We need change. Both Democrat and Republican congressional representatives accept money from lobbyists in exchange for policies that benefit corporate and stockholder pocketbooks, rather than doing what is right for the American people.

I am Fort Lewis College’s undergraduate research coordinator. To better understand U.S. medical research, I’ve been reading “Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care,” written by an expert witness in trials against drug companies.

I am struck by how both Democrats and Republicans have allowed vast corruption to become commonplace. Did you know that pharmaceuticals have paid more than $38 billion since the early 1990s in settlements, where they were shown in court to have caused harm?

Did you also know that pharmaceutical lobbyists pay the equivalent of $450,000 per congressperson each year? Through their cozy relationships with policy-makers, pharmaceutical companies are allowed to coerce doctors, hide clinical trial data, charge drug prices that are higher than any other country, lie that new drugs are better than old ones, and prevent cost-effectiveness analyses from being carried out.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is the only presidential candidate addressing corporate capture. For four decades, he has fought corporate polluters and government agencies that didn’t uphold regulations. He is the person we need in the White House to begin the transition away from corrupt business practices.

Powerful corporate and government entities malign Kennedy because he threatens to disrupt their big money-making schemes. Please, join me in looking beyond the name-calling and learn what the Kennedy/Nicole Shanahan campaign is about.

Christine Smith

Durango