Episode 92- Rich and Tamika Hamilton
Welcome to Richard Helppie’s Common Bridge. The fiercely nonpartisan discussion that seeks policy solutions to issues of the day. Rich is a successful entrepreneur in the technology health and finance space. He and his wife, Leslie, are also philanthropists with interest in civic and artistic endeavors with a primary focus on medically and educationally under-served children.
Rich Helppie:
Welcome to the Common Bridge, the podcast and YouTube TV channel that is fiercely nonpartisan, where we discuss the issues of the day, the opportunities of the moment, and hopefully some potential policy solutions. We have a great guest with us today. For those of you that have listened to Episode 77 of the Common Bridge, we had a discussion with the voice of California’s central coast, Nativo Gonzalez. We took a look at the status of the American dream, where we are today and what the future may hold. And we’ve got a lot of real positive comments on the episode with Mr. Gonzales. And today we bring another voice with her perspectives on the United States of America today and what the future might bring. So we welcome to the Common Bridge Tamika Hamilton. Ms. Hamilton is an air force veteran and also a recent candidate for the United States House of Representatives. We’re delighted to share her voice with the listeners and viewers of the Common Bridge. Welcome to the Common Bridge.
Tamika Hamilton:
Thank you for having me, Rich, I really appreciate this opportunity.
Rich Helppie:
Our audience likes to know a little bit about people that are coming on as guests. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you start out, like where’d you grow up?
Tamika Hamilton:
I am originally from Maryland, born and raised. I was really privileged to have both sets of grandparents who really just took me under their wing. My grandmother brought me home from the hospital, I was born to a teenage mom. Everything up till, I think from school, was in Maryland. And then I enlisted into the United States Air Force straight out of high school. I’m not sure, I was still in high school and my grandfathers were like, what are you going to do? Are you going to go to the army? Because they were army. And I said I don’t know, maybe. They were like, no, no, no-you’re going to the air force. It’s like, well, you’re already telling me what to do. So I made my way to the air force. I’ve actually served 14 years active duty. And then the past three and a half years, I have been in a reserve status. That’s how we came to California. My husband’s law enforcement. He was a Navy vet. And then he transitioned to be a police officer. He was a police officer [inaudible] stationed in Maryland. And then he came here to California. And we’ve made California home for almost a decade. And we love it here very, very much. And we have four children and I’m actually pregnant with the fifth right now.
Rich Helppie:
Congratulations!
Tamika Hamilton:
Thank you. We’re due in June. And I know people were like, how do you do it? I’m like, my grandmother had 15 kids. It’s one of those things where we just do it, right? I credit my grandparents on giving me such an amazing life and showing me what it was to be strong. And in times where they-they went through some hard times-and they just showed me how to be strong. And so when it came to starting to run for this campaign, it was just, let’s go, because people told me all that was going to happen, that people wouldn’t vote for a black woman here in Northern California. And like we were discussing off camera a moment ago, is that it was all a lie because we received 45.3% of the vote and won five counties and were literally five point shy of taking the whole race. But this race came down to money and reach and we just didn’t have enough to finish the job. But when we move into 2022 and now that this race is targeted, I do believe that we’ll be able to do that and be in the House of Representatives.
Rich Helppie:
You’ve got a lot of issues that you’re dealing with in California and throughout the country. And when people think about California, they think about the beaches, the mountains, the big cities, probably Silicon Valley and Hollywood. And you’re in a place called Dixon, California. And that’s where you were seeking the US congressional seat for California’s 3rd District. Where is that district and how would you describe it for our audience?
Tamika Hamilton:
So it is considered the East Bay portion of it because we have a southern part that’s closer to Berkeley and Oakland area. And then we have the northern part that’s kind of resting right under Redding. I call it a little America because it’s like a melting pot of the north and the south. You’re going to get a little bit of city and you’re going to get your farm land and heavy ag[riculture]. This district is a purple district, meaning that the ideologies-if we’re talking political parties-are very close together because it’s only a 5% gap. It’s two Republicans and Democrats registration. So you have a lot of people that come from a diverse background of either military, because there’s two military bases here, or ag[riculture]. And then we also have the largest Seik population in America. I love the community so much and it has been such a blessing to me. And so you have these groups of people that really represent the nation and how come no one knows about this district? And so I always try to push that hard, that this is literally what America is, and it’s District 3.
