If there was a moment in the race between Democratic candidate Shomari Figures and Republican Caroleene Dobson, it was a little over a month ago, during a debate, when the 2nd District candidates of Congress were asked about Alabama’s horrible health care system.

The numbers speak to Democrats’ long-running campaign to expand Medicaid in the state — a measure that would save rural hospitals, attract doctors and nurses to underserved areas of our state and create thousands of jobs.

Dobson, meanwhile, said this: “I encourage our state’s governor and legislature to look at (Medicaid expansion).”

And that, in a few words, is the difference between the two candidates.

Celebrities and Democrats have concrete plans to address the real problems people living in this state face every day. Dobson and the Republicans have concept plans that Democrats first introduced more than a decade ago.

To some extent, I feel bad for Dobson. Her education and professional experience clearly show that she is an intelligent and capable woman who likely has well-thought-out and intelligent plans for a number of issues facing this state. The unfortunate thing is that she belongs to a party that prefers to suppress these intelligent ideas in favor of overly simplistic and alarmist tactics.

While Figures spent time talking about how to direct businesses and jobs to CD2’s most disadvantaged areas by expanding Medicaid and restoring needed health care infrastructure, Dobson talked about…border security. Which is only a problem for people in this state when they physically watch Fox News. Because the rest of the time, they’re perfectly content watching these Hispanic immigrants build their homes, pick their produce, and open restaurants serving cheese dips in the otherwise vacant strip malls of their towns.

Make no mistake, Dobson chose this side, so she is not absolved of all responsibility here. And it’s not like she doesn’t have a lot of horrible ideas, either. Like for example on education.

Dobson, who comes from a private education background, is all for Alabama’s CHOOSE Act – a reprehensible law that diverts public tax dollars away from public schools and into the coffers of private businesses. These private schools – almost all of which are religiously affiliated – will not be held to the same standards as Alabama’s public schools and will not be subject to the same financial oversight.

Not to mention that in a district like CD2, which has incredibly high poverty rates, the law fails to provide enough money to cover the full cost of tuition (far fewer books, daily transportation, materials, laboratory fees, meals and school trips) that would be necessary. be necessary for many students in the district to benefit from the program.

So instead of creating opportunities for students, the CHOOSE Act further hinders these students by diverting money from their already underfunded public schools in order to give a head start to students and families who, for Most of them are already two legs ahead.

To put it another way: “The reality is this: (the CHOOSE Act) is going to cost jobs, it’s going to cost schools, it’s going to cause schools to close – it’s certainly going to threaten it.” This will diminish the ability of our public school systems to recruit and retain the best teachers possible. This will ultimately harm our economy,” the figures said in comments to the Alabama Daily News.

Again, it’s the same as with health care and many other issues: the Democratic candidate lives in the real world, proposing solutions and ideas that address real problems facing real people of the working class, while the Republican candidate fights against pretenses. wicked and catering to the already rich.

The fact is, this contrast between candidates is exactly why CD2 was redrawn — to give voters who actually care about serious solutions to important local problems the opportunity to be fairly represented. End the madness of focusing on problems thousands of miles away while neglecting the problems that were shutting down local hospitals and driving away the best teachers.

This is the goal of this race.

And there is only one candidate in the race who has a viable plan for the issues that actually matter in CD2. These are the Shomari figurines.