Dear John,

From the beginning of my campaign I have made a case for public policy being built around the question: what would help people thrive? Government’s resources should be used in a way that helps everyone tap into their natural creativity and productivity. Why? Because that is how to achieve peace, and that is the way to achieve prosperity.

What would our economic policies be if our goal was to help people thrive? 
Would they not promote universal access to opportunity? 

What would our education policies be if our goal was to help people thrive?
Wouldn’t every school in America be a palace of learning, and culture and the arts?

What would our healthcare system be if our goal was to help people thrive? 
Would we not every person in America have free healthcare?

What would our national security agenda be if our goal was to help people thrive?
Would we not recognize the amelioration of unnecessary human suffering as a national security risk?

What would our environmental policies look like if our goal was to help people thrive?
Wouldn’t the reversal of climate change, clean water and air, and uncontaminated food and earth by our top priorities?

 
Many would say that achieving such things will take time. But I wonder how much time they think we have before the chaos already created by a dysfunctional political system overwhelms us. 

Building public policy around the notion of helping people thrive should not sound odd; it simply sounds that way in contrast to the way we do things now. In fact, it is the most American thing in the world to dream big. 

This is not a time in our history to simply make things "okay." This is the time in our history to make things extraordinary. It says a lot about how far we have fallen, when striving for greatness sounds like such an outrageous idea. 

Let us strive for greatness, and strive together. This is the place. This is the time. And we are the people.

All my best,
Marianne