Compared to the
other Democratic presidential candidates, John Estrada
(D-NV) is probably the most conservative. Instead of
the usual far left issues, his are more
family-oriented. His campaign website (http://www.johnestrada.org)
lists such goals as "eliminate gun control laws" and
"against abortion." Of course, there other things that
many would agree on, regardless of their political
views, like "stop illegal immigration" and "support
troops during peace and war always."
Still, why is Estrada running for president? "I care
and love America; I believe in America. It is the
greatest country in the world. When I served in the
United States Navy, I traveled all over the world, and
I got to meet people. I know that we have to protect
America for our future generations," he says. "I would
be honored to be the next president of the United
States."
Q: What do you feel is the
most important issue in this campaign?
A: The number one issue is that Americans deserve to
be safe everywhere at home and abroad and by far the
defense of our country is the greatest and most
important part of the president's job.
Q: You are the chairman of
Americans for Credibility in Congress. What is your
role in the organization? What issues do you usually
work with?
A: My role was national chairman for Americans for
Credibility in Congress. We started the organization
back two years ago to defeat Gary Condit. He was a
member of Congress that sort of went a different way,
and we just didn't believe his philosophies or that he
deserved to be in office anymore, so we campaigned to
defeat him. I really allowed the people in the
district to decide who they wanted to support,
Democrat or Republican, Independent, whoever. Our main
focus was just making sure he was defeated. If he
would have won the primary, we would have gone on and
tried to defeat him in the general election.
Q: Having served in the Navy,
what is your view of war with Iraq? Do you believe
President Bush is taking the right steps in ending
Saddam Hussein's regime?
A: I believe that President Bush waited too long to
deal with Saddam Hussein. I think the politics, his
tactic, and the strategy were too much dependent on
the United Nations. I think that he should've gone
outside and built better coalitions with Arab nations.
Saddam Hussein actually should have been defeated a
long time ago.
Back in 1987, under Ronald Reagan's time, his aircraft
basically killed 37 of our American seamen aboard the
U.S.S. Starter. Since '87, he has been doing some
pretty bad stuff. In '88, he went out there and killed
5,000 Kurds.
Since then, all the administrations, George Bush, Bill
Clinton, and now George W. Bush, just procrastinated
until it became such a terrible situation. I don't
want to put all the blame on George Bush, I really
believe that it was a fault of practically every
political organization in the world. They just allowed
this person to become a ruthless murderer, and
finally, President Bush decided to deal with it.
Q: How do you view your
political philosophy? How does it compare to other
Democratic candidates?
A: I, first of all, believe that my other opponents
for the Democratic nomination are too extreme to win
the general election. I believe in traditional family
values; I believe in gun owner rights; I believe
marriage should be between a man and a woman; and I
think that we need to protect our youth from
corruption. I just don't think that any of my
opponents would be capable of winning the general
election.
Q: Why should people vote for
you in the upcoming election?
A: Not only do I think that not only I could defeat
George W. Bush with my platform and issues, I believe
that Americans need to look at our youth and the
future of our youth in determining their selection.
Too many of these career politicians end up not really
dealing with today's problems because they want to put
it off until tomorrow, and the problems become bigger
and bigger and bigger. I'm not going to worry about
getting reelected, I just want to solve America's
problems day by day - I think that's basically my
commitment to America.
Q: Most of the other candidates have been politicians
for awhile. Why do you think it is better to elect
someone who has just started in politics, such as
yourself, compared to someone who has chosen that as a
lifelong career? What are the advantages?
A: I believe that I have been involved in politics for
a considerable amount of time. I've been dealing with
politicians for about twenty-something years, and I've
worked all the way from campaign manager to different
campaigns to precinct to worker to making phone calls
to actually a candidate. I ran two congressional
campaigns back in the 90's. I've got political
experience, especially on federal issues.
I think that when you have people in Congress a long,
long time, what that tends to do is make them be too
comfortable, and I really don't think they understand
the needs of our communities anymore, they have sort
of gotten lost. They get out of touch, and they fail
to do anything that really solves the problems of
America. The other thing too is that members of
Congress, when they're running for president, miss a
lot of votes. I believe whether you're a U.S. senator
or a member of the House, they're out campaigning for
president at the same time they should be voting.
They're being paid a salary to vote for the issues at
large. What they should do is resign from Congress and
run for president full time, like me.
John
Estrada
Politics
Today:
John
Estrada for President of the U.S. (D)