Geoffrey M. Young: A Genuine Progressive Democrat for Kentucky Governor
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Unlike countless pretenders, pledging one thing, doing something entirely different if elected to political office at the federal, state or local level, Geoff is the real deal.
He says what he means and means what he says, a political anomaly, speaking and acting forthrightly, a profile in courage, few in politics like him anywhere.
Announcing his candidacy in January, he said “(f)or far too long, we have had lobbyists dominating the general assembly, dominating state government, and supporting narrow special interests against the interests of the people.”
His platform positions include the following:
1. Supporting organized labor for a higher minimum wage, living wages for all, proper healthcare benefits, and other worker rights in a nation where they greatly eroded.
He and running mate Josh French “will work to strengthen unions in Kentucky and repeal all of the union-busting laws the RPK and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce have rammed through since January, 2017 – and before,” they said in a statement on their position.
2. “The Young/French Administration will go after corruption regardless of partisan politics,” they stressed.
3. They support legalization of cannabis, saying it’s more costly keeping it illegal. “It is less toxic than other legal substances. It possesses legitimate medical benefits.” Prohibition does great harm and no good.
4. They support the right of women to control their own bodies, wanting government hands kept off them, their legal right to choose sustained. They called Roe v. Wade essential legislation to preserve and protect – free from extremists wanting it weakened or abolished.
5. They oppose incumbent Governor Matt Bevin’s anti-Palestinian executive order, prohibiting state contracts to BDS supporters, the legal right of everyone to back equity and justice for their long-suffering people at the hands of a ruthless occupier.
6. They support universal healthcare for all Kentuckians (Medicare for all), a fundamental human right, along with food, shelter and clothing.
7. They’re for tax equity, wealthy Kentuckians paying their fair share – higher than currently so middle and low-income state residents can pay less.
8. They support greater clean, green, renewable energy over polluting, greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels – for “lower energy bills and a cleaner environment.”
They “want all of our children and grandchildren to inherit a healthy, clean state they can be proud of, and that goal is achievable,” they stressed.
9. They endorse “co-ops and worker-owned businesses,” polar opposite exploitive predatory capitalism dominated by corporate giants, ruling the world for their own self-interest at the expense of people rights and the general welfare.
10. They oppose wars of aggression against nations threatening no one. If elected, they’ll work with other governors to prevent state national guard forces sent abroad to fight for Wall Street, the military, industrial, security complex, Big Oil, and other corporate interests.
11. They’ll abolish capital punishment in Kentucky, a barbaric practice, the ultimate denial of human rights, banned in most countries, 20 US states, and the District of Columbia.
The practice flagrantly violates the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishments,” including against countless numbers of wrongfully convicted individuals languishing on death row, hoping for justice rarely gotten.
There’s nothing just about state-sponsored murder, Blacks and Latinos in America harmed most, denied due process and judicial fairness, things rigged against them, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s wrongful conviction best known.
Geoff is running in Kentucky’s May 21 primary, supporting peace, equity and justice, a nation fit to live in, serving all its people fairly, not just its privileged few like today.
A retired state engineer and MIT graduate, he studied further at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and University of Kentucky.
A committed anti-war activist, he and others supporting world peace earlier tried placing unindicted war criminal Dick Cheney under arrest for waging naked aggression on Iraq after raping Afghanistan.
Earlier involved in forming Kentucky’s Green Party, he’s now a progressive Democrat – the real deal, not one in name only.
If elected, he’ll serve all Kentuckians equitably and honorably – what politics should be all about, what rarely happens in America nor most everywhere else.
I’m proud to support a real progressive Democrat. They’re vitally needed throughout the US at the federal, state, and local levels. Geoff deserves to be elected as Kentucky’s next governor.
He’ll make a difference by changing establishment politics in the state, along with serving as a role model for others elsewhere to emulate what’s most needed.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
