The Oregon GOP: Criticism and the Path Forward

The Oregon Republican Party has some serious thinking to do after the 2018 election rout. Our party has been relegated to practical uselessness in Salem and we are forced to ask ourselves does the Republican Party have a future in Oregon?

I think it does but only if the party is willing to make some changes and address the issues put forward by its members. With the end of the election we have seen the return of Sam Carpenter who has brought fresh criticism about the party.

The Carpenter Criticism

Sam Carpenter, like him or not, is addressing something that the Republican Party is not. The current prevailing wisdom is that Republicans need to be more moderate in order to win in Oregon.

 

If we learned anything from Knute’s campaign it is that is absolutely not true. You might be able to gain some support, but at what cost?

Let’s take this strategy to its logical conclusion. Even if you are 100% exactly the same as the Democratic candidate on every issue and the only thing that separate’s you from them is a letter next to your name, you will not win. In the end some people will believe you are a bad person simply because you are a Republican.

Carpenter is unapologetically Republican and that is why people like him. All too often individual Republicans feel like they have to hide the fact that they support the Republican Party. I even had someone once tell me my neighbor was brave because he had a Trump bumper sticker on his car.

Is it now an act of bravery to put a political bumper sticker on your car? Sadly yes. That is not a criticism of the current state of politics but rather of the current state of cowardice among Republicans. Let me be clear, this is not an insult. I have been guilty of this personally. Rather it is a call to action on an individual level.

Carpenter’s solution is to burn everything down and rebuild it. Only he wants to rebuild it in his image. This might seem to work in the short term but in the long run it will fail. Sam will one day leave the party and we will be left with an empty shell that will collapse in on itself.

I do agree we need to start the fire but we cannot allow it to burn down everything. Instead we need to burn off the dead wood. It is going to be a painful process, change always is, but a necessary one if the Oregon Republican Party is to remain viable in the future.

Stop Trying to Appeal to the Left

On the surface it would seem like appealing to those on the left would increase the Republican Parties chances of getting elected in a left leaning state. Except we have tried this already and it has only resulted in the Republican Party becoming the minority party in the state to the point of becoming a non-entity.

 

I am not saying we cannot try to win over those on the left, rather stop trying to BE the left. It seems disingenuous, like we are afraid to be ourselves. This disingenuousness comes across to the voters, even if it is not clear that is what it is.

This type of appeal feels like the person who is trying too hard to get others to like him but only comes across as annoying. They lack confidence in who they are and they try to be someone else. The falsehood ultimately comes through and forms into the negative feedback loop.

They believe they are disliked because too much of who they truly are is showing, so they try harder to be someone they are not and only making the problem worse. This is the negative feedback loop in which the party has been stuck.

How can we expect anyone else to believe in our values and the truth of our message if we are constantly trying to distance ourselves from them? Never apologize for being Republican or holding Republican values. If you feel like you need to apologize for holding a Republican value then you need to ask yourself if you really believe in that value.

Our leadership is not appointed or chosen from on high but is a reflection of our choices as individuals who are members of a larger group. Our leaders reflect us and if we do not like our leaders we need to start by taking an honest look at ourselves.

Deadwood

Sam Carpenter is not the problem, rather he is simply a symptom of the greater problem. We can try to ignore him or say we do not like how he does things but we still need to address what he represents.

Carpenter represents those in the party who feel like they are not listened to and who are told the only way to win in Oregon is to become more moderate. If they are ignored people like Sam Carpenter will continue to gain support.

These people need to be taken seriously because their concerns are serious. The way things have been done for the last 30 years is not working and it is a time for a change. We are the minority party, we need to start acting like it.

One of the benefits of being in the minority is that we can take risks as we have little to lose. We can try new things, bring in new people and become a contending party once again. Yes our party might be in chaos now, but it is in chaos that we find opportunity. Do we allow this chaos to get worse until we fade away into obscurity or do we trim the deadwood regardless of the pain and become stronger for the experience?

The choice is one we all need to make as individuals. It is a choice that requires acting out in the world, for a choice that is not acted upon might as well not have been made at all.

The Truth Behind the Republicans Stunning Defeat in Oregon

I had high hopes for the midterm election this year. We had a centrist candidate for Governor who was gaining important endorsements and funding. We had several amazing, hardworking and charismatic candidates for local races.

Yet when Election Day came and went, and all the votes were tallied, we ended up with Democrat supermajorities in both the state house and senate as well as in the governor’s office.

WE Lost

We lost the election. When I say WE lost the election I mean exactly that.