Rich Helppie:
California has been called a one party state. You ran on the Republican ticket and I’m sure that was an uphill battle, as you know, I don’t have a remedy for that. I know people have suggested that perhaps we just make California five states. There are people that will run on a single issue or perhaps a few, yet you seem to have broader, more foundational concerns. So what caused you to run for Congress and what was your message to your electorates?
Tamika Hamilton:
So I’m just a regular mom. I’m not, I don’t come from any political background. This is my first time running. I was going to city council meetings, town halls. And then because here in California, and it’s a one party rural state, that’s not like a joke or a narrative it really is, from a perspective of who forms legislation, who has the power and you don’t even need a Republican to make a law pass here in California. I think a lot of people don’t understand that-that’s what it is, it’s not a narrative. It’s not like some like gotcha. It’s literally, you don’t need a Republican to pass a law here in the state of California. So everything that you see coming down the pipeline is Democrat legislation.
When I started this, I didn’t know how to start. I just was like, okay, God, I prayed, help me to figure out a way to do this. So I started meeting with Republican group in the district and started getting my feet wet that way. But the thing that caused me is thinking, I won’t be able to live in California if things continue this way. And the people were like, why not go federal? There is no one at the federal level that is speaking out against what’s happening here in California, to sound the alarm. Gavin Newsom has all but decimated small businesses in the state and is driving people to the point to where we’re losing two congressional seats. And no one’s talking about it. Up until recently he’s been a media darling and we have to have people that are going to be brave enough to speak out about what’s happening. Party aside, you don’t lose two congressional seats if you don’t have a problem with the leadership.
Rich Helppie:
Well, that is one of the issues that I am personally battling against. I don’t think we’re a Democratic party country or a Republican party country. I detest the labels of red, blue, purple. I’m a sports fan and that’s like sports teams. And I think we can cheer those sports teams, but when we think about the American dream, it’s not red, it’s not blue, it’s not purple, it’s not Democratic, it’s not Republican. So this phenomenon, that the American dream somehow fits into one of those classes, is just unusual to me. And today does that American dream have a fair chance for a better life? And I asked Nativo Gonzales, of the central coast California, Santa Cruz, is the American dream still alive? So is it? And why?
Tamika Hamilton:
I would say yes, it’s going to take a lot of work. I think that what we were able to do here in District 3 with my race is an example of exactly what we hear about from other generations is that they worked hard. They put in the hours, they slaved, in a sense, doing so much work and getting very little, then boom, it just happens. And that’s what we did here. I didn’t give up. People told me-I can’t express to you how people told me it could not done. No farmer was going to support me because this is about 80% ag. I wasn’t going to make it because I was a woman or because I was black, it was just like all these things, and these are people that you look to for mentorship and guidance. Then I was just like, you know what, God, I’m not going to listen to that. I’m going to keep going. I’m going to keep pressing. And we did so much with very little and we’re able to starve him off in single digits. This is a man that’s been in office for literally since the sixties. So how was a young woman like myself able to do that? I didn’t think that…
Rich Helppie:
I think that speaks to the manner in which things have changed. And one of the things we talked about on the Common Bridge was that the reporting industry is largely gone. I had Joe Ferullo on, I asked Joe would a responsible parent teach their children to believe the news? Tamika, you’re a parent. What do you tell your kids about the news when they watch it? Because they could look at one channel and get one perspective, look at another channel covering the same story, it’s something completely different. How do you talk about this to your children? What can we do about that nationally? In my humble view, that’s a national issue of what do we expect in our news reporting? How are the people doing in fulfilling that role and nurturing this awesome responsibility they have?
