I took a Democratic Party online poll the other day. One of the questions asked me to check the boxes for the three issues that are the most important to me.

I was surprised and disappointed to see that "halting our endless wars" was not one of the choices. "Fighting terror" was.

What happened to the Democratic Party that it drags its feet on such issues as opposing war, single payer health care or a Green New Deal?

The answer, of course, is corporate donations from weapons manufacturers, drug and insurance companies, and oil companies.

These corporate donations have undermined our political system and blocked positive change for so long. That's why we are having the progressive political revolution that we are having.

Take our congressman, for instance. He's not necessarily on the wrong side of these issues, but he isn't working for them with any deliberate energy. Instead he works on explosive container protocol bills, tax breaks for wineries and post office name changes.

There was a time when Democrats had control of the executive branch and both houses of Congress, but because their collective donors prevented them from prosecuting Wall Street fraudsters, getting us out of Afghanistan or doing anything significant about massive inequality, they rapidly lost traction.

Establishment politicians don't change much, and what they do change, they change incrementally over a period of decades.

We need real change now. We don't have time for political football games. And we have these problems at every level.

Please consider running for office. Any office. City council, supervisor, school board. We, the people, ARE the change we've been waiting for. I'm doing it. Won't you do it with me?

Jason Kishineff is a Democratic candidate for Congress in California’s District 5. He lives in American Canyon, Calif.