When you ask a candidate “will you vote to Ban Big Money from politics,” you’re asking about this general foundation:

1. Only voting-age citizens and political organizations funded solely by citizens may spend money on politics.
   American politics is for the People, not corporations and Big-Money PACs.

2. Voting-age citizens may only spend some percentage (say 10%) of individual median income on politics per year (10% would be about $4500).
   This turns the volume of the wealthy way down.

3. The list of things included in “spending money on politics” is carefully defined.
   This list will get negotiated for sure. The point is that a list is necessary.

4. People who violate the amendment commit a federal felony. For organizational violators, the organization’s responsible individuals commit a federal felony.
   Trump has taught Josh that amendments need teeth.

You’ll probably have to read this to candidates until the Ban Big Money Amendment catches on. How they respond will be revealing!

Our toxic politics are depressing. It doesn’t have to be like this. It’s easy to be nice and treat people with respect. It’s possible to disagree with someone and still think they’re a good person. It’s even possible to respect their beliefs while staying true to your own.

That spirit of goodwill, respect, and mutual understanding is a civic virtue in a republic like ours. The more people embrace it, the better our politics and society will be. That's the spirit that Josh brings to his politics and plans to promote forcefully. He hopes others do, too.

We need to promote that spirit because its evil twin is winning. Personal insults, demeaning put-downs, dehumanizing labels, open mockery, and sneering contempt are now common, and even celebrated by some people. Social media algorithms spread this toxic waste for profit. The worst people are rewarded for displaying their worst selves.

Adults acting like middle-school bullies are bad enough. Leaders who do it are disgraceful. They destroy trust. They make compromise impossible. They set a horrible example for our children. They dishonor America. You don’t make a country great by dragging it into the gutter.

Leaders like that spit on goodwill, respect, and mutual understanding; they see those things as weaknesses. They can’t be trusted—you have to fight them. We have to make their toxic behavior and bad character shameful again. Josh will work hard and creatively to do that.

Leaders like Mark Amodei know better, but they’re afraid to speak up. Their cowardice allows the poison to spread. They’ve sacrificed honor, their own principles, and simple human decency just to keep their seats. That’s disgraceful—we deserve better. Let’s punish their cowardice and strike back against toxic politics by voting them all out.

A handful of billionaire tech lords with dangerous ideas are gambling with humanity’s future as they race to spawn AI. The Trump regime is not only letting them, it’s paving the road. Do we really want those people deciding all our not-so-distant futures?

The People deserve a say. Congress needs to slow things down. Josh understands if you doubt that it’s up to the task. That’s why we need to elect people who understand AI and are committed to controlling it. Congress is the only body with the power to do it right.

The first thing we need to do is halt new data center approvals. The massive build-out is raising energy prices, straining water resources, and disrupting communities. A halt even helps the tech companies—they’ve overcommitted to a failed strategy but are all afraid to be the first to stop.

Trump’s spiteful, erratic, and incoherent tariff policy is raising prices, hurting small business, freezing investment and employment, alienating friends, trashing our reputation, undermining the dollar, and elevating China. It’s an economic, diplomatic, and strategic disaster.

To make matters worse, Trump is driving away tourists with his contempt for the world. He picked a fight with Canada. Who does that? His vicious character is costing Nevada a lot of money.

The Constitution gives Congress control over trade, and Congress needs to reclaim that power. Repeal Trump’s tariffs and require Congress’ approval of any further “emergency” tariffs. Surrendering power over the global economy to one man is radically un-American.

Wages as a share of national income haven’t been this low since the end of the Great Depression. Big Money always wants more, and just keeps grabbing more and more of the pie. Only Congress has the power to restrain its greed and promote a fairer economy.

One way to do that is by liberating organized labor. Strong unions grow good wages, but our unions have been shackled by restrictive regulations, employer abuse, and weak enforcement. Unchain them by passing the PRO Act. We need organized labor to oppose organized money.

