Campaign message: 1

Please begin by viewing this video.

If I were to run for the Senate seat 

currently held by Olympia Snowe, 

I could only have a different message from any other candidate

 if my campaign is 
not founded on asking for your money. 

Instead, I would ask for your vote,

 and, more importantly, I would ask 

for your help in disseminating my message. 

Since we are the people of a very strong nation

 at a time of great transition, I would acknowledge

 our responsibility not only to ourselves and our grandchildren

 but to all the people of the world.

My message is about “best interest”. 

It is a term I inherited while doing child welfare work.  

It is a term I struggled with for 40 years

 and finally came to accept that

 the best interest of a child cannot exist in isolation.

 It exists in concert with the best interest

 of her/his family and community.

So, in order to serve the best interest 

of the State of Maine and the United States,

 I need to be clear about the larger context of best interest. 

In its broadest sense, there is the best interest

 of all living things. 

This we have to work on

 with all other nations of the world.

 Here at home, we essentially have two groups 

to satisfy the best interest of, 

the very rich and the not so rich. 

For both, best interest is the same regardless of where we look. 

It differs mostly in terms of power, 

and that is why I cannot ask for your money 

because, in doing so, I would compromise the office of senator, giving power disproportionately to the very rich.

First and foremost, we need good jobs 

with benefits for all our people. 

We need the help of the very rich in creating these jobs 

since they control the capital; 

but more importantly we need the creativity 

of those now working in their basement or garage 

on ideas most of us will never even think of 

until they turn up in the market place. 

The very rich should enjoy a tax exemption 

in those years when they create new jobs. 

Such exemptions should be based on a percentage increase 

over and above jobs they already support. 

This recognizes the mutual benefit of jobs 

for both labor and management. 

Other tax exemptions should be reexamined 

for their usefulness at supporting employment

 and well being.

Our economy is a complex construction of both 

the public and private sectors.

 I will develop an illustration of how these two sectors work

 in tandem to enable our prosperity.
(Segment one of a three part video on jobs
 can be seen here.)

 The notion that government is too big, which it is, is simplistic 

and the notion that corporations are bad, which they are, 

is simplistic as well. 

We have to reexamine both and support the components of each 

which contribute most to our well being. 

Therefore we have to understand them better. 

In the mean time, we must continue to lean on small businesses

 for our strength and help them survive both 

the pressures of government

 and those of big business.

                                                                         mrosenzweig 2011