Author: DevAdmin

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Conservatives vs. Boehner and the Republican Facade

Conservative Challenger to the Establishment’s Gang

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) said Sunday that he will challenge John Boehner (R-Ohio) as Speaker in the new Congress.

“I’m putting my name out there today to be another candidate for Speaker,” Gohmert said on “Fox and Friends.”  Gohmert said that after “years of broken promises, it’s time for a change.”

This is Good News

This is important for all Americans and especially for Republicans.

Establishment Republicans in the House have become too enamored with the Big Red “R” and the big money their offices control. They have lost sight of their founding principles. They have forgotten what limited government and free-enterprise look like.

Margaret Thatcher, in her first speech to the Conservative Party Conference (circa, 1975) described the conservative vision,   “A man’s right to work as he will. To spend what he earns. To own property. To have the state as a servant and not as a master. These are the British inheritance.”

These are uniquely American traits and we successfully spread these ideas to the rest of the world. In fact, Thatcher’s Great Britain inherited them from America.

These were the originating ideals of America but, today, we are at a tipping point.

Our World is Changing

Just six years ago Obama claimed that conservatives, “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

In the same way, although America’s founders exhibited a profound respect for Christian principles and the moral relevance discovered through Biblical doctrine, then Senator Obama voiced, “we are no longer a Christian nation.”

Our Republican ideals are not composed of wacko, fruit-cake, right-wing blather. Our ideals are the true ideals firmly rooted in the the American Tradition.

They are the ideals of hard-working farmers, ranchers, business men and women who, like myself, have a natural love for freedom and liberty. These ideals represent what we, as conservatives want to preserve – our constitution and therefore, our nation.

Our conservatism is, simply, the best and most accurate assessment of the real world – the world where you and I live. We must fight to stop progressives, compromisers, or moderates, from weaving false ideas into our kid’s textbooks and the vocabulary of the nightly news.

Our Founders Knew Better

The truth is, we don’t cling to our Bibles or guns because we’re bitter. Rather, we cling to things that are true. This is our deepest conviction and stems out of a deep affection strengthened by evidence and rational assessment.

The objectivist Ayn Rand observed, “There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.”

Do you see her point? The middle of the road is thought of as morally superior, yet, because the middle of the road is not based any principle at hand, it must be based on caprice, or whim.  If it were based on some higher principle, what would that higher principle look like?

  • Is pragmatism the highest good?
  • Would maintaining a rich facade of “care and concern” be better than facing fiscal reality?
  • Is it only a game? Does it matter who wins and who loses?
  • Is it a higher good to sacrifice this item in hopes of accomplishing that one?
  • Is compromise the highest good?

What’s wrong with these principles, and what we lose if we forget what really matters?  Each of these examples might seem legitimate but what are they based upon? What will be our foundation for determining the future direction of our nation’s policies?

America exists because of a calling, “to secure the blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our posterity,” not because of feel-good platitudes.

Ronald Reagan, as one of the world’s most profound conservative communicators (and a close friend of Margaret Thatcher) described our American Ideals in his speech entitled, Our Noble Vision: An Opportunity for All, given March 2, 1984:

An opportunity society awaits us. We need only believe in ourselves and give men and women of faith, courage, and vision the freedom to build it. Let others run down America and seek to punish success. Let them call you greedy for not wanting government to take more and more of your earnings. Let them defend their tombstone society of wage and price guidelines, mandatory quotas, tax increases, planned shortages, and shared sacrifices.

We want no part of that mess, thank you very much. We will encourage all Americans — men and women, young and old, individuals of every race, creed, and color — to succeed and be healthy, happy, and whole. This is our goal. We see America not falling behind, but moving ahead; our citizens not fearful and divided, but confident and united by shared values of faith, family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom.

It’s high-time that voters brought these uniquely conservative, thoughtful and prudent American ideals to the forefront of our own local communities.

Do not let these traditions of Liberty become dusty, old and irrelevant. Tell your House member to vote for the principled conservative, Rep. Gohmert, or pack up and get ready to come home early – for good this time!

Tell Your Representative to Replace John Boehner HERE!

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Federal Politics – Deny State Authority

The idea of State Rights has long been neglected by our representatives in Congress and this neglect has allowed the federal government to grow like a malignant tumor. In the anti-Federalist paper, Brutus XII, we read, “that this constitution,… will not be a compact entered into by states,… but an agreement of the people of the United States, as one great body politic,…  The courts therefore will establish it as a rule in explaining… as will best tend to perfect the union or take from the state governments every power of either making or executing laws.”

