I agree with most of what you say. I hope you will succeed. I hope you will make a difference. I'm from the deep south. There is a lot of voter discrimination. These aren't policies just of the deep south, but sometimes national policies contribute. I'm neither republican nor democrat. In the deep south, no matter which state, the republicans have a similar stance on many issues. The stance leads me to be anti republican even if the other candidate offers no better alternative. Here's what I see the problem is. The Republicans at both a national and a local level actively work to make voting difficult, work to take away peoples right to vote and lastly work to keep the public poorly educated. The last one I mentioned is tricky and comes as more of a consequence of the republican party pandering to the regious right. Science interferes with the religious rights view of creationism and evolution. In the south to be republican, you need to keep science out of schools and people in church on Sundays if you want to be reelected. Drug laws were historically used to keep demographic groups that swayed to the left from voting. The voter registration laws being enacted in many states are a deliberate attempt by republicans to make it more difficult to vote. Sadly this gives republicans a boost at the polls. I mention all this because 1 party has a specific plan to deny science, and by denying science gain votes. By default as a politician who understands scienc e, you are a democrat. Republicans won't fund you in the south unless you are clearly anti science in the past decade. I think the easiest way to effect change is too change how we vote. We need a vote of no confidence. If neither candidate is appealing, it forces the hard right to look for a more moderate candidate or the far left to pick a more moderate candidate. This voting system we have now will always force parties to pander to special interest. At the moment an anti science agenda as being demonstrated by the republicans is something I never could have conceived of 25 years ago. It will unfortuntantly have a profound effect on america in the coming decades.