Oleg Jelezniakov

Oleg Jelezniakov’s philosophy on tolerance is simple.

“It’s important to be attuned to the rights not just in your social groups, but to others,” Jelezniakov says. “When you see that, you can start to relate a little bit to all your other compatriots more.”

As a Russian-born human rights and LGBT activist, Jelezniakov believes the identity of America is best represented by its diversity and liberties. Discrimination against blacks, the LGBT community or any other social group is unacceptable in any society or from any presidential candidate, he says.

“Human rights should be a priority in everybody’s platform,” Jelezniakov said. “If I see [Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump] engaging in racist or anti-Semitic rhetoric, that’s enough for me. I don’t need to hear anything past that.”

Jelezniakov’s mind is made up this election, but he laments what he considers a lack of more viable options.

“It becomes more for me the effort of not having Trump as our president, because that’s a disaster on many levels,” he says.

“The man is clearly — I don’t want to say insane — but he’s insane.”

By contrast, his support of Clinton comes with a caveat.

The prospect of her becoming the first female president excites him, along with her vast experience in government and views on human rights. But he holds reservations regarding her foreign-policy agenda.

“She doesn’t seem to be concerned about the overblown military budget,” Jelezniakov said.

5. Role of religion. “Religion can imply several aspects: a person’s beliefs, cultural identification, institution. It’s understood that none can make you exempt from being subject to the law of the land and basic human decency. We witness the religions becoming an excuse to abuse and discriminate, endorse ignorance and bigotry leveraging the first amendment. The constitutional protection of people’s faith has now become a tax-free tool of power for religious leaders.”

4. Education. “The school system in the U.S. is lacking nationwide standards. Some states still order textbooks teaching creationism. It’s no surprise we have enough uneducated adults here to support someone like Trump for president. It’s also imperative to establish life-important mandatory subjects that all young people should be educated in. The lack of social/financial/sexual/health education will end up resulting in tremendous costs for the nation. Higher-education costs have an adverse impact on our job market and the economy. Right now, student debt is over $1 trillion.”

3. Economic inequality. “Large companies’ CEOs are making over 1,000 times more than a median worker. Would they survive if they were making only 10 times more? We need some sort of nationwide income indexing to keep the country in the center range; lack thereof leaves us, as a nation, with a poor or homeless working class on one end, and people making money they don’t need on the other.”

2. Money in politics. “I think when you have the big pockets of corporations, unions and billionaires funding your campaign, as we have with Super PACs, you’ll be expected to pay the return on their investments and represent their interests once the campaign succeeds. And of course, their interests may easily conflict with that of the general public. No one’s stake in a president should be worth more than one single vote — this is absolutely anti-democratic.”

1. Human rights. “We still have people who are oppressed and discriminated against to show for the state of our civil rights; people threatened by law enforcement that it’s supposed to protect, pastors advocating to kill gay citizens who are greeted by presidential candidates, shaking hands. I also think we are inexcusably behind on our economic, social and cultural rights, that is the right to education, right to housing, right to adequate standard of living, right to health and the right to science and culture. The current standard is far below the level we can afford as the biggest economy in the world.”

Jelezniakov says that, although slow, there has been progress made in key issues, including human rights, health care and the environment.

He says a conversation on these and other issues — corruption, money in politics, a growing economic gap — is neither quick nor easy, but “seems to be gaining momentum,” a promising development that he says is secondary in his native Russia, a country he left in the mid-1990s.

“For the past several years, I’ve been watching [Russia’s] descent into something that I never thought would happen to my country again, which is complete intolerance, oppression, dictatorship; some kind of rampant corruption on every level,” Jelezniakov says. “As flawed as the U.S. political system is, you can still see the three branches clearly.”