An Interview with Presidential Candidate Joe Sestak

Disclaimer: The Exonian does not endorse any presidential candidate or political views.  How did you get into politics? What made you decide to run for President?I got into politics because after I came back from war, my daughter, at four years old, had brain cancer. Initially, we couldn't get her care at the military hospital. But because of the healthcare plan we have in the military, I could take her elsewhere. The healthcare plan that the nation provided for my family saved her. I'm a retired Navy Admiral running on national security that begins at home: health and security. I'm running to get healthcare for all citizens who pay. They should have what I had. I did it as a payback to the country and that's what drove me. I'm running for president for a slightly different reason. My daughter's brain cancer came back last year and I was out of politics; I had no intention of getting back in. I liked it, but she had single-digit odds of winning again because only 8% of children have survived glioblastoma. This time she beat it again at 18. This time as I sat with her, I began to think through what I had seen in politics and the great divide in our nation. You could take the war in Iraq where people voted for that Democrats or Republicans and had no understanding how it went in before they decided it should begin, which is inexcusable. I'm running today to try to bring accountable leadership to this nation where people will trust someone again as president because they know they'll be for people, above party, above self, above any special interests. I'm running to beat Mr. Trump. I'm running to unite this country. What made you want to decide to run so late in the race? I thought about both parties that lost the trust of Americans because they weren't accountable for the carnage that came from their vote on that tragic misadventure in Iraq. They didn't understand the difference between a Shia and a Sunni. And yet we unleashed them against each other in Iraq and the former general Sama saying help create ISIS. And then it metastasized throughout the Middle East and beyond in Turkey's invasion the other day. It was just another step in a set of dominoes that they had no idea of, nor have they been held accountable for. And when people see someone who's a big deal, so beyond accountability, you lose trust in them. I believe that it's this unaccountable leaderships as far as for lack of trust. I want to heal that. If we don't heal our soul and bring Americans together, remember that we have more common differences, we're not gonna make it. We are facing so many challenges on people's healthcare, education, whether it's China, whether it's climate change, and we lack people who have global experience. Those are the reasons I decided to get in because there was an absence of a demonstrated not just word, but having demonstrated the deed that you're for people, above party, above self. One in 50 congressmen, senators take a lobbying job in the last 20 years. Their incomes have risen by 450% I know I saw the same offers when I got out. I didn't take them but I saw them. They were also the ones who voted for that war and the ones who tore down wall street's safeguards or dismantled them, dismantled wall street and yet now their incomes increase 450%. Not one has ever held themselves accountable for their vote. That's why we get a lack of trust in America. Trump is not the problem. He's the symptom of a problem What made you want to walk across New Hampshire? We used to read a book to my daughter when she was young,To Kill a Mockingbird. In it, Scout says how Atticus told her and Jen that you can't know a man unless they stand in your shoes and walk around them. So I walked 422 miles across Pennsylvania when I did the race. So I decided to do the same here. We just don't just walk. We stop and do four to six events, whatever it is, during the time. I visited a prison down the road. When I was a Congressman, even after, I visit a prison because many that came home from Vietnam or other conflicts have PTSD. And in Vietnam we didn't even know what PTSD was, but there they ended up in prison, not through their own fault. They'd been traumatized by the war and we didn't even know how to take care of it. So I stopped by the prison here to visit vets and then to go to the maximum security portion of the prison to sit and talk to the inmates, both men and women. And then we went to a mental health facility. It takes 5,000 people because mental health is a large challenge we have today. Then I went to a high school and talked to the youth there. You know, I like youth because they're not burdened with experience, you look at things differently and listen to what things are. Went to a small business, two women-owned small businesses because women are the fastest growing entrepreneurs we have. They're still a very small portion of those. Small businesses create 70% of all jobs. So that's what this walk is, why I did it, and what it's about.  What impact do you want to leave by walking?That I care about people. That they're the number one priority. It's not holding onto my job. When I ran for Senate, I could have simultaneously, in the primary, run for my congressional seat to keep it. I just got elected by 20 points and didn't spend a penny on a campaign, but I decided not to, to show that isn't about my job. It's about taking care of you, if you let me. So that's why.  How did your work in the military affect your campaign? The first thing is integrity, values in the military, service to country, to others above self. With accountability in answering for oneself and second, and I learn how to do that. It is about the sailors. You make sure they're ready, prepared, taking care of them. They'll take care of the ships and its mission. And third, it does mean that like in the military you need to command philosophy. What's your vision? Where are you going to take us? Like you need a political philosophy but you also have to organize images, do tactics, experts to logistics. You need to bring it together to make and execute. And that's what you also need here. You need to be able to execute your vision. People to make those policies get through. That's why I stress and unless we have a leader that can unite this country, we will never be able to get it through. And last in fourth, this issue of accountability. In the Navy, a leader, feels themselves above accountability. Even if the ship comes to har, goes to ground, the ship comes to harm or the ship goes ground. If that captain isn't held accountable or relieve for cause then the crew believes that that person feels they're above accountability. So those are the principles kind of translated into not up to two different situation, either. The trust of the crew, or the people, so we can sail into the future in a way that solve our challenges.