Allen Smith's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
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Allen Smith has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2019 Political Courage Test.
North Carolina Congressional Special Election, District 9, 2019 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Our campaign rejects the harmful black-and-white rhetoric that says a woman must choose between her own well-being and a life inside her. That sort of thinking just divides us, and we know it's not that simple. Our hearts are bigger than that. Instead, we should focus conversations on the social, geographic, and economic factors that influence a woman's access to adequate education, healthcare, and control over what happens to her body. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| Both of these things are part of the Green New Deal that our campaign is fighting for. We support strongly progressive taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations while eliminating federal income tax for families earning $50,000 or less annually. We also want to reduce defense spending by 50%, scale back our military footprint around the world, and reinvest that energy and money into programs and jobs that eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels by 2030. Doing this will also reduce the global destabilization and pollution our defense department currently causes while they carry out our imperialist foreign policy. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| We need to get all forms of big money out of politics and focus on bolstering true grassroots democracy. We are fighting to put an end to corporate personhood and limiting the influence of powerful corporations on our government. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| The second question here paints with too broad a brush because it groups all corporations together. We support an economic system that is based on a combination of private businesses, decentralized democratically-run cooperatives, publicly owned enterprises, and alternative economic structures. To that end, we support using tax policies and federal spending to promote socially-responsible, sustainable economic practices. It's important to have robust anti-trust regulations and public chartering of corporations to ensure no corporation becomes too big or too harmful. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| We are fighting to divest from the high-stakes testing industry, and to redirect that money and energy into expanded access to science, technology, music, and arts programs. Teachers should be free to choose whichever materials are academically-challenging and culturally appropriate for their students. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| We are fighting for an ecosocialist Green New Deal, which includes both of these measures. We support a 50% reduction in defense spending and redirecting that money into programs and jobs that help us end our dependence on fossil fuels by 2030. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Generally speaking, we favor broad legislation that promotes responsible gun ownership. But we are also fighting for better funding to research the gun violence epidemic. It is not an issue that can be solved with one sweeping piece of legislation. For instance, we need focused policies that prevent specific types of gun violence, such as laws that protect victims of domestic violence. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| We are the only campaign in our race that supports a universal, single-payer healthcare system (Improved and Expanded Medicare for All). We believe this program should be federally funded but administered at the state level. To that end, we support repealing and replacing the ACA. Healthcare is a human right, and a universal, single-payer system guarantees healthcare to everyone. Beyond that, it breaks the link between a person's employer and their health coverage, which is good for all of us. | |||
| No | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| We support comprehensive immigration reform that includes amnesty, a clearer and less-expensive pathway to citizenship, and measures to protect immigrants from exploitation and harm. Building a wall along the Mexican border is an expensive blunder. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes? | ||
| We support legalizing cannabis for recreational (and medicinal) use, provided we have measures in place regulating it similar to how we regulate alcohol. Any legalization would also require measures to provide justice to the folks whose lives and communities have been destroyed by the failed "War on Drugs." | |||
| No | Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| No | Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support? | ||
| We believe reducing militarism and reliance on arms policies is the key to progress toward collective security. To that end, our government should establish a policy to abolish nuclear weapons, declare a no-first-strike policy, a no-pre-emptive-strike policy, and dismantle all nuclear warheads and their missiles. Furthermore, it is a moral imperative that our government not preemptively attack other nations and instead adhere to international law governing military engagement. | |||
| If elected, I'll be fighting to dismantle corrupt systems in our government and our economy, to empower working people and communities, and to help us save our planet. Given the winner of this election will serve an abbreviated term, I'll be working with fellow legislators to advance these causes by helping shape and champion many pieces of legislation that have already been filed. |
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