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In 1941, when our country and the world faced unprecedented instability and uncertainty, Franklin Roosevelt championed the concept of the “Four Freedoms”—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. He could have told us we could go back, build a time machine and return to better days. Instead, he focused on moving us forward. His message of freedom and hope helped guide our country to a more prosperous future.
One campaign this fall is building on those goals with a real plan for the economic freedom of Americans, a plan to bring our country forward not backward — the campaign of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz are committed to ensuring entrepreneurs, college students, working families, small businesses, farmers and so many others with dreams of a better life have the tools and opportunities they need to succeed. So that everyone can, as Harris says, not just get by, but get ahead.
She and Tim Walz have spent their careers fighting for working families across the country. After their greedy practices crippled our economy, California Attorney General Harris took on the Big Banks and Wall Street elites. And as Big Pharma continued to rake in profits, Harris fought for Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices and capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month.
As governor of Minnesota, Walz lowered the cost of insulin for Minnesotans, eliminated junk fees and signed paid leave into law so that parents can take care of sick kids and elderly parents without losing their jobs.
The work’s not done: a Harris-Walz administration would continue working to lower costs, protect Social Security and Medicare so our seniors can retire with dignity, and pull our children out of poverty.
While Kamala Harris and Tim Walz fight for all of us, I believe Donald Trump is only looking out for himself. His divisive rhetoric about “taking America back” isn’t new. The wealthy despised Roosevelt’s New Deal, Johnson’s Great Society, and Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Since the 1930’s, many of the ultra-wealthy have sought to roll back economic and civil rights freedoms, likely because they want more of the pie for themselves.
When we say no to that kind of divisiveness, when we vote for the future, we’ve prospered, not only economically but also socially with new laws that enhance the civil liberties and freedoms we all value.
When we have voted our fears – as we did with Richard Nixon and Donald Trump in 2016 – we saw the economy stumble under misguided tax policies that created rifts in our society, tariffs that harmed American competitiveness, and markets that sliced ever more wealth away from Main Street and to the ultra-rich.
While president, Donald Trump focused on petty grievances, took care of his wealthy friends, raised prices on everyday goods, and picked needless fights in an effort to divide and distract us from his terrible record.
He’s already told us what he wants to do if he gets back in power: cut Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age to 70, let employers stop paying overtime to their workers, end health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and increase prescription drug costs for up to 18.5 million people who rely on Medicare.
Bottom line: Donald Trump sold out working families and shipped thousands of jobs overseas while doling out tax breaks for the ultra wealthy. We cannot afford another Trump presidency.
Come Nov. 5 we all have a choice: go backward with Trump or vote for the Harris-Walz ticket fighting for us and our future. I choose the future.
Matt Dunlap is a certified internal auditor from Old Town.