Tamika Hamilton:
So for me, I have a heavy filter for what my children consume. My children are home-schooled and I filter everything. They don’t watch the news. They don’t know what’s going on unless I tell them. The first time I actually had to talk to them about what’s happening in the world, obviously with me running because I wasn’t home and what mommy is doing and how we’re going to do it. And then with the closing of schools, because they couldn’t see their friends or when the churches had to close down here in California, that’s when I had to explain that to them. But we were able to do that. I just don’t think it’s healthy for young children to consume the news. My oldest child is 17 and he’s into everything but the news. And so I didn’t have to worry about that, and then he trusts us too-I just don’t have those kinds of issues to where it’s like, I got to worry about it because we’ve already had so many things there’s little explaining we have to do.
Rich Helppie:
Some of the things that have been in the news, it’s almost unavoidable. You have California and now Texas. The two most populous states in the country and they’ve both experienced energy shortfalls. I mean, this is supposed to be a developed country, where reliable power seems to be part of that fabric. Now you’ve got California, which is a big government state, highly regulated and Texas, the antithesis-lean government lightly regulated, yet we have the same kind of disasters. What does this say about government effectiveness in general?
Tamika Hamilton:
What I will say is that no government is fool proof from natural disasters. Obviously I’m not governing in Texas and I don’t have a spot anywhere in the California government. But what I will say is that when it comes down to the energy crisis, what are the things that were put in place that are supposed to warn us that we’re not taking advantage of? Like in California, for instance, we know about the wildfires, what safeguards are going to put in place to make sure that we don’t have a disaster that affects the whole community like it did in Chico. What are we doing to prevent the things that we’re warned about? And obviously government’s not perfect. And so I would always go back to the fact that are we getting the government we deserve and are we holding our government officials accountable when those shortfalls happen? And then to your point about this red, this blue, it’s purple, if we were just holding people to the same standards and not dividing it for political parties, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now-in a narrative mess-anyway, because I think that the people would consciously be able to make decisions based on the facts in front of them versus, oh, they were Republican, that’s why this happened. Or they’re a Democrat and that’s why this happened.
Rich Helppie:
That is very, very well said. If we can’t keep the lights and heat on, I don’t know what we’re going to do about rebuilding infrastructure. We’ve just had Dr. Richard Alley, who’s a climatologist, on and we did talk about the wildfires in California. And we had Dr. Rick Geddes talking about infrastructure, and I think you just summed it up. It’s not working. And I heard what you said. It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat, you’re not getting the job done. And look at the job of government is to educate our youth and those that arrive in the country, just the fundamental structure like civics. And we’re having a debate about 1619 versus 1776. People that don’t even know how the electoral college is supposed to work. And my question is this, who benefits from a misinformed or uninformed electorate?
Tamika Hamilton:
We all know that-what people would deem the establishment, would benefit from people not being informed. That’s always going to be the crux of it. It’s people that literally have the power, want to keep the power, regardless of what party.
Rich Helppie:
So your children are in home-schooling, but some are going to a faith-based or a public school?
Tamika Hamilton:
They are in home-school right now. So that’s, it’s been a blessing to us. I know that’s not an option for everyone, but it’s been a blessing to us. And I don’t see them going back to the regular school. And we were making our own sacrifices because, military and cops will make that much money, but they were going to faith-based school before COVID hit. And so I just made a decision to pull them out because I didn’t want to deal with the masks, and again, however parents want to raise their children, that’s their decision. I’m not judging, but for me and my house, I had to think about what I want to subject my kids to. And this past year has just been so many ups and downs. I didn’t think it was for me, if I could do it and make the sacrifice, and we were going to do it. And home-school has been a great success for us.
Rich Helppie:
Traditionally, one of the occupations with the highest percentage of children in private schools, are public school teachers. And I would venture that if we went to elected officials, we might find a similar pattern. I know Governor Gavin Newsom’s kids are in a private school. Yet their responsibility is to educate everyone, largely through the public school system. And I just worry about whether we’re raising strivers, people that are looking to be employed at some point, but did you ever think you’d see a day where we’re actually having a debate about whether we should get our kids in school or not?
