Issues

Jonathan believes that the American military intervention in Afghanistan is a repeat of the calamity that we witnessed in Iraq—complete with all the death, destruction and astounding waste of resources better spent on human needs.

New Rules for the Economy

We are at a historic moment in this country. We are living through an economic crisis that, by some measures, has not been seen in a century. Trillions of dollars in wealth have evaporated, hundreds of thousands of jobs disappeared and New Yorkers face an uncertain economic future.

For at least half our waking hours, New Yorkers and the rest of the American people live in a dictatorship. At home or in public places, we enjoy freedoms and liberties envied by most people around the world: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association.

Here is what our campaign believes: an economy should benefit people first, not corporations. We’ve had too many trade agreements and economic policies that make rules for the benefit of corporations, not people. That must end.

Our campaign is for a world where the rules of the economy keep the power in the hands of people who are most affected by decisions, not rootless corporations with no allegiance to place, other than to the place with the lowest wages and least environmental restrictions.

The Federal Reserve Board bears primary responsibility for the financial crisis on 2008. The Fed's then-Chairman Alan Greenspan did nothing to stop the housing bubble--and, in fact, encouraged it. But, the larger question is: why does the Federal Reserve Board operate in secret, with vast powers that are contrary to our basic ideas of a democracy?

I have been an environmentalist for my entire life, starting when I was in grade school passing out flyers for the Sierra Club.

I have three basic principles that guide me:

Jonathan actively supports wide-ranging rights for women, not just reproductive rights.

Wage equity regardless of sex must be respected, including equal pay for comparable work (not merely for identical jobs). Workers deserve a living wage nationwide. We must end America’s futile and destructive attempts to protect our jobs - including so many service jobs now held by low-paid women - by competing with the pay scales of the world’s poorest.

Jonathan is, and always has been, against the death penalty because it is inhumane, unfair and arbitrary. Inhumane, because we should not take the lives of humans beings. Unfair, because almost all the people on death row could not afford to hire their own attorney and received poor representation; if they could have afforded proper legal counsel, the death penalty would probably not have been imposed. Arbitrary, because the race of the defendant and the victim often determines whether the prosecution will seek the death penalty and whether the jury will impose a death sentence.