The Big Money barons value themselves too highly. We need to find creative ways to promote fairness by taxing firms whose executives earn hundreds of times the typical worker’s wage. It’s time to drag the C-suite back to Earth.

Increase the federal minimum wage to $15/hour and index it to inflation. $7.25/hour is offensive—it’s like having no minimum wage at all, which is precisely the point. Raising it helps everyone near the minimum, and would provide immediate relief to many Nevadans.

We need a lot more new housing, and we need to get more existing housing onto the market. The first one’s going to take time. The second one we can act on now by putting people over profits. We do that with taxes and laws.

Heavily tax the rental income of large corporate and investor landlords. Tax foreign-owned vacant property. Tax income from short-term vacation rentals. Ban algorithmic rental pricing. These measures would increase supply, lower prices, and encourage more local ownership.

As for building, we can do some things quickly. First, halt mass deportation: deporting construction workers in the middle of a housing crisis is raising prices. Second, drop the tariffs on construction supplies, because that’s raising prices too.

Longer-term, we must experiment with building affordable housing quickly. There are many creative ideas out there. Congress should quickly research them, and then support a competition among the most promising ones. Learn what works best, and then provide the resources and regulations necessary to supercharge it.

The Extreme Court made a mess, as usual. Most of America approved of the way things were under Roe v. Wade. We respect freedom of conscience, and there are few questions of conscience more profound than abortion. In America, that’s not the state’s business.

That’s what Roe v. Wade said. It also allowed for reasonable restrictions after viability. It was a wise decision, and it worked well for most of us for decades. The people it didn’t work for, well, many of them have been trying to force their beliefs on us ever since.

Josh respects their point of view, and their desire to halt abortions. However, he finds their goal unconstitutional, and their tactics often shameful. The “late-term abortion” hysteria was manufactured, and offensive. The overwhelming majority of late-term abortions are tragedies.

It’s time to settle this. Pass a law codifying a federal right to choose abortion along the lines of Roe v. Wade. The law should explicitly cite the 9th Amendment as its constitutional basis and dare the Extreme Court to overstep its authority again.

The research is undeniable: social media damages our physical and mental health. Big Tech knows this, yet it continues to peddle its addictive and dangerous products. This is no different from what the cigarette companies did. It must be stopped.

Require Big Tech to turn over all internal research on the health effects of their social media platforms so we can fully understand the problem. Prohibit social media design that promotes engagement at the expense of well-being. Require regular “warning label” posts in the feeds of all platforms not certified as safe according to legally-defined metrics.

Children are especially vulnerable. Ban social media accounts for kids under age 13. Require Big Tech to develop separate apps for use by kids under age 17 and write strict safety regulations for them. Prohibit the sale or transfer of minors’ personal information, and limit its use to strictly functional purposes.

Big Tech violators must face severe penalties. Unless the penalties truly hurt, Big Tech will just accept them as the cost of continuing their harmful business. 

Market-based healthcare has failed us. It’s left us poorer and sicker. Our wealth determines our health, and our health only gets more expensive. That’s not how things should be in America. Let’s use our power to do something about that.

Medicare for All is the best answer. Everyone pays in, everyone is covered, and the government sets reasonable prices. No more existential dread, no more medical debt, no more feeling trapped in a job, affordable prescriptions, a big boost to small business, stable rural hospitals, and a healthier America: that sounds better, right?

We know Medicare works. People like it, it’s efficient, and it saves money. It’s time to scale it up!

We’re still operating under a mining law written in 1872. That’s great for the foreign mining companies because they pay no royalties, but it’s bad for Nevada. Let’s rewrite our mining law to match the laws found in similar developed nations.

Western Australia is a favorite of mining companies, but its laws have stronger protections for the environment, safety, and native lands. They also require royalties, and Nevada deserves and needs a share of the wealth extracted from her earth.

Emulating laws the industry already accepts will benefit Nevada without risking our mining economy in the least. The big mining companies get a sweetheart deal here and they know it.