Tamika Hamilton:
I don’t think anybody ever thought it would be this way. I mean, it’s been a year. I have a really good friend, his name is George Ventura and he has been doing interviews. He has been doing interviews with these parents and students who literally are dealing with alarming suicide rates in their communities. It’s stunning how it’s not even-it should be a national crisis and it’s not. I don’t understand how we’ve gotten this far for. What is it? We’re coming up, our COVID anniversary was March, this month and I’m thinking, what message are we sending to children if they don’t start school this year, in California anyway. And what message are we sending? And then what are parents supposed to do if the fall comes and they’re doing the same thing?
Rich Helppie:
Especially at a disadvantage, lower incomes. Some of the more affluent areas, even if the children are in public schools, they have the resources to shift to school online. They have a place to work at home. They have a supportive family structure, but the gap in education achievement is just going to get worse, it seems.
Tamika Hamilton:
And just to piggyback off of that, if you don’t mind, it’s black children in California, they already were suffering under the California education system. And it’s not just because it’s black children, but it’s like if these children are suffering, what is happening to them while school was already in session-they were already suffering. The literacy rate is, it’s not where it should be. So what’s happening while they’re supposed to be at home doing Zoom? And what about children with disabilities? I have a good friend who is her child has Down Syndrome. It’s a struggle. And you don’t hear about those things. You just don’t hear about those things. And I think that it’s it’s a travesty, the learning loss and then we talk about suicides. It’s not something that we’re going to easily be able to bounce back from. And I think that people in California, parents in California, are at the end of their rope, so I hope to see some changes before before it’s too late.
Rich Helppie:
We had talked, early on in the pandemic, April of last year, with Judge Milton Mack about a rising mental health crisis. We were already beginning to experience this some 11 months ago. And we talked about the impacts on the courts and the jails. We had Sheriff Jerry Clayton on, and we had a front line police officer, Bruce Helppie, and former US attorneys and legal analysts. They didn’t have a husband in law enforcement. Are you dealing with children now? Not in the disciplines of school. What do you think the impacts are going to be around law enforcement in jails and prisons and what we’re doing as a nation that’s right? What do we need to correct, as far as this whole arc of the criminal justice system?
Tamika Hamilton:
Well, one of the things that I actually was just talking to my communications director today about is, we have fallen to this dangerous trap of political correctness, which also leads us to not address things, because hands-off, someone’s going to get offended. That’s a huge hurdle that we’re going to have to jump over in order to have some kind of progress when we’re talking about mental health. And we’re talking about the new, for example, on California, just to bring it to some context is that there’s been [inaudible], not going to have a report on anymore. And what is that going to do to a community? What’s that going to do to-I don’t want to live here in San Francisco anymore because they’re not-if I get robbed, my window gets broken in my car-they’re not going to come. The relationship between police officers, the community, and the government officials-we have to come to some place of-this is not going to work, this is going to work. We’ve seen what happened over the past year. And we just have to be honest. And I think that as a lot of things have become political we’re forgetting about people. And I could tell you that I was a regular person just wanting to live my life, did not want to get involved in any of this. And then I’m like, oh my God, you know, I can’t. And we use to say to just move, right, but they’re going to repeat these policies. Like what happens in California, New York is said it goes across the nation. I couldn’t, there’s no way I’m not going to run. And so we have to fix home. We have to be honest about what’s happening. And then we’ve got to change courses on things that we failed at in the past year, two years, with this political correctness. Because I think it starts there. Because a lot of laws have shifted because of that. And that’s my opinion.
Rich Helppie:
I think that’s a strong opinion has a lot of data that backs it up. Common Bridge recently hosted Stewart Taylor. Stuart is a co-founder of a group called Princetonians for Free Speech. He spoke about the free speech crisis on college campuses and I think had some very insightful views about how that carries over into public life. When those college students go out and get jobs, they are now a part of the economy, part of the fabric of society. And I do think it is related. I was having a dinner this past week with some friends from Portland, Oregon who actually live in Portland. And frankly, they’re devastated. Their downtown was beautiful. It was vibrant. And they say they can’t go down there because there are permanent kinds of tent cities on all the sidewalks. They just can’t get into the buildings that have been destroyed. The courts are boarded up. And I’m just wondering, where’s the reporting on this? And I’m wondering who wants this? Just like people in Seattle, and why isn’t this front page news? It’s just beyond me.
