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At Charles City campaign stop, Delaney vows to bring Americans together

  • Democratic presidential nominee candidate John Delaney, a former U.S. congressman from Maryland, spoke and answered questions at a gathering Sunday in Charles City. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Democratic presidential nominee candidate John Delaney, a former U.S. congressman from Maryland, shakes some hands and signs some books at a gathering Sunday in Charles City. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Democratic presidential nominee candidate John Delaney, a former U.S. congressman from Maryland, speaks and answers questions at a gathering Sunday in Charles City. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Democratic presidential nominee candidate John Delaney, a former U.S. congressman from Maryland, speaks and answers questions at a gathering Monday in Charles City. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Democratic presidential nominee candidate John Delaney, shakes hands and signs some books at a gathering Sunday in Charles City. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Democratic presidential nominee candidate John Delaney, a former U.S. congressman from Maryland, speaks and answers questions at a gathering Sunday in Charles City. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • A gathering of about 40 people listened and asked questions on Sunday as Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney made a campaign stop in Charles City. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney, a former U.S. congressman from Maryland, shakes some hands and signs some books at a gathering in Charles City on Sunday. (Press photo James Grob.)

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Successful entrepreneur and former Maryland U.S. Congressman John Delaney is willing to talk about issues in detail, but said he wants to raise the level of discourse in America first.

“There are things we can do, but fundamentally, we have to come together to do it,” Delaney told a group of about 40 Charles City residents on Sunday. “We can talk about policy, but nothing is more important than restoring a sense of common purpose into this country.”

Delaney, who is one of more than a dozen Democrats officially seeking their party’s nomination for president, said he wants to instill in the American people the notion that “we are in this together.”

“We don’t want to live in a country where we agree on everything, but we deserve to live in a country where our disagreements are debated in a respectful, honest way,” Delaney said. “We deserve to live in a country where our leaders actually roll up their sleeves once in a while and find common ground, and get real things done.”

Delaney spoke to those gathered at Jim Davis’s office in downtown Charles City for about 20 minutes, then took questions about a wide variety of issues, including gun control, mental health, climate change, foreign policy, agriculture and trade. He said he was very different from the current occupant of the White House.

“I’ve spent my whole life bringing people together, which I think is the most important thing for our country right now,” Delaney said. “I promise to always tell you the truth, which I think, at a minimum, is what you deserve from your president.”

Delany talked about his roots, growing up in northern New Jersey, the son of an electrician who was a “proud union member.”

“I grew up at a time when we had a society and a set of institutions that helped people in achieving their dreams,” he said. “Today our young people really don’t have those same kind of opportunities. This is the first generation of Americans that won’t do better than their parents. In one generation, we’ve watched the American dream vanish right before our eyes.”

He said he was able to attend college at Columbia University in large part due to a scholarship he received through his father’s union.

“I would’ve never been able to go to school but for that union,” he said. “It’s always been a great reminder to me that no one does it alone in the world.”

Delaney attended Georgetown Law School, where he met his wife, the daughter of an Idaho potato farmer. The two have four daughters, ranging in age from 11 to 26 years old.

Out of college, Delaney built two businesses that he said “created thousands of jobs,” and became the youngest CEO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.

‘Ten years ago, my wife and I decided to dedicate the rest of our lives to public service, and that’s what led me to run for congress,” he said.

He was first elected to Congress in 2012, and served three terms, representing western Maryland’s 6th district —  a district previously held by a Republican for many years.

The title of Delaney’s book, “The Right Answer,” comes from a 1958 speech by John F. Kennedy, where Kennedy said, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.”

Delaney, who was one of the first Democrats to announce he would seek the nomination to run against President Donald Trump, paraphrased Kennedy on Sunday when he said he wants to stop pointing fingers and casting blame for past mistakes, and start owning responsibility for the future.

“Our future is ours, we just have to build it together,” he said.

Though he never mentioned Trump by name Sunday, Delaney was openly critical of Trump’s policies and style of governing, which he characterized as divisive.

“American is increasingly pitted against American,” Delaney said. “The current president of the United States, I think, wakes up every day and tries to divide us.”

Delaney said that the discourse in the country has deteriorated to the point where it becomes almost impossible to get anything positive done.

“I worry that our kids are going to face a future where every single political disagreement will not be met with the honest, civil, respectful debate that it deserves, but instead met with almost violent protest, because our disagreements are so ingrained,” he said.

“We have a president that actually tries to convince us that your enemy is your fellow American — because they have a different color of skin or because they worship a different god.”

He said the real enemy of Americans is the broken system they live in.

“Our enemy is a political system that does nothing to help you, and does nothing to prepare our kids for the future. It has fundamentally failed in its most sacred responsibility — to serve the common good. I think we can have a much better future. I think we can actually start doing things.”

On matters of policy, Delaney talked at length about the economy, which he insisted isn’t as solid as advertised once you look past the cover.

“The economic trends of this country may look OK on the surface, with the stock market up and unemployment down, but we all know behind those numbers it’s a much different story,” he said. “Half of our country, according to the Federal Reserve, cannot afford a $500 expense. They don’t have the savings and they don’t have the capacity on their credit card. They’re living right on the edge. That’s half the population.”

He said the country is “leaving our kids debts they can’t repay,” and said that includes “climate debts” as well as fiscal debts.

“Climate is a huge crisis that we can deal with,” Delaney said, and said he had introduced a bipartisan carbon tax while he was in Congress. “We can invest massively in innovation and invent the next generation of storage and transmission technologies. We can actually build machines that take carbon out of the atmosphere.”

On foreign policy, Delaney said he believes in more engagement and collaboration.

“I would start re-establishing the United States’ role in the world, as not the country that can solve every problem, but the country that is at the head of every table while the problem is being discussed,” Delaney said. “We have an unbelievable portfolio of alliances, and the current president is trashing them.”

When questioned about health care, Delaney said that he believes in working toward universal health care, and that “everyone’s health care is a right.”

“We can do it in a smart way without throwing out the whole U.S. health care system,” he said. “We can do this, but we have to do it together.”

Delaney, an Irish Catholic, was dressed in green for St. Patrick’s Day, as were many in attendance. He said he had attended church in Charles City Sunday morning.

“It was a nice way to start the day, with a little spiritual renewal,” he said. He said that St. Patrick’s Day reminds him of his late father.

“My dad was a really proud Irishman, and he loved everything Irish, and this was in many ways his favorite day of the year,” Delaney said. “I always think of him on St. Patrick’s Day. He passed away several years ago, but I’m actually driving his pick-up truck around Iowa on this campaign.”

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