About two-thirds of federal agricultural subsidies go to the top 10% of recipients—yet another example of Big Money profiteering. Let’s stop subsidizing large operations and instead do things like help Nevada farmers and ranchers afford drought security and wildfire protection measures.

Restore federal funding—cut by the Trump regime—to the Home Feeds Nevada program. This funding provides healthy, Nevada-grown fresh food to food banks and schools, which helps our farmers, kids, and the 1-in-6 hungry Nevadans.

Halt mass deportation. Nevada’s producers face a worker shortage, and the immigration crackdown not only makes that problem worse, it raises food prices. We can fix our immigration system without shock tactics that unjustly hurt producers, their workers, and consumers.

Restore Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL). An overwhelming majority of Americans support this—we prefer food from American producers. The main opponents of COOL are the food processing cartel, foreign producers with weak safety standards, and free-trade fundamentalists. It’s time to stop putting their interests above ours.

Massive concentration in the meat processing industry has led to four companies controlling over 80% of the market. They abuse that power to low-ball producers, jack up consumer prices, and pocket the difference. As usual, Big Money wins and we lose.

The Packers and Stockyards Act was passed a century ago to fight Big Meat. Our anti-trust laws empower us to break up cartels. Big Money has used its power and influence to block their enforcement. Let’s give those laws new teeth and resources, and then demand enforcement.

Industry concentration is a choice, not a destiny, but Big Money has been making that choice for us. Let’s use our power to take that choice back and cut Big Meat down to size.

ICE and CBP are outlaw agencies. We see videos of them violating laws and rights daily. They drag moms from cars in front of their kids. They hold Americans incognito for days. They pepper-spray peaceful protesters in the face. They face no consequences.

The Trump regime encourages these outlaws to assault anyone with impunity. They make promotional videos designed to recruit people who want to beat up immigrants. The guy leading their CBP crackdowns literally dresses like a Nazi: search “Nazi Greg Bovino.”

Rescind the ICE and CBP budget increase. Require that federal law enforcement be unmasked and clearly identified. Strip ICE and CBP of their paramilitary gear unless close to the border. Enable state and local law enforcement to arrest federal agents for state crimes. Investigate both agencies thoroughly, documenting all violations for future prosecution.

This gonzo White House is completely out of control. The list of crazy and terrible things it’s done is now so long that it’s impossible to select just a few. It’s like we’re all trapped in some psychotic reality TV show with Trump as the executive producer. Congress needs to cancel it.

One thing worth singling out is the extraordinary corruption. The Trump family is enriching itself by pimping out the presidency, and their lackeys are all following their example. It’s no coincidence that they fired all of the watchdogs. Congress must investigate their crimes.

Shamefully, Congressional Republicans—Mark Amodei included—are too scared to act. Their courage has been tested, and they’ve failed. We need them gone so that Congress can put this deranged Executive in its place and restore some sanity to America.

It’s time to cut the presidency down to size. Rule-by-decree, corrupt pardons, military adventurism, weaponized government, arbitrary justice, politicized spending: this is exactly what the Founders warned against. Congress must reassert its authority.

Overturn the Extreme Court’s indefensible decision immunizing the president. They just made that up—nothing in our Constitution or history justifies it. A president who commits crimes in office should definitely be prosecuted upon leaving it.

Require Congress to approve all “emergency” measures taken by the president within 30 days. No more punting to the president because Congress fears a hard vote. Also, review and revise all of the president’s emergency powers to prevent further abuse.

Josh knows personally how difficult mental health issues can be. They disrupt your life, the life of your friends and family, and often frustrate, confuse, and anger everyone else. Few people really understand them, and most people are afraid of them. Often, they go undiagnosed.

When a mental health issue is recognized, access to treatment is often poor, something that is especially true in Nevada. People who need treatment but don’t get it typically get worse. If they lack (or lose) family support, at best they subsist. At worst, they end up addicted, on the streets, in prison, or dead.

The fix is daunting: many more mental health professionals, universal access to care, appropriate facilities, and better public understanding. That’s expensive and difficult, but the damage of untreated mental health issues—economic and human—is more so.

