Paul, what issues are you running on? I’m getting this question more and more.

Probably one of the biggest issues for me is that of political unity. I’m a pragmatist. I’m into effectiveness. I like to get stuff done.

Problem today is that things haven’t been getting done in years in Washington DC. Everybody’s fighting. Republicans hate Democrats and Democrats hate Republicans. And the mainstream media is the only one profiting.

The fact that nothing gets done means little to career politicians; even during a recession, they get their hefty salaries, benefits, summers off.

The ineffectiveness of Congress has little bearing on the job security of many of its members.

Here’s a question I ask you to consider. How can this organization we call the United States government be successful when people on opposite sides hate each other? How can a family or a company or any organization function when its members loathe fellow members?

How can there be progress when one side considers it a “win” when the other side loses?

The win-lose spirit in Washington D.C is the primary reason for Congress’s current national approval rating of 13% — voters don’t like it. And why should they?

At the core of my campaign is an overwhelming sense that the division between left and right is damaging this great nation. Further, I do not believe blaming the other side is the answer.

I don’t care if you are left of Bernie Sanders, I don’t care if you’re right of Ted Cruz — it does our nation no good to despise fellow citizens. Even if their beliefs are opposite to yours.

So I am running as a “raging centrist.” That just means that I am, ferociously if you will, stubbornly committed to bringing people from both sides together.

And I consider it a great compliment, as a lifetime Republican, to have the support of Independents and even Democrats.

I consider it a victory, in large part, because working with Democrats was one of Ronald Reagan’s greatest legacies. Staunchly conservative, and, yet, able to have the finesse to work with the political “enemy.”

The best example of this finesse was Reagan’s relationship with Tip O’Neil. O’Neil was the Speaker of the House of Representatives during most of Reagan’s two terms in office.

You couldn’t have two men who had two leaders with more opposite views. Reagan essentially saw government as essentially bad; O’Neil wanted nothing more than to expand it.

The two men basically loathed each other’s policies.

And, yet, they forged a relationship based on respect. As important, they realized that the kind of partisanship that embodies today’s polarized American politics today would result in not just the hating of your fellow citizen, but paralysis in Washington.

O’Neil’s son, Thomas, wrote about their relationship, in this article, Frenemies: A Love Story. I think anyone passionate about politics needs to read this. It brings tears to my eyes as I imagine what is possible in our divided nation.

Here’s an excerpt:

“What both men deplored more than the other’s political philosophy was stalemate, and a country that was so polarized by ideology and party politics that it could not move forward. There were tough words and important disagreements over everything from taxation to Medicare and military spending. But there was yet a stronger commitment to getting things done.”

If I have the honor of representing the voters in the 48th Congressional District, I can assure them that I’m going there to get things done, in the spirit of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil.

Because let’s face it, when we strip away all the polarizing junk we see in the media or on social media, people are people.

We are all in this together.

We can do better.

If this post resonates with you, I humbly ask you to click HERE NOW and read more about my other priorities.

Yesterday I read in the Orange County Register that “Martin favors pro-abortion rights.”

That’s not exactly true. So I just sent an email to the journalist clarifying my position and how those words don’t clearly describe what I told him on the phone.

I am pro-life. That means I want as many things to live as possible. Let’s not kill innocent lives. Let’s kill terrorists

But making abortion a federal crime? Throwing teenage girls and mostly poor women in jail? Burdening our courts and prisons and law enforcement? Having to round-up women who had to make that impossibly difficult and personal decision?

We already have more people in prison than any other country in the world. We already spend 80 billion a year on our prisons. That’s over half of the amount of money we spend each year educating our children and teens. 

(The journalist just returned my email and said he understands my predicament.)

My campaign is about common sense. Finding real solutions. Finding smart ways where everyone wins.

Roe vs. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court — and then what? Will there be one less abortion performed?

Many, including many conservatives, don’t think so.

(Journalist said he will have that sentence removed from the website but only because my position is so nuanced and my solution is not black and white. He also said don’t expect him to do this in the future.)

So what’s my Forward-Thinking Republican vision or abortion?

I want to make abortion a thing of the past. Something that doesn’t happen in the 21st century.

How?

The current technology for long-term, reversible, hormonal therapies like patches makes to so that any woman that doesn’t want to have an unwanted pregnancy won’t get pregnant.

