Our nation stands at a crossroads. It has one foot in our constitutional republic and one in mob rule.
The leftists control the media, and the media consider it their job to control the mob.
At the federal level, we do not yet have direct “democracy,” which is dictionary-defined as total government control by majority vote on any issue – tyranny by the 51 percent.
Historically, all pure democracies have failed. They descend into mob rule because people can often be misled for short periods of time into voting away their neighbor’s fundamental human rights.
At the state and local level, we do have some direct democracy, but the genius of our federal republic is that the 50 states compete with one another. When one state errs, Americans are free to patronize and live in another state.
We are endangered now by an “indirect democracy” because federal politicians, rather than following the rules of our constitutional republic, instead sell themselves to the voters as proxy votes for anything they think will get them elected. They even refer to our nation as a “democracy” instead of a constitutional republic. During his years in Congress, Dr. Ron Paul became known as “Dr. No” because he would not vote for anything that violated our Constitution – which included many of the votes.
In running for Congress against 16-term U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio in Oregon District 4, I have been up against a career politician who tells one group he will “get them some money” by taking property away from a second group. Then, when speaking to the second group, he promises to “get them some money” by taking it away from the first group. He promises liberty to one group, by taking liberty from another group. He even promises “better lives” for one group by promising to use federal tax money to take life away from another group – living, but not-yet-born Americans.
Our nation’s founders knew that this time would come – a time when controllers of the 51 percent (controllers who work through lies, propaganda and fear) would try to take away the lives, liberty, property and other fundamental human rights of the 100 percent. So, the founders built a constitutional republic with rules and institutions that would not permit this.
We are all now contestants on a large, unprincipled battlefield where the fate of our constitutional republic will be decided. This is a terrible and evil battlefield – filled with lies, hatred, profanity and runaway dishonesty of all sorts, but we are offered no other.
We must win where we stand.
We have two wonderful defenses at our disposal – “Providence” and “principle.” Providence has given us this opportunity, and thankfully our Creator has built the needed principles into the best aspects of human nature.
Yet, our battles are largely being fought with “pragmatism” – with a view that “anything that works at the moment” is OK.
We may be privileged to win this internal war, but if we put pragmatism over Providence and principle, we will lose in the winning.
For example: DeFazio pragmatically has promised for 30 years that he will fix access problems of our veterans in the VA medical system, but then he deliberately does not do so. (A simple card providing veterans with free access to any medical provider in our nation would fix the problem.) So, veterans must call his office for help – calls that win DeFazio votes.
DeFazio pragmatically did nothing to preserve forest access for the Southern Oregon lumber industry, so, regardless of having the finest forests of fir timber in the world, our timber industry died. DeFazio instead got federal money for county governments to replace this tax base, so each election he could say, “If you want that money to keep coming, vote for me.”
Career politicians do not fix problems. They instead seek ways of benefitting from problems. Thus, our nation has many problems.
Yet, regardless of self-serving pragmatism, it is Providence that will decide our fate – and only principled truth will please our Creator – the source of Providence
The greatest educator in American history, Booker T. Washington, taught that education has only one goal. That goal is to train the human mind to find the truth – in any situation.
We must pray that the minds of the American people are well trained enough in finding the truth, regardless of our decaying educational system, to win this war.
“Providence,” “principle” and “pragmatism” – can our nation balance them?
I believe we can, and I think we will.
I think this because most grass-roots Americans, of all parties and persuasions, are decent, principled people. Most are people whom our family would be pleased to have in our home for dinner.
Those people should be urged to support candidates who are committed to help our president. President Trump is not a perfect man – no man is. Yet, he is working to reduce crippling regulations and over-taxation of our people, to end trade restrictions that place our country at a disadvantage and to increase the responsible use of our natural resources. His work has already greatly improved our national and individual prospects.
The president’s judicial appointments, especially to the Supreme Court, are restoring respect for the rules of our constitutional republic. On these rules our lives and liberty and those of our children and grandchildren depend.
Our president has a strong Judeo-Christian ethic and a sound constitutional ethic, yet he does not wear these things on his sleeve. He simply says that his job is to put the best interests of our nation’s people first. Our nation depends on these two ethics.
In a recent “forum,” my opponent in Oregon District 4, Peter DeFazio, said that working in Washington is very complicated and that his over 30 years of experience in Congress are needed to get things done. Yet, the far-left things he has done have damaged our republic and the lives of many Americans. In fact, to advance his far-left causes, DeFazio co-founded the radical Congressional Progressive Caucus in 1991, along with Maxine Waters, Bernie Sanders, Lane Evans, Thomas Andrews and Ron Dellums, some of the most radical people in Washington.
Washington is not complicated if you have principles and follow the Constitution. DeFazio makes it complicated by his many unethical dealings.
Most Americans viscerally dislike the trash talk, the lies and the unprincipled garbage our enemies are throwing daily at our nation and our president. Quietly, yet firmly, a coalition is being built – one American at a time – that will answer a definitive “NO” to those who are attempting to destroy our constitutional republic for their own perceived self-interest.
I can feel this coalition building. So can my opponent. While he lays low in this election with even the news outlets he controls mostly silent lest they provoke controversy that will sink him, our support in the parades, fairs and public gatherings that constitute a Southern Oregon political season has risen very greatly.
Trump yard signs that we give away to voters at events along with our own are springing up all over Oregon neighborhoods. The voters are extraordinarily enthusiastic for Trump-Pence yard signs.
Across our nation, Providence, principle and the truth are winning.
It is a great privilege to be alive at this time.