I see people blaming Conservative Republicans for staying home and not voting because they did not like Knute, blaming the Democrats for cheating and vote tampering, blaming party leadership for a lack of support, blaming Portland for having too many people, and generally blaming anyone they can find.

I remember seeing this sort of behavior recently in politics just on the national level. Hilary Clinton wrote a book and did a whole tour blaming everyone but herself for her loss against Trump.

Now we stand here on the eve of our election loss and we have a choice before us, do we continue to blame each other and everyone else, or do we take an honest look at ourselves as individuals and at our party.

As individuals we need to ask ourselves, as Washington County GOP Vice Chair Melissa Laird did every day leading up to the election, what have I done today to help my candidates win? If your only answer is I shared a post on Facebook, I must inform you that is not enough.

Facebook is a powerful tool but it is not a magical tool. It can help us reach thousands of people in an instance but if that reach does not materialize into action it is more or less useless.

It is hard to break the routine of daily life, kids need help with homework, projects need to be done around the house, and pay checks need to be earned. Our time is valuable but I do not think it is unreasonable to ask for one hour each week. That is the amount of time you would spend watching one or two episodes of your current Netflix binge. (If you want to help, get in touch with your local county chair).

I am not asking you to trade the hour for nothing. You will get the chance to meet the people who will represent you, who will actually listen to your concerns and ideas. You will get connected to an amazing community of wonderful, hardworking, and brilliant people that share similar values to your own.

As a party we need to listen to feedback from our candidates, build our infrastructure and support systems, and find a way to connect everyone. We need to learn from our past mistakes, our successes and we need to grow our party, in membership, leadership, and candidates. We need to identify, promote and recruit people of talent and take a long term view of things.

This is what you need to do if you want to help get Oregon on the right track. Blaming the Democrats, each other, the party leadership or the system not only does not help but hurts us all in the long run.

The Seductive Ideology of Victimhood

Victimhood has social value for both the victim and the person who wants to help the victim. They both gain attention and social status from the victimhood. The bad thing is that the victim, who is seeking attention, will become dependent on the victimhood to produce that attention they seek.

If they have been victimized by an individual the victimhood only lasts until that individual has been dealt with or is removed from the picture. It becomes harder and harder to produce victimhood and gain attention by relying on individuals.

Victimizers, true victimizers, are rare and you quickly run out of them, but if you are able to become victimized by a group of people than you can maintain that victimhood status almost indefinitely. If you are victimized by men than you can remain a victim as long as there are men.

The problem with this idea is that it is built on a lie, you are not a victim of men, you might be a victim of a man, or a group of men, but not the collective gender known as men. But like the drug addict the victim does not mind the lie as long as it gets them their fix of victimhood and the attention that comes with it.

This sort of behavior is very attractive. It gives you an excuse to refuse to take an honest and often painful look at yourself as well as someone to blame for any short comings you might have.

The Choice Before Us

This is a choice we need to make. We, as individuals, need to decided, are we going to play the blame game, giving in to the seductive ideology of victimhood, or are we going to take a look at ourselves and find where we can change and do better.

Ultimately blaming someone else, justly or unjustly, will only cause division and create resentment that will lead us farther down the path of loss we have been on for over 30 years.

We can blame and fight each other and hope that our faction comes out on top only to be the king of the losers, or we can build a coalition with each other on the understanding that we all might not agree but that we are all dedicated to the betterment of our state and the betterment of each other as individuals.

Some people have said that we need to clean our house before we can hope to become successful again. I think we need to take that a step deeper, we each need to clean our own rooms before we can start to clean our house.

What path will you choose? Will you blame everyone else for the problems you see before you, or will you take responsibility to do everything in your power to solve those problems yourself? The choice is ours, choose wisely.

Elizabeth Hovde and Oregonian vs Mayor Wheeler, Portland Resistance and Antifa

Elizabeth Hovde did the unthinkable, she dared to tell her truth in a Progressive city. On October 28^th 2018 the Oregonian published her opinion piece titled The Misunderstood Joey Gibson and the backlash was swift and aggressive.

Misunderstood

Elizabeth Hovde’s opinion piece was based off her time spent with a local activist group known as Patriot Prayer and their leader Joey Gibson. The rally opposing Washington gun-control Initiative 1639 took place at Washington State University Vancouver campus.

Ahead of the rally the university chancellor cancelled classes and advised students to remain off campus fearing violence. The Patriot Prayer rally was anything but violent. Joey Gibson even set up a question and answer period so that he could discuss his opinion with those who disagreed.

Hovde wrote what she experienced and submitted it to the Oregonian editorial board for publication. It was published and immediately attracted the attention of some powerful people who condemned her, called for her to be fired and for people to target the Oregonians sponsors in an attempt to shut down the long standing publication.