Tamika Hamilton:
And it goes back to what someone’s going to get offended by. And sadly, it’s going to take strong people, strong government, strong local government, to start making some tough decisions to change course. I mean, we’ve seen that in, I think, Minnesota where Ilan Omar, for example, she’s a Congresswoman in that district. I’m not sure what number it is, but they did this whole defund the police-using it as example-they did this whole defund the police over the summer, and now they made a decision to re-hire, add 6 million plus dollars to the budget so that they can change course. It’s going to take people to have the courage to realize that we’ve got to get back to some normalcy and that’s going to include making some really hard decisions. And when I say hard, it’s not hard to support people. It’s all about someone having the fortitude to say, you know what, this isn’t right and this is what we’re going to have to do. And I don’t care what political party is saying don’t do this, don’t do that. What is the right thing to do, is to protect people and not your special interests, that’s just all there is to it. And so I hope that we have more strong local government that shifts that waste so that then in turn the nation figures out a way to address it better as well.
Rich Helppie:
Indeed. And you think about it, we had protests or riots, civil unrest, the sacking of the capital, we can all look into that. We know it’s not right, but it seems that the reporting was dramatically different.
So Tamika, let’s switch gears for a moment and talk a little bit about your campaign last fall to represent California’s Third District in the US House of Representatives. Do you think you were treated fairly during this process?
Tamika Hamilton:
I think I was, it was just all about me putting myself in a position to say, I’m not going to leave no matter what. That’s probably another conversation for another day because there’s so many different things you have to do when you’re running for office. But the key thing for me is that I did not come into this as a black woman, as woman. I came into this thinking like I have a future to protect for my children, my community, which I love. We work in this community. We serve in this community and I did not see any other way to move forward than to get involved. And of course, you’re going to have people that discriminate. You’re going to have all of those things, especially when you’re trying to do something-you know what people will say. One guy, this consultant, he’s like, why do you want to destroy your life like this, Tamika? And if you’re not strong, it can hurt you. But I have a really good support system, I have a great husband and I have a beautiful family and I had to think, is it discrimination or sexism? Is it going to be enough to push me in a direction of quitting? And it just wasn’t. And I come from a stock of people that would not quit no matter what. And I had to, again, like I told you in the beginning of my grandmother, she was a strong woman. All of my grandparents were strong people. They just didn’t put that inside of me. And so I would tell people it wasn’t easy, but it also isn’t something that I ever imagined giving up on because it wasn’t going to be easy. I knew I was walking into a dangerous territory, that most people have agendas. And I don’t, I just want to help people.
Rich Helppie:
I love the clarity of your message. And I also realized, I don’t know any black person that hasn’t been faced with some discrimination, period. And I know this is a very sensitive topic, but in my view, black history is different than other people’s history in the country. No racial group, that is, was divided into being less of a person. And we have to acknowledge that there’s some overt and some tacit racism. I mean, just in my lifetime, which is longer than yours, we’ve had the Jim Crow era. We had to pass the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. And a lot of this resonates about giving everybody a chance. Where do we stand with that? Again, I know this is a very sensitive question. As black lives matter with small letters, and then there’s the movement Black Lives Matter with capital letters, where do we stand with the thought and with this movement and where do we go? And can we get on the other side of racism in this country?
Tamika Hamilton:
Well, I think that when we’re talking about racism or any type of discrimination, I think, and I’m a woman of faith, you’re not going to get rid of it because evil is always going to be present in the world. That’s just the truth of it. Now, can we make it to where it almost doesn’t exist? I think that there’s a possibility, but we also have to be honest about, like you said-and I thank you so much because some people, they don’t want to touch on black history-they want to say we’re all Americans. And we are all Americans, but we’re also Americans that have come from different backgrounds and have different circumstances that brought us to this nation. And a narrative shouldn’t be created that we shouldn’t be talking about those things. We’ve got to talk about those hard things. I agree that black lives do matter, it’s silly to say it doesn’t. Do I agree with the organization? Based on their ideology, based on what I’ve seen written, I do not, but am I going to throw away that there are some people that are within black lives matter that literally want to just have a say in what’s happening in their lives. I’ve seen interviews and I’m just like the media is showing, I feel like, the fringe of things versus there are people that are actually in communities working, trying to get a better education for their kids. And it’s not all what you saw on TV. Just like when people talk about MAGA, it’s not all the bad of the group, if that makes any sense.