Josh hopes to promote better understanding, but that’s a drop in the bucket—only Congress can tackle this problem. Medicare for All would help a lot, but first we need skilled people. Subsidize the education of people entering critical mental health fields, and offer loan forgiveness to those who agree to a period of service in underserved rural areas.

Josh wants every American to be faithfully represented. Our gerrymandered, Big Money elections do the opposite. Reforming them is essential to fixing our republic. 

End partisan gerrymandering by requiring nonpartisan redistricting for congressional elections. Party leaders use partisan gerrymandering to decide election outcomes before a single vote is cast—that is the opposite of democracy. 

Expand the House of Representatives. House membership was capped at 435 in 1929 when America was about one-third its current size. Doubling the number of representatives to 870 would help Congress represent the People more faithfully.

When expanding the House, switch to multi-member districts. Mandate a minimum of two representatives for each district and elections that select the top vote-getters. This would produce more faithful representation and make third parties more viable.

The national debt is over 120% of GDP, the budget deficit is nearly $2 trillion, and interest payments devour over 15% of the federal budget—we can’t go on like this! We’re sliding toward a financial meltdown. Trump pissing off the entire world is greasing the skids.

It’s time to stop borrowing from the wealthy to pay for America’s needs. American policy has enabled their concentration of wealth. Why saddle America with more debt and interest payments when we can tax them instead?

Josh is committed to a balanced budget. He will work hard to lower the deficit, and will reject budgets that do not decrease it. Federal fiscal discipline will strengthen the economy and lower interest rates, making our massive debt, and homes, more affordable.

America’s long technological, economic, and military dominance owed a great deal to the strength of our science. It was the envy of the world, but the Trump regime is rapidly destroying it. China couldn’t be happier. 

We must halt this assault upon our scientific excellence. Demand that all science funding be restored, and withhold funding for the president’s priorities until it is. Review all of the science-based executive orders and rescind the ones that are not scientifically sound.

Demand the resignation of RFK Jr. and his crackpot minions. National health decisions cannot be trusted to anti-vax radicals with open contempt for science and snake-oil cures. If they are not forced out, impeach them just to keep them busy so they can’t do more damage.

The world has long respected the quality of our military. We owe much of that to our highly professional commanders—serious students of warfare who are committed to civilian rule. The quickest way to ruin a professional military like ours is to politicize it.

Now, “merit” is loyalty to Trump. Poseurs and enforcers replace genuine soldiers. JAG watchdogs are mocked and fired. Troops patrol our cities. This is how tyrants control their militaries, and their forces always become corrupt and incompetent.

Reinstate JAG officers to police corruption and oppose lawless actions. Require congressional approval of deployments in American cities. Prescribe rules for the removal of officers by the Executive branch. We must rescue our impartial, professional military from political corruption.

The Supreme Court has been captured by hypocritical ideologues who hide their partisan agenda behind neutral-sounding masks like “originalism.” They made the President immune to prosecution. They let him wreck our government, steal our personal data, and abuse our tax dollars. We have to check this Extreme Court.

Enlarge the Supreme Court to 13 judges, one for each federal district. When a district seat comes open, require that the President choose from a panel of 3 judges selected by the judges of that district. Mandate that justices must obey the same rules that all other federal judges do.

Pass a constitutional amendment limiting Supreme Court terms to 12 years—lifetime appointments were a really bad idea.

Josh has never seen anything close to the gleeful hatred and open bigotry that he sees now.

• Our president proudly professed his hatred for his opponents at a memorial service!

• Latino-looking people are assaulted and subjected to bigoted abuse by masked federal agents.

• An actual Holocaust-denier white-supremacist is now a prominent influencer. 

• Trump shut down almost all asylum programs but stood up a new one just for White South Africans. Explain that without racism.

• A government list of undesirable words includes: women, Black, Native American, female, LGBTQ, disability, mental health, minorities, and prejudice.

