opinion

RGJ exclusive | Buttigieg: Nevadans do not have to choose revolution or the status quo

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Editor's note: This is an opinion column written by one of the Democratic candidates for president of the United States. The Reno Gazette Journal accepts columns from major candidates across the political spectrum, whether left or right, as a way to help inform the voting public.

A few days from now, Nevadans will be the First in the West to choose a new direction for our country. This election season, some have told us that this choice comes down to revolution or a return to the broken ways of the past. Either we tear down the entire system or we resign ourselves to the Washington status quo that has failed too many of our communities.

I reject that false choice — and Nevadans should too.

I’ve spent time in some of the reddest counties in America and in some of the bluest. I’ve met workers facing rising costs and stagnant wages, and ranchers paying the price for a reckless trade war. I’ve known children learning active-shooter drills before they learn to read, and families mourning loved ones lost to opioids. And I’ve visited communities ravaged by historic fires and storms made worse by climate change.

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The reality is, most Americans simply don’t see where they fit in a polarized vision of America. Confronted by these real challenges, Americans know we need bold action — indeed, they are hungry for it. They know Washington hasn’t been working for them. After all, if Washington were serving America well, a figure like Donald Trump never would have come within cheating distance of the Oval Office in the first place.

At the same time, most Americans do not have the luxury of choosing ideological purity over an inclusive victory. They know we won’t defeat the most divisive president in modern history by tearing down anyone who doesn’t agree with us 100 percent of the time. Most of us are less interested in wholesale revolution than in seeing our communities and our daily lives change for the better.

I’m thinking about the UAW workers I stood with in Reno who are fighting for fair wages and the Culinary workers who earned their health care through generations of hard bargaining and labor actions. That’s why I’ve proposed Medicare for All Who Want It, guaranteeing every American affordable coverage while letting everyone choose whether they want to switch to a public plan or stay with their private insurance or hard-won union health care. And it’s why my administration will make it easier to unionize and ultimately double unionization across America.

In Las Vegas, I spoke with a bartender who had fled civil war in El Salvador.

“I’m a TPS holder, Temporary Protected Status,” he told me. “But my contributions to the United States and Nevada are not temporary.”

When I’m president, we’ll protect DACA and TPS holders by ensuring our immigration policy matches our values as well as our laws. At the same time, we’ll ensure everyone can make those contributions, with a more inclusive and equitable economy that lifts up Latino-owned businesses, empowers workers, and enables more Latinos to attend college.

Then there was the fellow South Bend native I met at a Nevada nonprofit that supports homeless veterans, part of an affordable housing and homelessness crisis Washoe County knows well. Reflecting on the very different realities he and I were living after our return from service only reaffirmed my commitment to ensuring that America keeps its promise to those who served. That’s why my administration will support veterans and their families throughout their military journey, provide the care they have earned to heal the wounds of war and engage all Americans to welcome service members back into their communities.

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Rather than calling for revolution, or accepting the old and broken ways of Washington, I see the solution in the powerful majority we’re gathering together — from Las Vegas to Elko, from Reno to Mesquite. Ours is a coalition of addition and not subtraction. It’s a movement reaching into churches and community centers, into universities and union halls, carrying the same values everywhere we go. It’s fueled by Nevadans like the woman in Pahrump who hasn’t been involved in politics since the 1960s, but in our effort finally found a campaign where she belongs. This is the rising majority we’ll mobilize to tackle everything from education inequity to racial injustice to our climate crisis.

Nevada is a state that looks like America’s future and looks to the future. On Saturday, February 22, the Battle Born State will have a chance to turn the page and write a better story for our everyday lives.

Pete Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

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