Q4:
Position Sought?
A4:
U.S. Representative (10th District).
Q5:
State?
A5:
Illinois.
Q6: Are
you running as a Green? If not, why not?
A6:
No, I'm running as a write-in candidate, and trying to form a
Mutualist Party in Illinois. The Green Party declined to nominate me
by one vote.
Q7: Have
you sought and have you been endorsed by your local party and your
state party? If not, why not?
A7: I tried to get
nominated by the Green Party but approval failed by one vote. I tried
to get nominated by the Libertarian Party before that, and David Rych
was nominated instead. I was the only person whom the state
Libertarian Party ran somebody against, although I was told that it
was in error and I would have been nominated if I had contacted the
right person in time. But the way I lost the nomination at the state
convention makes me doubt that; electronic voting failed, and then in
the paper ballot round I was handed a ballot filled out with the name
of my opponent instead of a blank ballot. Ideologically I am right
between the Libertarian and Green parties, so I probably failed both
parties' tests because I am not strongly aligned enough with one
party or the other. But I believe that candidates in the middle will
get more votes, while still promoting a large number of Green Party
interests, because I believe that the radical middle is closer to
where the average undecided and independent voter is. I want radical,
swift change, but I also want lasting, constitutional reform, so I
tend to mention the Constitution and the need for balanced budgets
more than the average Green seems to appreciate. But the need to
protect the environment, anti-war issues, and small parties' need for
election reform, are progressive values that will always be important
to me.
Q8: What
other groups have endorsed your campaign?
A8:
None so far, although I am in contact with Black Lives Matter,
Stepping Stones (a sexual abuse recovery organization), and the local
Green and Libertarian party chapters, concerning legislative matters
related to issues they care about. My campaign manager and I are
working on reaching out to more groups, including on social
media.
Q9: How
does your campaign help build the Green Party?
A9:
Growing the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the number of
independents in elected office are major goals of mine. I like to
remind Libertarians that the party's co-founder David Nolan was a
"Geo-Libertarian". This means that in terms of economics
and tax policy, Nolan believed that Land Value Taxation is the most
efficient, and least harmful, form of taxation. Milton Friedman
praised L.V.T. as well. This means that Greens and Libertarians are
much more compatible on environmental and tax issues than they think
they are. I will promote things Greens and Libertarians agree on:
decentralization, anti-war issues, civil liberties and police
brutality reforms, and re-orienting tax policies across the nation in
a manner which focuses on preserving the environment and the quality
of land. I will advocate replacing all or most current forms of
taxation - except for mineral resource exploration fees - with a tax
on the unimproved value of land, and on the disuse and abuse of land
in a way which makes it unusable by other potential human owners and
by native species.
Q10: How
does your campaign help empower youth?
A10:
One of my top three issues is protecting children, together with
reforming education. My proposed constitutional amendment, SKA (the
Safe Kids Amendment), would reform education and child trafficking
laws in a manner which protects children from kidnapping while also
providing them with the skills and education they need to have middle
class careers. I support bringing wood and auto shops, and other
trade skills courses, back to high schools, but only for
upperclassmen, and only with waiver systems, and on campuses separate
from freshmen and sophomores. Additionally, as part of SKA, all
states should be prohibited from allowing people under 17 to get
married. I will also push for a full congressional investigation into
the crimes of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
Q11:
How
do you foresee your campaign advancing liberation for frontline
communities?
[Author's Note: “Frontline communities” refers to
communities on the front line of potential ocean level rise due to
sea ice melting which results from less and less ice melting each
year due to harsher summers between those melting seasons.]
A11:
Tax policy should be re-oriented so as to focus on using punitive
taxation to disincentivize the degradation of land, water, and air.
Sourcing all of government's taxes from the misuse and abuse of land,
will help prevent environmental degradation, while improving our
economy. It will help production occur with the minimum amount of
pollution necessary, and for each community to set up Community Land
Trusts would help ensure that no pollution and mineral extraction
occur without fully compensating the community (through paying taxes
and compensating the community's health costs). Refocusing a huge
portion of our political economy on environmental issues and land
use, will help ensure that the land is responsibly developed, without
either sacrificing the environment, or sacrificing too many jobs too
quickly. I additionally support a tax on land hoarding, and I support
ending all subsidies to all forms of energy, to end the rigging of
the energy markets.