Brutus’ pamphlet, published on February 07, 1788, was an accurate projection and his fears have become reality in our lifetimes.

Our republican government refers to two things:

  • the origin of the powers of a government (the people), and
  • the manner in which these powers are exercised (via representation).

James Madison said that “we may define a republic to be … a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices…, for a limited period…” This is why we see Greg Walden thrashing so fiercely for the status quo — he enjoys his long tenure in D.C., something our founders would not have imagined.

James Madison also cleared the air with regard to democratic rule, stating, “Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.”  Fisher Ames added, “The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.”

My position on the 17th Amendment

Today, the federal government has gorged itself on power and is wielding that power indiscriminately.  The only solution strong enough comes from the U.S. Constitution. Our founding fathers had a better understanding of natural law than we do, despite our technological modernity.

Our nation’s framers understood and agreed with Lord Acton’s observation that, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Thomas Jefferson noted that good government is properly effected through the dispersion of power not through the concentration of power.

Therefore, the first line of defense for maintaining “free and independent states” comes from the states themselves. Each state has a unique population demographic and natural resources, with differing interests and perspectives regarding program priorities. The federal government should not be entangled in these local interests. In the 2nd District we experience this continually: the Feds have successfully intruded into what should be local resource management affairs. The Federal government can then use the power of the purse (AKA, the printing press) to buy allegiance to their own  bureaucratic and administrative interests.

For the past 100 years we have been slowly losing our rights. We have allowed the federal bureaucracy to discount and absorb our state’s specific interests. As a result, we hardly know how to weigh these issues from our state’s perspective.

My question is, why is returning to state-chosen, state-focused Senators so scary?

  • What is it about the 17th Amendment that makes people think a state-oriented focus would be detrimental to our national well-being?
  • Is it because some states want more federal tax money poured into their unique projects?
  • Is it because your current congressman wants to sponsor corporate crony interests with taxpayer subsidies and loan guarantees?

Over-arching federal control has stolen the dialog and removed our focus from our local community and our local control. Greg Walden likes the status quo. He knows that I, as one man, cannot change the 17th Amendment and that this is a conversation about philosophy and ideas. However, this discussion scares Rep. Walden because it is an argument for state leadership and power instead of an impenetrable regulatory authority housed 3,000 miles away. Your current Representative is afraid to even discuss the potential changes which might diminish his own personal power.

Earlier this year Lawrence W. Reed commented on the progressive nature of the anachronisms that Greg Walden fully endorses:

“Without the 16th and 17th Amendments and the Federal Reserve, it’s inconceivable that the federal government could have grown from less than five percent of GDP in 1913 to nearly 25 percent in 2013. Were it not for those three gremlins, how many fewer trillions might our unconscionable national debt be? The toll on our liberties is also incalculable but surely considerable.”

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Young People Should Care About the BLM and Their Overreach

Walk into any Republican meeting and you see it – folks 50 years and older (like Diane and myself) who are primarily concerned with the future for their children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, many young people (those same kids and grandkids) are too busy, too apathetic or simply don’t see how politics affects them and so they tend not to participate in such events.

I want to challenge young people – even though you may be skiing in Bend or going to college in Ashland, and even if you feel that the issues you hear on the news don’t affect you, they do and they will. I wager that most young people saw Bundy Ranch on the news but didn’t see how a grandfatherly rancher’s fight in Nevada affects them, and so brushed it off.

A few days ago, however, I recorded a podcast in which we discussed the change to the BLM’s mission statement that’s disturbing and chilling. Right on the heels of that recording, I saw in the Bend Bulletin that the BLM is removing more than 500 geocaches from Bend-area wilderness, and then that the National Park Service is restricting personal recording devices. My kids geocache, and hike and fish and bike and love the wonderful playground that Oregon has to offer. But for how long will they be allowed to enjoy so-called public lands?

If you are a young person or have young people in your life – even nieces, nephews and grandkids – it’s up to you to communicate how these changes affect all of us, no matter our age. Young people are looking for work, playing hard on the weekends and typically “too busy” for politics, but they must be warned about what this federal overreach means for their lifestyles. They may not be ranchers or hunters, but they are hikers, bikers, geocachers and campers. They may not have cared when the forest was closed to OHV traffic, but they need to know that’s only the tip of this deadly bureaucratic iceberg.