Rich Helppie:
That’s really well said Tamika, I appreciate your candid view on both black lives matter, as well as MAGA. And I remember that during both conventions last fall, the Republicans never talked about climate change or the environment. And likewise, the Democrats never talked about civil unrest while cities were literally in chaos and being destroyed, they acted like it wasn’t happening. I know you’ve heard lately that many pundits said that destruction at the US Capitol would have been covered differently had the demonstrators or rioters-pick your term-not been predominantly white. I don’t know what to think about that. I don’t know if you’ve given that any thought, if you think they were treated differently because of their race.
Tamika Hamilton:
I think that everything the past two years has been treated differently because of race. And the media-and not all media is bad because you and I are talking, right?
Rich Helppie:
I hope we’re doing good.
Tamika Hamilton:
Not all media is bad. And my thing is, it’s hard to talk about these topics because right now everyone’s like, you can’t go all the way on it. You can’t agree with this and this, this and this, because you’re this side. And you have to look at everything. My comms director is someone that-he’s on the school board-and someone had asked him, because he’s a black man, and he’s achieved a lot here in Northern California, and then someone questioned him about black lives matter. He’s like, I’m not a chartered member, but there are some valid points, let’s just speak, there’s some valid points. And just like there’s nothing wrong with loving your president, but I don’t agree with violence. I don’t agree with the things that we’ve witnessed that have caused this country to literally commit unrest. But I think that a lot of this has happened because we are afraid, or I shouldn’t say, we’re afraid, it’s just that these conversations have not been a national conversation so that people can work out their differences and so that we can be the America that other nations believe we are-I want to come to this country. Again, a lot of the times when we see the violence that we see, what’s happening, it starts because people aren’t being heard, and people aren’t being treated fairly, and they’re not getting a fair break when it comes to whatever they believe. And again, it starts with what we’re consuming. And there are parts of the media that you know are not fair in their reporting. That’s why for me, I am not going to bash anyone because I know that there is some truth there. There’s some truth into what their message is. And so we have to find that.
Rich Helppie:
You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever had a guest I just wanted to jump up and applaud or give a standing ovation. But if I was ever going to do that, I would’ve just done that, because I think you really articulated that well. I’m going to be borrowing from that in my future. That was so good.
Tamika Hamilton:
You can have it.
Rich Helppie:
Just because you like part of a message doesn’t mean you have to take in, in its entirety, everything that others might associate with it. And I think that’s the pattern that we’ve fallen into as a country. If you agree with me on one thing, well, you have to agree with everything else that goes with it. Or if you reject one thing, well, you’ve got to reject everything else that goes with it. So I love your perspective. There’s some good, there’s some facts and there’s some truth in each thing. And there are other things in there too, and we need to be able to discern among those things to make up what things we do need to make sure that all Americans have a bright future.
And let me just tell you a little something that troubles me. If I were a young person of modest means, how can we go to that young person and say, here’s a way for you to be educated to gain a middle-class standard of living. And during my lifetime we were told thrift, save your money. We were told to become educated or develop otherwise marketable skills, do something that somebody else wants. And then also, deferred gratification, you don’t have to have everything right now. And there were jobs out there that people could have a middle-class standard of living. And I think about the great employments in the industrial companies and the automotive companies, as one example. And then I contrast that with how are the big companies doing today? And I’ll just pick on Amazon for a little bit. How many of their workers are seasonal or gig workers? How many people say, wow, Amazon’s doing great, if I could just get a job there, I’ll do great too. I’ll be on my path to a secure living, I have healthcare, a retirement program, a chance to take a vacation, a chance to build a little savings, maybe put together a down payment on a house, pay for college education. But it just seems that we’ve got this very different economy where we’re asking people to play by rules that the employer side incentives are to move away from. So how do we tell people here’s what you need to do, young person, to build a life in America. And what do we do at people in my generation to make sure there’s an opportunity for people going forward?