• Prominent young Republicans (not kids) participated in a racist, homophobic, antisemitic, misogynistic, ableist, pro-Nazi group text. They really hit all the bases.

• This regime is demanding that the legal existence of transgender people be erased.

That list is far from exclusive. To Josh, it feels like the evil spirit of our bigoted past has possessed a new host. It intimidates people with the same aggression, bullying, and violence. It carries the same smug, superior, self-righteous swagger. Josh is eager to confront it.

He believes that most Americans—many Republicans included—are also disturbed by this. Shamefully, Republican elected officials have mostly enabled it. They fear its power. The best way to punish their cowardice is with electoral defeat.

Congress must amend our civil rights laws—passed to fight this evil—to make their intent unquestionably clear. This regime’s corruption of our civil-rights laws must not be allowed to continue. Hate must never again be allowed to wield American state power.

Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Supremacist members of its government celebrate that genocide. It continues to steal Palestinian land, using violent, racist settlers to do it. It wields hunger as a weapon. Its leaders should be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It pains Josh to say these things. His Jewish ancestors fled pogroms in Ukraine. His mother warned him not to reveal his Jewish heritage. He was raised to see Israel as a refuge. To watch it commit the same crimes that have been inflicted upon Jews throughout history horrifies him.

Israel treats America with barely disguised contempt. It feels entitled to our money and arms, and its proxies mercilessly attack anyone who dares to oppose it. It cares little for our interests, and mostly tries to manipulate us to serve its own. It is a false friend.

Josh will not vote to send a single cent or bullet to Israel. America must stop enabling Israel’s crimes. We have much better uses for the billions of dollars we send to our ungrateful “ally.” Israel is a prosperous, modern nation—let it fund its own hateful goals.

Josh has long condemned Hamas. It has brought nothing but misery to Gaza. Its genocidal delusions set off Gaza’s destruction. It sacrificed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives to its grandiose fantasies. Its leaders should stand trial alongside the Israelis’.

The illegal dismantling of the Department of Education (ED) is another one of this regime’s fanatical right-wing crusades. There’s been a coalition of people on the right obsessed with this for decades, and Trump gave them power. They have bizarre ideas about what the ED does.

Thanks to these zealots, student loans, Pell grants, Title 1 school funding, funding for students with disabilities, federal grants to schools, educational data collection, education research, Head Start, and civil-rights enforcement are all at risk. Because they’re “woke,” or something.

Once again, the Extreme Court let this happen. The lapdog Republican Congress largely cheers it on; they’re afraid to vote for it, but they’ll stand by and watch. It will take a Democratic Congress to restore the critical programs that many Nevadans and Americans rely on.

Rebuilding what the Republicans destroyed gives us an opportunity to make program upgrades. Congress should work together with the users of these programs to determine how they can be improved, and then pass legislation putting those improvements into practice.

Student debt magnifies the affordability crisis for many younger Americans. It also drags down our economy and society—indebted young people get married, start families, buy homes, and form businesses at lower rates, and their lack of disposable income hurts economic growth.

The Trump regime is making things worse. It’s increasing what borrowers must pay, taking a hard line on collections, reducing pressure on predatory institutions, and making loan forgiveness much harder to access. This regime seems to enjoy punishing struggling people.

Congress needs to codify student debt relief into law. Restore the income-driven repayment plans eliminated by the regime. Pursue additional solutions, like zero-interest repayment plans, a broader range of forgiveness options, employer-matching programs, and access to bankruptcy relief. Helping young Americans climb onto the economic ladder helps us all.

Runaway higher-education prices are the real problem. Ever-shrinking state funding, federal student loan policies, administrative bloat, amenity competition, and schools’ lack of accountability have combined to explode costs and place the entire burden on students. 

Congress has studied this problem extensively, but has failed to agree on a solution. To break the logjam, we should try parallel policy experiments. Instead of a single solution, develop several. Then, let states decide which policy they prefer. Since we can’t agree, let’s use our policy differences to find out what actually works.