To the young folks I’ve met on the trail – College Republicans, Campaign for Liberty, Young Americans for Liberty – thank you for helping communicate these concerns as well. You are the future of our Republic, and we are grateful for your passion and energy as we fight this battle.

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Amnesty is Coming Unless We Act

We all know that one of the main functions of the Federal government is to insure our security and aid in the naturalization of new immigrants. Neither of these items are being upheld by our current government. The reforms passed by President Ronald Reagan back in 1986 are not being enforced. Why should we pass new laws when the old ones are not being upheld?

We must secure our borders. That must be the first order of business. Instead, Speaker John Boehner (a close political ally of my opponent) told supporters that he is “hell-bent” on getting comprehensive immigration reform (i.e. amnesty) passed this year. My opponent, Congressman Walden, told fellow Republicans that they should concentrate on immigration (amnesty) “after the primaries are over”.

Rep. Walden has been endorsed by the Oregon Farm Bureau and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, both of which are very vocally pro-amnesty. Republicans in the House have lost their way on this issue. Most Americans want steady jobs for Americans before worrying about illegal aliens. We understand the need for border security and enforced immigration laws.

Republicans in the House are more concerned with looking good on NBC than they are with the wishes of hard-working Americans, and this has got to stop. Amnesty is bad policy for America and I am dedicated to securing our border, enforcing current law and opening up opportunity for legal immigrants.

Oregonians for Immigration Reform, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), NumbersUSA and others have all noted my strong stance on immigration issues and my opponent’s weakness. The time is now and the choice is ours – vote for legal immigration and an end to political gamesmanship.

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The FDA Hurts Businesses

My opponent recently released a letter to the FDA, declaring that their new rules on brewers and ranchers will hurt Oregonian businesses.

He’s absolutely right – but my question is, why has he been funding the FDA with printed money from Washington, and then writing flimsy letters against it?

Wouldn’t the logical solution be to cut off the funding for unConstitutional entities like the FDA and EPA? Why is our Congressman of 16 years so scared to take these Federal behemoths on?

My stance is much different than Congressman Walden’s. I think that the states should be in charge of their own departments, not throttled by Federal bureaucracy. Ranching and brewing are both critical industries to Oregon and we know how to support them, govern them and help them succeed in our neighborhoods and communities.

I’m running for Congress because I think that we have spent too long contenting ourselves with thrashing at the branches of bureaucracy. Establishment Republicans hide behind wimpy letters and empty statements, all the while voting for deficit spending and bigger government, rather than true, Constitutional change.

We all know, in our heart of hearts, that the current state of Federal bureaucracy is wrong. We are taxed on every activity, regulated at every turn and business is discouraged at almost every level (unless, of course, you know someone high-up in politics!). Let’s stop being satisfied with futile rhetoric and empty votes – it’s time to stand up for our freedoms in real, meaningful ways and begin to take our liberties back by dismantling the Federal machine.

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I Support Cliven Bundy and Bundy Ranch

A lot of people are asking about my stance on the Bundy Ranch issue in Clark County, Nevada, where the BLM and citizens recently had a stand-off over cattle grazing rights. Many people are pointing out that Cliven Bundy has not paid his fees to the Federal government, and that may be true, although there are several arguments to both sides of the issue. (I’ll put some sources at the bottom of this post).

However, what is not contentious is the atrocious treatment of private citizens by the BLM, the bullying of rural Americans by radical environmentalists and the overwhelming injustice that is Federal monopoly of our public lands.

It seems clear that we’ve reached a point in our history when private citizens and small-business owners are increasingly forced to make public scenes just to survive. Because of the labyrinth of laws, the convoluted nature of crony capitalism and the politically-motivated restrictions on our ways of life, the West in particular is gasping for air and some folks feel, as Mr. Bundy does, that resistance is the only option.

Here in my hometown of Klamath County, we are seeing a very similar chokehold on water rights, livelihoods and ranches that have been passed down for generations. Seeing politically-correct allies control the water and starve out family farms and ranches is heart-breaking and unjust. As Americans and as country folk, we believe we live in the land of opportunity, and we believe in the power of honest hard work. However, those ideals are slipping away. Will we bequeath an indebted, overgrown and overbearing police state to our children, or a land of freedom, opportunity and open sky?

I support the Bundy Ranch, not because they haven’t made mistakes or because their approach has been perfect, but because I think they are a touchstone for a serious debate in American life. I believe the bullying of small-business and rural America by the Federal behemoth has gone on too long. I think we need to demand that our public lands are actually returned to local control, not padlocked by some faraway bureaucracy for a politically-motivated reason. Oregon, let’s learn from the Bundys and start standing up for our own forests and land-rights, or the BLM will come knocking on our door, as well. As we’ve seen, they don’t ask nicely.

