Working people have it rough these days. Our unions, our civil rights and liberties, and the public services we need are all under siege. Workers need a union militant like me in Congress who will fight for them.
Let’s face it, capitalist democracy in the U.S. means that millionaires run Congress and billionaires run them. My opponent, Maria Cantwell, is one of those millionaires, and it’s clear that her allegiance is with corporations like Boeing and Amazon. Just look at her votes for ruinous “free trade” treaties like NAFTA and CAFTA. I’m running because we working folks have to fight for ourselves and stop counting on the parties of big business to defend us.
I will be blunt about what it will take to defend workers and win a more just society. That’s why I’m proposing demands that take on the profit system — demands like public ownership of the banks and dismantling the war machine. And that’s why I’m calling for an independent labor party to represent the working class.
Senate races are important because we can’t solve intractable problems caused by the addiction to profits at the local level. Take the homelessness crisis. There are over 50,000 souls living on the streets of Los Angeles every night. We need to at least triple the amount of public housing. But where can we get the money? I point to the trillions of dollars spent on endless wars and bloated military production, which are enthusiastically supported by Republicans and Democrats alike.
And let’s look at the recent federal tax cuts for the rich and the corporate elite. The plan is to pay for the cuts at the expense of Medicare, Social Security and anything that benefits workers and the poor. I say repeal that scam! It’s time to tax those plutocrats and fund free education, healthcare, and childcare.
My campaign will travel Washington state hearing from people about their issues and offering working-class solutions. The Freedom Socialist Party which I represent fights for solutions that will unify people and actually help them, as opposed to dividing them and causing them harm as Trump does with his scapegoating and hyper-nationalism.
– Steve Hoffman