Tamika Hamilton:
So, the first thing that came to mind is Starbucks, because I had a couple of friends that work for Starbucks. And I don’t know if there’s levels, so don’t quote me on that, but at some point you would get help to go to school. You would partake in stock options. And I can’t think of the other one, it was a platform that felt like, this would really help a young person achieve some success early on. And I think that, one of the things we’re hearing about right now is student debt and how we got into this mess and how the government’s taken over that, it’s a mess. And I don’t believe in canceling student debt because then what about the people that paid off their debt? I don’t think that’s fair, but what I will say is that it starts early. Everything starts early and we have to find out with our children is college the best option for them? Or is trade school the best option, or is staying home for a year and working in a business locally, is that going to help them, and then they go to two year college. We are not exploring all those options, I think, at an early age, that’s my point of view because I wish that’s something that I had when I was growing up. For me to get out and to be middle class, I had to join the military. That’s not for everybody, same thing from my husband. And so I think that we have to be honest with that. Did America say that in order for you to be successful, you should be going to four year college? That’s not real. And so we have to do a reset. We have to talk about should we give students or young adults from from 18 to 22, whatever, a tax credit or a tax cut so that they can achieve success financially. Those are the kinds of things that I think about. Because I think I would love to have middle class tax cuts, permanent middle-class tax cuts, so that families aren’t struggling. Because right now the middle class is a shrinking base in here in California. I think it’s something that can just start early, holding and fostering whatever skills these children have and seeing where we can place them. And a lot of schools already do those things. But I think that, like you said, bringing people out of poverty, bringing people up, it’s going to take a little bit more. It’s not going to be some easy fix overnight, but if we’re aggressive with it, I think that the American dream is still possible for Americans. If we put in that extra work that I think has been neglected, because we’ve said in order for you to be successful, do well in school, go to college and then you’re going to get a great job. Well, they’re not teaching them that certain majors aren’t profitable when you get out.
Rich Helppie:
We need welders, we need people to fix things, we need people that know how to build a bridge that won’t fall over. There is a lot of work that needs to go in there. And I think if everybody has a chance, if they’re really good at fixing air conditioners, great, they should be able to earn a decent living with that and not be forced to work three jobs, just to have a chance to get ahead.
And we’ve talked a lot about the polarization in the country. We’ve talked about the need to unify. And let me just frame it this way, suppose you got a call from President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris today, and they wanted to ask you, what are your ideas on how to unify the country, what might you tell them their biggest challenges are? And what advice would you give them?
Tamika Hamilton:
Well, I would use my race as an example because we have 29% registered Republicans here in District 3. That means that we won over a lot of Independents and a lot of Democrats to get the 45% that we’ve received. And what I did was, I didn’t make excuses for either party. I was honest about the fact that this is what I came to do, this is why I’m here and this is what I want to achieve with you supporting this congressional race. And it was no drama, no narratives. It was just simply talking about the kitchen table issues that matter most to Americans. And I think that one of the biggest issues, and I said this a million times, is reconciliation. The only way you’re going to get any group of people, down to a husband and wife who have a damaged relationship, what do you do first? You figure out what the problems are and you reconcile if you want to stay together. And this nation is deeply divided. It is not a time to point fingers because we have other nations that are looking at us from a leadership standpoint. So I would say to them is that we’ve got to come into a place of reconciling, being honest and reconciling, regardless of Democrat, Republican. Here are the mistakes, this is what we’re going to do and so we can come back together because we are beacon of hope for the rest of the world.
Rich Helppie:
I really, really liked that. I’m hearing the conversation that we’re sitting down, President Biden, Vice President Harris, just the three of you. And the three of you look at each other and say, we’ve got to move forward. You know what we need to do about healthcare? What do we do about educating our children? What do we do to make sure everyone can get educated and it could have a savings account and such. Little of it is Republicans versus Democrats and vice versa. And I really like the tone that you’ve said. I can see why you’ve had such broad appeal in your election. And also my heart kind of breaks a little bit, you have to fight the good fight inside this partisan structure. So thank you for doing that, for putting yourself out there. I’m glad you’re doing it because you still have youth on your side. And so when you think about it, what are some of the risks you see for Americans going forward and what might be a worst-case scenario if we don’t make some changes?
