Authored by Ryan Sheridan via RealClearPolitics,
Over 35 years ago, an executive at Monsanto named Harold Corbett delivered a speech titled “Chemical Risk: Living Up to Public Expectations.” The 1988 speech called out an industry that delivered miracles and devastating mistakes.
Corbett described two chemical industries. One was responsible for safe drinking water, higher crop yields, medicines, and a better standard of living. The other was responsible for contamination, waste, and health crises: “The public doesn’t care how far we’ve come. They care how far we still have to go.”
It still rings true today. Harold Corbett was my grandfather.
To churn a profit, we see pharmaceutical companies suppressing unfavorable data and misleading consumers with predatory advertising, food manufacturers selling metabolic dysfunction; hospital systems consolidating care; and chemical conglomerates litigating instead of innovating. Now, a growing number of Americans are speaking out decisively against Big Pharma, Ag, Food, and Health. This coalition of “MAHA” voters is targeting a crisis of institutional credibility and a growing unease with an industry that is no longer trusted and seems more focused on profit than on health.
As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I see these problems firsthand. With the MAHA Coalition powering Republican victories up and down the ballot, we as Republicans have a generational opportunity to take back our health system. We can make changes and save American lives, but we need to agree on the problems to start.
Over two-thirds of all Missouri adults are overweight. Synthetic opioid overdoses claimed nearly 850 lives last year, with local St. Louis and St. Charles Counties ranking at or near the worst in the state. And should we forget the COVID mandates that caused overdoses to spike, childhood anxiety and depression to rise, and kept healthy toddlers in masks, stunting their development for years, as dissenting scientists and members of the public were told to “trust the experts” and shut up?
Dismissing people is the quickest way to continue to diminish what little trust remains. In my practice, I encounter this lack of trust with our medical establishment every day with my patients. After years of being told to trust “The Science” – meaning don’t question us – many people don’t trust anything the medical establishment has to say.
This is where the MAHA movement can help heal our nation. The Trump administration and RFK have been making significant strides to regain public trust, both through the MAHA Commission and through medical reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill passed this July.
Republicans need to get on board, and Congress needs to act, to do much more on this crucial issue.
On food transparency and clean labels, Americans deserve full disclosure of the chemicals, additives, and pesticides that are going into our foods, particularly those banned in Europe and Canada. This includes food dyes and glyphosate, a pesticide and carcinogen that is found throughout our food system.
On preventative care and lowering costs, we have made great strides by the OBBB prioritizing Direct Primary Care. We should work to expand choice further, so individuals and families have direct access outside of our bloated and opaque insurance system.
And our country needs a national plan for longevity and health: a real approach to wellness beyond relief for chronic symptoms, and focusing instead on treatment of root causes. This must include protecting our kids from harmful food additives, encouraging beneficial physical and social activities, and stopping the grasp of powerful social media companies that are harming their health.
Until the scientific community admits past failures and entanglements, trust won’t return. Our public officials must lead as well, instead of following whatever Big Pharma and special interest groups have to say. Liberty thrives when truth is public and trust is earned.
The same problems facing Americans are the problems facing our government. We keep swapping out treatments: new politicians, new leaders, new promises, but the patient keeps getting worse. The solution is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but to improve the system so it works for regular people. That is how we restore faith in our institutions and return to responsible, trusted capitalism.
I don’t want to dismantle Big Industry. We need them to thrive. MAHA is about returning to a Republican Party that answers to voters, not corporate boards, and that means telling the truth about the harm caused when Big Health dictates our policies.
This movement can and will win broadly if we deliver on these promises.
In his speech, my grandfather quoted Mark Twain: “When in doubt, tell the truth.” I’ll add one more: When the truth is clear, act. The restoration of trust and survival of these industries, our government, and our people depend on it.
Ryan Sheridan is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, small business-owner, and Republican candidate for Missouri’s Second Congressional District.