If we use education and technology, as opposed to incarceration, then we simply don’t have abortions in the future.

Locking women up in prison won’t work.

I write of a non-partisan solution. Where both “sides” win.

We empower women and abortions become a thing of the past.

I want to spend tax dollars investing in jobs and education, not prisons and incarceration.

Public humiliation. It’s something everyone fears. It’s one thing to ask your boss to consider you for a promotion, it’s another to stand in front of friends and family and, for the first time ever, sing the songs you’ve written.

Or, oh yeah, and to publicly announce that you are going to run for the United States House of Representatives, against at 15-term career politician, and at least one billionaire, and a couple of millionaires.

Yesterday I went official on social media. I posted on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, then I got a Twitter notification that an article was written about me in The Los Angeles Times.

My campaign page started getting endorsements and pledges and the whole vision became a reality in a blur (you can learn more about me, my vision, and even support me by clicking HERE.)

Let me backup.

We sent out press releases on Friday. The goal was to have some publicity during the week of the launch. So on Monday, I got a call from the Times. I had a 15-minute conversation with a political reporter, Christine, on the phone.

It dawned on me during the interview that — officially today — every word matters. So I became mentally strained, cautious, not myself. Not the blogger who just starts writing what he thinks.

In the course of a few minutes, I had become a politician. Weighing each word.

In this campaign, I will never ever act like a politician. I will always speak my mind and heart.

So, I start opening-up to Christine — just sharing my life.

She asks about my family background.

My words: “My father is Mexican”

My thoughts: Paul, will that be used against you given all the debate about immigration?

Later, she asks what kind of work I had done recently.

Take a deep breath.

My words: “I started a campaign called the Christian-Muslim Alliance to help educate people about the difference between Islam, and fringe groups like ISIS”

My thoughts: Millions of Republicans might use this against you as being soft on terrorism.

I go on.

My words: “I also write a blog called Paulosophia. It’s been a place for me to process my thoughts on issues that really matter to people.”

My thoughts: You are an idiot, Paul. Why did you say that? You know your blog is unfiltered and raw and not the kind of thing a politician would ever write.

I announce my campaign on  Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, then I click the link to the Times article.

I read about my campaign in The Los Angeles Times.

It was weird.

The article was fair.

I learned that Christine did go to Paulosophia. And she read something I wrote after the massacre in Las Vegas. In that post, I wrote my main opponent, Dana Rohrabacher, who takes money from the NRA — how he voted to have firearm waiting periods reduced from three days to one day.

The article says Paul “describes himself as a ‘raging centrist’ on a personal blog, where he’s criticized Trump’s response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va., and Rohrabacher for taking money from the National Rifle Assn.”

I then start to doubt myself again. I’m on stage now. I’m performing not just in front of family and friends, but in front of future political opponents who will come after me as soon as I become a threat.

I now doubt the “political wisdom” of telling her about my blog.

But then I think how Rohrabacher voted to ban gun registration and trigger locks. How is THAT representative of the people?

It might be “political suicide” to me to campaign and work for common sense gun laws, or for better pay for our amazing teachers, or to do all we can to make our earth cleaner. And the NRA is the largest special interest group in the country. They spent $30 million to get Trump/Rohrabacher elected. Bet they’re going to come after me.

But then I think about how many more children have to die. How many club goers or concert goers or public employees?

How stressed out do mothers need to be — Republican and Democrats and Independents and Libertarians and whatevers — about the safety of their children while at school?

Yesterday money came in. We are now 4% of the way to our current goal of $20,000. We have 20 endorsements.

And the Orange County Register called for a phone interview. Got on the phone with them at 2:00 p.m.

This time I was truly myself. No second guessing.

If I win, it will be because I chose to not take a dime from billionaires or special interest groups.

It will be because I was the same honest truth teller that I’ve been for two years on my blog.

It will be because I don’t have to think like a Republican or a Democrat, I get to think on behalf of the vast majority of Americans who are working way too hard for way too little, and who, many of them, are sick and tired of career politicians not representing them.

I came home on day one in the life of a candidate for United States Congress.

Watched the end of the Dodger game.

Later, I lay in bed. Read a few of the endorsements. Felt humbled.

Felt grateful to live in a country where anyone can run for office, and where free speech is protected.

Now day two. Going to walk the streets. Talk to voters.

I know we can do better.