Steven Feldman

Steven Feldman earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1980, an M.D. from Duke University in 1985, and a Ph.D. from Duke University in 1985.[1]

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I'm not on either of the teams that thinks the other side is evil. All candidates are caring people with good values—we disagree about how to achieve goals we largely share. People mean well. I will listen to others and be open to compromise. People should live their lives as they see fit as long as they're not hurting others. Like many Democrats, I believe the government should stay out of people's bedrooms. Like many Republicans, I think the government should stay out of people's wallets. This aligns with the Golden Rule: treat others the way we want to be treated, let people live their lives as they wish, and do no harm to others. This freedom comes with responsibility for our choices.No one wants to leave our kids a bankrupt country. But neither side has been willing to make needed changes, so the debt continues to grow like kudzu. The lack of civility in our politics makes compromise impossible—we get more spending when one side is in control and swing to tax cuts from the other. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that tax cuts without spending cuts, or new programs without paying for them, either leads to inflation or burdens our children with debt. We need to grow the economy by eliminating job-killing regulations. We all care about people in need, and the best way to help them is to create jobs. I'll work with others to implement solutions, not just blame the other side.Everyone wants peace. We disagree about how to achieve it. Many believe peace comes from defeating enemies; I believe peace comes from making friends. Well-intended military actions have inflamed the violence we hoped to stem. We spend more on defense than the next ten nations combined, it doesn’t make us safer, and our roads & bridges crumble. Our soldiers could be trained in carpentry & plumbing, win hearts by building schools & hospitals abroad, then come home to rebuild our own infrastructure. Let's stop intervening everywhere, become a beacon of peace, and use our resources to make America great. We can defend fiercely if ever needed, recognizing that people everywhere want safety for their families just as we do.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Fiscal responsibility. We shouldn’t leave our children a country deeply in debt. Medicare & Social Security need solid footing.

Peace. War is immoral, counterproductive, & costly. We shouldn’t defeat enemies; we should make friends. This includes Israel/Palestine—I've been in the homes of my Israeli relatives and Palestinian Christian & Muslim families, too, seeing the love they all have for their children. We should support peace, not violence.

Civility. People across the political spectrum share goals & values—we disagree about methods. We can work together, listen respectfully, & compromise.

Individual liberty. Let people do what they want but not hurt others. The best influence is a good role model, not government force.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Steve Feldman is a physician, a medical scientist, and a voice for peace & justice. With his research on health care delivery, he has been rated the #1 expert in the world on dermatology and has worked with physicians in other specialties, insurers, patient advocates, and pharmaceutical company executives (Diane Sawyer interviewed him about his research on Good Morning America).

Feldman’s experiences in medicine have led him to try to see how others perceive things, leading to his book Compartments which had a profound influence on the Presbyterian Church Middle East Study Committee Report, Breaking Down the Walls.

Feldman hopes to bring a fresh perspective to Congress, to help people see their common goals and to work across divides to shrink government, reduce Federal debt, and let people live their lives as they want without hurting others.

Feldman has lived in North Carolina for over 40 years and trained at both Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He and his wife Leora have been married for 40 years. They have two sons, one a sportswriter and the other a graduate student studying statistics.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We share many goals but may disagree on how what policies will best achieve those goals. We should work together, compromise, and not denigrate the motivations of others.The massive and growing national debt, increasing under both Democratic and Republican administrations, is a threat to our nation and the future of our childrenOur military should defend our borders and should not be used to tell other people how to live their lives.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

1. Reducing government debt. We need to leave our children a country in better shape, including financially, than we found it.

2. I am passionately anti-war. War is immoral, counterproductive, and costly. We should defeat our enemies by making them our friends.

3. We need to be nice to and respectful of others. People of all political persuasions share similar goals and can work together to achieve them. We have good human beings across the political spectrum. We generally have similar goals, although we may disagree (sometimes passionately) on the best way to achieve those goals. Talmudic wisdom says we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are; our backgrounds affect how we perceive things. All our politicians want to institute policies that they believe are good for American families. We can work together, recognizing our shared goals. We can carefully and respectfully try to understand and consider the positions of others, learn why they think what they do, compromise with each other when there are disagreements on policies, and try different approaches in different places.

4. The best way to influence others is to be a good role model, not to use government force. People should be free to do what they want as long as it doesn’t hurt others.

5. Medicare and Social Security need to be on solid financial footings.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to Martin Luther King, Jr. He ended the terrible mistreatment of people by being peaceful and reaching out to people's shared values. I think we can all learn from his example.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I remember seeing the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination on a black & white TV in 1963. I was 5 years old at the time.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I had a summer job cleaning in a bakery in high school. I was so proud of getting a biweekly paycheck.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

Yes, I think experience is, generally, helpful. Knowing how the system works is helpful. When I finished medical school at Duke, I did internship at the same institution. Knowing how Duke worked helped me and my patients. I'm sure that having experience in government is beneficial.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Our greatest challenge will be getting the Federal debt under control. Without a strong financial basis, every other aspect of Federal government (national defense, paying our oblgations) will be weakened.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

I think 2 years is very reasonable especially if that time is used productively. Longer terms have the advantage of giving representatives more time to know each other and work together, but the shorter term is good for holding representatives accountable to the voters.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I don't feel strongly about term limits. On the one hand, I think it is good to have change, but I think it is often best to leave that to the voters.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Absolutely yes. People have similar goals but often disagree (passionately) on the policies that will best achieve those goals. We should not denigrate the motivations of others. Instead, listening carefully and respectfully to why they think what they do will be more productive.

The issue of abortion may be the best example of this. I strongly believe the government should not regulate women’s control of their own bodies, and I know murder is wrong. I respect the beliefs of people who think that a fetus is a baby; I don’t have the certainty that the fetus is a baby or is not a baby. People who want to protect unborn babies do not want to control women’s bodies; they just want to prevent the murder of unborn babies; people who don’t want the government to impose on women’s control of their own bodies don’t want to kill babies; they just want women to have autonomy over their bodies. There’s a conflict between these two views. .

Some compromise may be reasonable.

Putting pro-Choice and pro-Life advocates in a room together to come up with a reasonable compromise would be my preference.

Keeping government out of funding abortions seems a reasonable start to me. Making abortion illegal after a certain period of gestation seems reasonable to me.

Having different rules in different states depending on the views of the people in those different places seems reasonable to me. I don’t think there’s any one correct answer to this problem.