Journalists and Public Officials for Censorship

It is a strange sight to see writers and journalists offering support for censorship. They of course would deny that is their ultimate goal. This denial would not be a lie, because they would believe that they are not supporting censorship. Yet these same people would celebrate if Hovde's article were taken down and she were fired.

I am reminded of Matthew 7:20 “Therefore by their fruits you shall know them.” While they may not be calling for censorship directly nor do they believe they are asking for that, their actions are going to result in that outcome. As Thomas Sowell once said, “Consequences matter more than intentions.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who has attempted to use his position as Portland’s Mayor (and police commissioner) to falsely spread public fear in an attempt to stifle the individual’s first amendments right to freedom of expression, had this to say about Elizabeth Hovde article.

His statement shows that he clearly does not understand what Patriot Prayer and Joey Gibson stand for. Joey Gibson has repeatedly called out white supremacists and neo-Nazi’s and told them they are not welcome at his rallies. The speakers at Patriot Prayer rallies are from different backgrounds and ethnicities. At an event on June 30^th 2018 Patriot Prayer had Asian, Black, Hispanic, male, female, Trans and LGBTQ attendees. Speakers included people of various ethnicities and even a Trans person.

Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury had this to say.

She is stating that the Oregonian ‘complicit’ in stoking ‘violence and hatred’ and that it is ‘unforgivable.’ If you were a supporter of Deborah Kafoury and trust what she has to say, what are you supposed to take away from this statement? She wants you to be mad at the Oregonian and to believe that they are spreading hate and violence.

What sort of response should you have to an individual or organization spreading hate and violence? Naturally you would experience fear and in order to protect yourself from that fear you must oppose the Oregonian.

People like Ted Wheeler and Deborah Kafoury will tell you that in order for them to protect you from this boogieman they must be given more power and authority. Authority over where, when, and how people can protest in Portland. Power over what can and cannot be published in the press.

Anna Griffin news director for OPB and Samantha Swindler video producer, editor, and writer for the Oregonian had this to say about their fellow writer and journalist:

Half Truths and the Weasel Rhetoric of Alex Zielinski

Alex Zielinski of the Portland Mercury penned a response to Elizabeth Hovde and the Oregonian. She starts by mentioning the tragedy of 11 people killed in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Why? Because she is trying to tie two unrelated events together to make one look worse through association.

She even calls Hovde article The Misunderstood Joey Gibson a ‘love letter to the leader of the Portland area’s own far-right extremist group.’ She even falsely calls Patriot Prayer a ‘militaristic group of far-right provocateurs.’ Patriot Prayer is in no way militaristic, which means advocating or pursuing an aggressive military policy.

She also goes on to mislead the reader about violence at Patriot Prayer rallies. She frames these acts of violence as if they are spontaneous and happen in a vacuum, when in reality there would be no violence if Antifa did not show up and attack people, throw mortars, urine and bricks at crowds peacefully taking part in a permitted march.

Alex also misleads her readers about claims made by Mayor Ted Wheeler that Patriot Prayer members were ‘lugging rifles and ammunition’ to a peaceful protest, which she puts in scare quotes. These claims were refuted by Portland Police. The men with guns all had legal concealed carry permits and 100% cooperated with the police. When asked to leave the guns in a locked container in one truck and the ammunition in a locked container in another truck the men complied with the request. According to Portland Police “No laws were broken, and there was not imminent danger to the public.”

Yet Alex and Mayor Ted Wheeler would have you believe they were on the roof top with sniper rifles. Alex also makes the claim that LGBTQ friends and Muslim neighbors ‘feel they must stay indoors or leave town altogether’ when Patriot Prayer plans a protest. She offers no evidence or proof of these statements but claims them as fact in the hope that you, the reader, sympathize with these terrified characters that she created out of whole cloth.

As Christopher Hitchens once said “What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” She also outright lies about Jeremy Christian, framing the man accused of fatally stabbing two men and wounding a third on a MAX train as someone who is a mainstay of Patriot Prayer rallies.

The fact is he was kicked out of the one Patriot Prayer event he tried to attend. Here is video evidence of him being kicked out of the one Patriot Prayer event he attended by Tiny and other Patriot Prayer members.

She again tries to mislead her readers by saying “Every single protest in Portland that ended in violence over the past year and a half was organized by Patriot Prayer.” She makes is sound like Patriot Prayer is going out and committing these acts of violence, but in reality the only reason there is violence at these events is because Antifa shows up and attacks, harasses, threaten and antagonize people who attend.