Learn More

The Blaze: In His Own Words Here’s Why The Nevada Rancher Refuses to Recognize Federal Authority

The Dana Show: The Real Story of the Bundy Ranch

TeaParty.org: BLM Flip Flops “No Deal” on Dropping Actions Against Bundy

Brenner Brief: Desert Tortoise Admiration Society 

Godfather Politics: Harry Reid, Son’s Solar Power Scheme Linked to Bundy Ranch Standoff

Brenner Brief: Cliven Bundy Stands Up Against BLM and Wins

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Tough Questions about Forest Access

I received a note from a supporter that I would like to share.

This was written by someone who has worked tirelessly for public access to the mountains and forests that our tax dollars pay to keep open. The anger and frustration voiced by this man and others is what keeps me motivated to make change for Oregonians. This individual will not be satisfied with empty rhetoric or false promises. For too long we have shrugged aside do-nothing representation and allowed too many excuses about Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

It’s time to start dismantling the Federal tyranny over our open places and lifestyles.

Here’s his letter complete with the graphic which he enclosed:

“Greg Walden’s record on keeping your mountains open – 12 National Forests in his district. 10 are closed to cross country travel, thousands of miles of roads closed, thousands of Oregonians locked out. All during Greg’s tenure as our ‘representative’.??

Is he actually doing something to address a problem that’s keeping him employed? Think about it, if he never fixes it, then he keeps getting to run these ads saying – send me back to DC and I’ll get it right this time.??

I for one don’t believe him,and I’d been told in the past the man was a liar and I didn’t want to believe it, but unfortunately, over the last two years I have learned differently.”

I want to bring to your attention a bill put forth in Utah to transfer Federal control of public lands. While many people fear that the state is no better than the Federal government, I think it’s essential that we start by bringing these lands into the most local arena possible for better management and control. This means states, counties and private owners need to have a say in our lands, and we need to start that process.

In Utah’s bill, in lines 99 through 120 or so, it references the “leadership of United States Senator Thomas Hart Benton from Missouri” which is paramount to this discussion. Benton County Oregon was named after this Senator because of his work in helping to settle Oregon.

Back then, he was spot on in his logic and arguments and this is the exact same fight today.

Please take the time to read this bill and the sample one at ALEC, here. We are not alone in our fight for the right to enjoy, use and prosper from our public lands – we must band together and prove that we will not back down on this issue. With your help, I’m convinced that Oregon can shake off the chains of the Federal bureaucracy.

Only then will our kids and grandkids have access to the mountains and forests that we call home.

 

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America the Beautiful

“O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee…”

We all know the words, and we all love the sentiment in this old folk song. Our kids and grandkids probably sing this song in school plays, much as we did at their age. But even as we sing these cherished words, the beauty they represent is slipping away.

Ludwig von Mises, in his preface to Bureaucracy, writes: ”The main issue in present-day social and political conflicts is whether or not man should give away freedom, private initiative, and individual responsibility and surrender to the guardianship of a gigantic apparatus of compulsion and coercion, the socialist state. Should authoritarian totalitarianism be substituted for individualism and democracy?”

This is a searching question, and one we’ve all answered in our own hearts and on our own land with a resounding “no!”. The trouble is, do the proponents of the socialist state listen, and if they don’t, what is our recourse as liberty-loving people of the wide-open ranges?

Every lover of the west should be worried about the unelected bureaucracies driving the Endangered Species Act, the EPA, foolish natural resource policy, restriction of federal land use and endless regulation on hard-working land-owners and businessmen. But even more so, we should be concerned about the seemingly endless stream of borrowed and printed money that funds these unconstitutional hierarchies.

Any businessman or woman knows that money is a driver of action. Therefore, if we cut off the money, we can rein in rampant growth of bureaucracies like the EPA. With an endless stream of printed money and a false sense of security, faraway departments and special interests get to force their will on rural communities and individuals. They can buy media time, sway public opinion and use their money to falsely manipulate the marketplace.

If we elect principled individuals to Congress, who will serve their Constitutionally-mandated duty of controlling the purse and voting against frivolous spending, we can start to beat back these bureaucracies and restore our freedom as agriculturalists.