Q12: How
do your foresee you campaign advancing anticapitalism
and ecosocialism?
A12: If the question is "How do you foresee your
campaign advancing ecosocialism?", then my answer is that I hope
to promote Georgist (land-oriented), Mutualist, and socialist values
and policy proposals, by discouraging the collection of rent,
interest, and profit, but without prohibiting them. I will make it
clear that these things are symptoms of the problems of monopoly;
government grants the monopoly right to collect rent, interest,
and/or profit to a given bank or business or certified lender. This
rigs the economy; therefore rent, interest, and profit should
decrease. They will only go away completely, when monopolies are
broken up and defunded. I support removing all taxpayer supports of
monopolies and oligopolies, to give socialists (and people wishing to
build voluntary communes) the opportunity to participate in the
economy with everybody else.
Q13: How
many doors do you think your campaign can knock on? How many calls
can it make?
A13: My campaign currently has only a small number of
volunteers, but we are in the process of finding more volunteers. We
will be spreading awareness about mail-in voting, as well as the push
to make mail-in voting more difficult.
Q14: What
kind of events and community involvement will your campaign have?
A14: My campaign will attempt to hold meet-and-greets,
including candidate question-and-answer sessions, at local libraries,
and possibly private events. We have held one meet-and-greet so far;
in March in Lake Bluff.
Q15: How
much money does your campaign anticipate fundraising? And how?
A15: We are not actively fundraising. My campaign manager has
donated some gifts to the campaign, in the form of paying for
campaign literature and signs and advertisements to be printed. But I
want to set a good example for other congressional campaigns, by not
accepting corporate contributions, and having my campaign be funded
(thus far) by myself and my campaign manager. I hope that other
candidates follow my example, and I hope that this helps get money
out of politics.
Q16: What
other groups will you seek support from?
A16: I will seek support from any and all parties, clubs,
interest groups, and organizations that support civil liberties,
peace, environmental justice, racial justice, equal protection of
minorities, individual rights, increased ballot access for third
parties and independents, decentralization of powers not specifically
delegated to the federal government, and serious fiscal
reform.
Q17: What
parts of the district do you think you are strongest in and why?
A17: I'm not sure. Due to my message of promoting economic
reforms that would make the markets more free and more fair, I
suspect that I will do the best in areas with large numbers of young
people, low-income voters, and people who do not identify strongly
with either the Democratic Party or Republican Party. I also believe
that making environmental issues a top priority will help appeal to
people across my district, because many people in Lake County live
near places where industrial pollution has recently taken
place.
Q18: What
forms of support would you ideally like from the Youth Caucus?
A18: I would like your endorsement, but what really matters
to me are the individual write-in votes on Election Day (as well as
your members' trust in me as an independent citizen-legislator). And
if your members and supporters could share links about my campaign, I
would appreciate it.
Q19: What
is your current online and social media presence?
A19: I am active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,
TikTok, and other sites.
Q20: Website?
A20:
www.joekopsick.com (under
construction).
Q21: Facebook?
A21:
-
Personal: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012735515034
- Campaign Group:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/586988188625917/
-
Mutualist Party of IL page:
http://www.facebook.com/MutualistPartyIL/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Q22: Twitter?
A22:
http://twitter.com/JoeKopsick
Q23:
Other?
A23:
- My blog: www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/
-
My platform:
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2019/08/expanded-platform-for-us-house-of.html
- YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/JoeKopsick4Congress
Q24:
What
is your media plan for your campaign?
A24: I believe that it will not be necessary to attempt to
garner media coverage during the second half of August, because I
suspect that the fact that I have made it into the League of Women
Voters' debates throughout the month of September, will gain me some
media coverage, without any effort on my own behalf. But I am
interested in reaching out to independent media, freelance
journalists, and reporters who are used to covering independent and
third party runs.
Responses Written and Published on August 17th, 2020
