Glenn Kaplan 4 Congress

ompetent, listening only to wealthy donors and the extremes among our political spectrum—their only true constituency. I grew up here, went to high school in Oakland, taught at public schools, and worked as a journalist before starting a business here, turning an abandoned space into a successful community hub. I saw firsthand the failure of the federal bureaucracy in response to small businesses during the pandemic. I’m running as an independent Democrat because both parties are failing us (and, in our broken system one has to make a binary choice between parties, when we all know it’s not that simple, however, yes, the right has caused significantly more malfeasance and chaos, than the the left). In many respects I feel like I no longer identify with either party. Our entrenched leaders have proved that they’re not up to the job. They don’t play by the same rules as the rest of us. They waste time on divisive identity politics and symbolic legislation while real people, neighborhoods and businesses languish. The acrimony and gridlock are breaking our country. People who work for a living need actual solutions: fair taxation, increased funding for education and scientific research, single-payer healthcare, real support for neighborhood businesses. I know being a moderate (except when i comes to income inequality) is currently a radical position, but I’m not an extremist on either “side” given there is only one, the American side, and I’m not looking to be first anything as regards race, age or socioeconomic background but merely the rare, and perhaps the first in sometime, Congressional representative that doesn’t take any special interest money and can be entirely free to vote in whatever way I believe is best for our district and the nation. We don’t need a bloated military, rather education (and well paid teachers), healthcare and personal safety (which, at this point requires the national guard while we build up our districts’ police forces) more than we need stealth bombers or more tax loop holes for the rich. If you’re not angry with the system you’re either not paying attention or are a part of the problem and gaming the system at the expense of others. We live in community and yes, America is proud of its individualism but it’s hard to take pride in lawlessness, poverty and lack of government services when the nations wealth is so concentrated at the top, perpetuated by leaders at all layers of government. In that respect I am for an extreme tax overhaul that proposes extremely high rates (let’s start at 99% at anyone making over five million) on the uber-rich. They earned their money driving, at least sometimes, to public schools on public roads, calling public services like the police or fire when in need. This is not socialist wealth redistribution it’s a return to the sanity of earlier times when CEOs only made 50x their employees not 5000! No one needs to make five million a year. If elected, I promise you’ll have a representative who knows the east bay and it’s issues, listens to you, fights for you, and is committed to working with all sides to bring real change. I support real campaign finance reform and term limits. That’s why, I again, I won’t accept money from special interest groups. I won’t be captive to the demands of any party. I will answer only to the needs of you, my constituents.