, and social workers who can work with migrants on the southern border and help them get a fair immigration hearing.

Strongly Disagree

That kind of hate is not in the spirit of America. America is a land founded by refugees fleeing economic turmoil, religious persecution, and a yearning for freedom. That is as true today as it was when my ancestors came to this country. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

America should open her arms to any refugees fleeing conflict around the world, people persecuted for being who they are by gangs or their home government, and anybody who wants to come here to build a better life than they had at home. That is the spirit of America.

Strongly Agree

We need to pass an Equality Act that codifies: same sex marriages; bans conversation therapy; designates transgender healthcare including reassignment surgery as a primary healthcare need that all basic insurance plans must cover; protects LGBTQ people from discrimination in the workplace, the market, and in housing; and the Equality Act needs to make hate crimes against LGBT people federally punished.

Neutral

I don't think this statement accurately describes what CRT is. From my understanding, CRT is an academic theory that talks about how power structures in the US in the private and public sphere have been crafted to give an inherent bias to white people at the expense of people of color. I don't agree that American institutions are fundamentally racist, but they have clearly been designed to favor one group over others. Systemic racism is a problem, but CRT might not be the best paradigm to use.

I was raised Catholic, and I hold onto all the stories of how Jesus healed the sick, said a rich man would have a harder time getting into the kingdom of heaven than a camel through the eye of a needle, how Jesus said to welcome strangers to our land for we were once strangers in the land of Egypt, and how forgiveness comes before all other things. I stopped believing in an institution that keeps women out of power, tells gay people they are fundamentally wrong, and has a millennia long history of torture. But I hold those parables and tales of kindness, of love, of forgiveness, and of community close to my heart. If Jesus were alive today, then he would call for medicare for all, a wealth tax, separation of church and state, foodstamps, elder care, and so much more that the "Christians" in the Republican abhor. I am a Secular Humanist who believes in doing the best I can to make the world the better place, to do what I can to help others when I can, and to live with kindness and give people the benefit of the doubt. I don't need a God to tell me to be a good person. I can act on my own morality and empathy to know what is right from what is wrong.

Agree

Yes, as long as there are provisional county records in the local or state office that can verify the information and signature on the ballot as being valid. However, if we are to require photo ids for people to be able to vote, then since voting is a fundamental American right, the state should provide ids for free to all citizens.

1. I would pass term limits for all members of congress; nine terms (18 years) for the House, and three terms (18 years) for the Senate. 2. All states would get a minimum of three Representatives, and all states should adopt a system of proportional representation in multimember districts for all House of Representatives elections. 3. All elections for Senate (primary and general) should be done via rank choice voting. 4. If we cannot eliminate the electoral college in presidential elections, then we need to reform it. We need to pass a federal law that requires all states to distribute their electoral votes proportionate to how their state voted. 5. Like Senate elections, all Presidential primaries and general elections should include a rank choice vote for citizens in every state. 6. Universal voter registration for all American citizens once they turn 18. 7. Universal mail in voter ballots to be sent to all Americans 1 month prior to an election.

Neutral

America needs to do something to atone for its original sin of slavery. I think the best way to do reparations would be to create special tax credits for first time black home owners who can prove a connection to American slavery, a large annually renewing grant for HBCUs, a federal fund for black entrepreneurship, and I am open to talking more about how we make this happen. I just do not know the best way to move forward on righting one of America's darkest wrongs.

Yes, white supremacy is the greatest domestic threat to America and powered the recent domestic terrorist attack against our Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.

Disagree

I only support the continued use of fossil fuels while we transition to a clean energy grid.

A). Stricter environmental laws and regulations are needed because there is no Earth B. Moreover, a transition to a Green New Deal will create thousands of new jobs that will replace jobs in the dirty energy industry.

Liberal

I am a progressive, gay, millennial candidate running for office for the first time. I want to fight for our future. That means coming together as one American people to take on: climate change, tax reform, democratic backsliding, expansion of civil rights, and more. I support a Green New Deal, a 21st Century Workers Bill of Rights, revamping the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act, ending Citizens United, public funding for federal elections, and proportional/rank choice voting centric elections

Did not answer

No

Did not answer

Disagree

All police officers should be required to wear a body cam and that cloud of video should be made available on an open source cloud. Turning off that body cam should be a felony with a 5 year prison term and disqualification from any pension/benefits/etc. That being said, if there is an actual life or death situation caught on body cam where a cop kills somebody in self-defense that can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. But if a cop acts out of line we can have justice for victims.

Strongly Agree

A lot of low level incidents can be attributed to drug overdose, people getting into arguments, and mental illness. Police are not equip to handle the finesse and delicacy required to de-escalate these situations. Social Workers, Mental Health Workers, and Community Programs can also serve as first responders while our law enforcement can focus their efforts on violent and dangerous crime instead of responding to somebody who just needs some help not cuffs.

Universal Background Checks, limiting magazines sold for civilian grade weapons to no more than 10 rounds, insurance like what we require for cars, mandatory bi-annual safety courses, and no semi-automatic weapons for civilians.

Strongly Agree