Tamika Hamilton:
Right now, because the economy isn’t open, fully, I could talk about California. I think the last time I read it was like 40% of small businesses aren’t going to come back. So what that means is that we’re killing off entrepreneurs, you’re killing off dreams, we’re killing off hope and forcing people to make hard decisions that going to make them also resentful. When you have to tie somebody down and basically say, it’s not going to happen because of things that you and I both know now-now that we have more language, now that we have more studies, that we can open. There shouldn’t have to be a limitation of this, especially here in California, we’re the only place that doesn’t have schools open, I believe. And so we’re killing the economy, we’re killing hopes and dreams and entrepreneurship. And so I think that if we continue down this way, it’s going to be hard for people to trust the government. And I’m not saying that they should fully trust any government anyway, but we should have some trust in the government that they’re going to be doing some things in the best interest of the people. So I think that if we continue to push this economy down the road, down the road, then it’s going to be really hard for people to trust and move forward.
Rich Helppie:
Even in closely managed totalitarian countries, there is a free market. It’s just off the radar. It’s the black market. It was done under prohibition, speakeasies and the like, Soviet era Russia, you could get any good you wanted, you just couldn’t get it through official channels. So I’m hopeful that we will be able to unleash the creativity and the innovation of the American people. When you think about policies that we might look at at a national level, are there any that come to mind that are near to your heart, that you feel like we must do, and are any that you are seeing being advanced that you’re saying there’s something we shouldn’t be doing?
Tamika Hamilton:
One of the big things for me right now that I think about daily is how we are not handling human trafficking in the nation. I feel like it’s a topic that should be a national conversation. It shouldn’t be something that we read.
[Speaking to daughter].
But I think that human trafficking is a huge issue that we are not discussing. Americans are the number one consumers for human trafficking. And why is it like a small print article that we’re reading? Why isn’t it something that it is discussed on a national platform more often? And so I really feel like we’re not doing justice to it like we could. And it’s really important that we talk about it because when we say we care about people, wanting to do the best by people, why aren’t we talking about the children that are suffering because of this and the women that are being brought across this border and suffering. It pains me, you know? And there is always a big question mark of why isn’t this a big issue or bigger issue.
Rich Helppie:
As you articulated so well during our chat today, it’s all part of the same arc, we need to educate children, otherwise we’re going to be hurting that next generation. We don’t want to stifle people’s spirit and their entrepreneurship. That’s another attack. And then the human trafficking, when we’re making people feel less than human. Tamika, this has been a great conversation. And so as we wrap up today, what didn’t we cover that perhaps we should have discussed today?
Tamika Hamilton:
I think we touched on the heart of the issues that we’re dealing with right now. I think I would like to end with the fact that, I know this is a hard time for so many people, everyone has a different story, but I don’t want people to give up. I get emails and direct messages all the time and people just wanting to give up on the nation, because of what’s happened over the past two years. And that’s not just one side, it’s both sides, you know? Because, like I said, I have a really diverse group of people that follow me and we can’t give up on this nation. We can’t give up on our sovereignty and we have to find a way to process what we’re dealing with and then also find a way to keep fighting. And so I just don’t want people to give up. This country is too important to throw in the towel.
Rich Helppie:
I think this is a great place to end. This has been a terrific conversation. I am so honored that you’ve taken your time to be with us here. We do want to be fiercely nonpartisan. We do want to look at the issues of the day head on. We want to look up the opportunities of the moment and we want to talk about how we can solve them through policy. And we really need more people like you willing to lean in, devote your life to making change. That really encourages and inspires me. We’ve been talking with Tamika Hamilton on the Common Bridge. Tamika, thank you so much for joining us.
Tamika Hamilton:
Thank you so much, Rich.
Rich Helppie:
This is Rich Helppie signing off on the Common Bridge.
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