Congress needs to be held accountable. It’s not enough to blame the President, blame the media or blame our culture – these are all legitimate scapegoats, but they also serve the convenient purpose of absolving us from responsibility when something goes wrong. Congress must be re-elected every two years, and any Congressperson who has not stood firm on his or her principles and the causes we support needs to be challenged in the primaries, and must be rebuked on these votes.

Our government is a democratic republic, intended to represent the people and protect our God-given rights. We have excused well-meaning but ineffectual politicians for long enough, and it’s time to make 2014 the year of fiscal responsibility and free principles. The future of our farms, ranches and children’s agricultural future depends on our ability to require our representatives to truly represent us.

The time to start is now — the future of America the beautiful, with our spacious skies and amber waves of grain — rely on our resolve.

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Government-Induced Drought and Water Issues In Oregon

As most Oregonians know, Klamath County (indeed, most of the 2nd District) is in a season of severe drought. Add to this politically motivated backroom deals, and a radical environmentalist agenda with lots of out-of-state clout and capital, and this is a scary situation for rural Oregon.

The problem is simple – we have limited fresh water. Animals and people alike need fresh water for survival, and droughts are part of Earth’s natural cycle. Therefore, we should prepare for such eventualities with dams, reservoirs and other water storage facilities, and we should share the water between all interested parties, not use the strong arm of government to pick politically-correct winners and losers.

Last year, before I was in this Congressional race, I gave a presentation on this topic to the Jackson County Americans for Prosperity group:

Klamath County Commissioner Dennis Linthicum on Natural Resource stewardship for a more prosperous economy from US~Observer on Vimeo.

And, just last month, Congressman Tom McClintock gave similar thoughts to California Americans For Prosperity:

I hope for the chance to be colleagues in the House with Rep. McClintock and other common-sense conservatives like him. We have to stick up for our food producers, outdoorsmen and others who share and make a living from natural resources. What’s happening in Klamath County and Central California should serve as a warning – we must change our representation and alter our course before it’s too late.

For more information on the specific issues in Klamath County, please read Erika Bentsen’s excellent piece in Western Ag magazine here.

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The Real Forest Management Travel Solution

Last week, The Baker City Herald editorial staff wrote, “Rep. Greg Walden has gotten right to the heart of the debate over managing national forest and he only needed to write a four-page bill to do it.”

However, it’s time for a reality check, because although I applaud his effort, it seems clear that Walden only threw this piece of legislative silliness onto the House floor because I am on his heels, chasing his lackluster votes. I have heard for years from hunters, farmers, ranchers, loggers and outdoorsmen worried about their forest access and concerned with the deafness of Washington bureaucrats. They tell me of their frustration in writing endless letters to Walden’s office and their local papers, along with their attempts at “public comment” debacles.

Do you really believe that Representative Walden was suddenly moved by his love for our freedoms as Oregonians, or does this seem politically-motivated to you? Why have our forests been padlocked for years and why has his office been bragging about his ineffectual votes, until now?

The Travel Management Plan comes from an agenda started 10 years ago. That’s when Republicans owned the executive and legislative branches of the federal machine. Yet, this debacle has been growing like a boil beneath the surface and is now, ready to explode. Is this what it takes to get Washington’s attention?

It’s easy to see that this bill is an attempt to score political points without creating real change. Mr. Walden’s bill re-enforces the root problem – a profound disconnect between the boots on the ground and the shiny shoes in the hallowed halls of D.C.  He makes the mistake of assuming that keeping power in the federal bureaucracy while giving purely political head-patting bonuses to county commissioners will fix the problem.

As a county commissioner, I can tell you right now that we need much more than this weak attempt – we need ownership, real-world budgets and the ability to open our forests to all kinds of uses without federal overreach.

It’s time for Oregon legislators and our US Congress to explore new options. I believe that we should be transferring all federally managed lands into the various jurisdictions where those lands are contained. We should be giving the resources back to the people with real action, not symbolic four-page bills.

In order to bring back economic vitality, we must sync Oregon’s immense forests with real-world, economic conditions at the local level. A bold strategy, like this, is the only solution big enough to insure the longterm productivity of our vast renewable resources. Washington’s bureaucratic management of natural resources within our state’s boundary is not serving our 2nd Congressional District interests. It’s time for a real change.

The hunters, packers, foresters, campers and OHV users who enjoy these forested areas of Eastern, Central and Southern Oregon, know the history of these lands and know better than others what proper care entails.

Let Oregonians bear the full responsibility for preserving these lands for future generations and allow each of us the privilege of “securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.”