Antifa even left someone who came to protest Patriot Prayer bloody laying in the street with a wound on the back of his head that would require 4 staples to close. They did this because he was carrying an American flag, a symbol of freedom and liberty. She then goes on to accuse Hovde of “cropping out hateful rhetoric and violence.” Patriot Prayer has offered a $2000 reward for video proof of Joey Gibson’s hateful rhetoric and no one has been able to claim this prize.

Alex ends by condemning the Oregonian editorial board and insinuating that her fellow citizens, who are part of Patriot Prayer, who could be her neighbors, the guy pumping her gas or the mechanic working on her car, are not worth listening to.

Portland Resistance Demands Action or Else

Portland Resistance offered a condemnation of the Oregonian claiming that “giving platform to this message is unconscionable, unethical, and dangerous behavior.” They continue by making a list of demands. The demands include:

1)      Issue a front-page apology to our community for their callousness and carelessness in publishing the “The misunderstood Joey Gibson” opinion piece.

2)      Fire Elizabeth Hovde.

3)      Discontinue the practice of lending fascists a platform to recruit and legitimize their hate.

First they do not represent a community, they were not elected or selected and simply claiming you stand for someone does not mean you actually represent them. You are not entitled to an apology for simply reading an opinion you did not like, grow up.

They then want to destroy the career of Elizabeth Hovde over an opinion piece they did not like. Lastly they accuse the Oregonian of “lending fascists a platform to recruit and legitimize their hate.” A baseless accusation of a paper that has published pieces criticizing Trump, Patriot Prayer, and Joey Gibson in the past.

If you are on the Oregonian editorial board I offer this one piece of advice, do NOT apologize. It will only be taken as an admission of guilt on your part and will make things worse. Stand by your journalistic ethics.

They also threaten that if these demands are not met they “will result in a strategic boycott of Oregonian advertisers, beginning with local companies with progressive leanings and proceeding from there.” Essentially they are threatening to bring financial harm to people who had nothing to do with this opinion piece in the hope that they can force the newspaper to do what they want.

This is a naked attempt to hold businesses and charities hostage so that they can force the press to submit to their will. They justify this use of force by claiming they are opposing “white supremacists.”

It is okay to disagree and I do not want any of the people mentioned to be censored or fired, I would rather their ideas be out in the open for everyone to see. But it is not okay to attempt to shut down, censor, and suppress through the force of social ostracization. It is not okay to hold businesses and charity hostage in an attempt to damage a newspaper who published an opinion piece you disagree with.

I have often disagreed with the Oregonian and probably have disagreements with Elizabeth Hovde, but I stand with their right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

NPC the Meme and The Progressive Reaction To It

What is an NPC? NPC stands for Non Player Character and the term comes from the world of video games. In video games NPC’s are the characters who you, the player, do not control.

Typically they have stock responses when you talk to them and pre-set reactions to things you do. For example you might talk to ten different NPC’s and they will all say “Hello, crazy weather we’ve been having lately.”

They will also all get angry at you if you do something they do not like. Again they will have a canned reply for this behavior as well. If you go somewhere they do not want you to, they will all say “Hey! You need to leave now before I call the guard.”

Meme Magic

The NPC meme has gained popularity lately. This is due to the observation that these ‘protesters,’ Progressives, and Antifa parrot the same talking points. They all use the same chants regardless of what it is that they are protesting or where they are protesting.

They all use the same language, such words as problematic, marginalized, patriarchy, people of color, Nazi, Drumpf (or some other insulting variation on the name Trump), fascist, my truth, privilege, rise up

, and misogynist.

Worldwide you can hear the same chants or slight variants. Chants like ‘hey hey, ho ho, subject has got to go’ and ‘cops and klan go hand in hand’ and ‘ACAB all cops are bastards.’ Though this meme has really taken off with the introduction by the left of mob politics.

Mobs as NPC’s

Part of what make a meme great is how it is able to use humor to check off and bring together so many ideas under one image. Recently we have seen mobs of people in the nation’s capital screaming at and harassing politicians, chasing them out of restaurants, or pounding on the doors of the Supreme Court.

These mobs have rightly been called out as such by many Republican politicians. In one of the great way that shows how connected the word mob and the NPC meme have many connections.

First if you take the word mob and add one to each letter you get NPC (m+1=N, o+1=P, b+1=C). That is not where the connection stops either. In the world of video games, especially in online role playing games, mob is used to describe a large group of the same or similar monsters. These mobs are also NPC’s because they are characters that you, the player do not control.

Initiate Program Outrage

Of course those on the left are upset over this meme. They say that it dehumanizes and marginalizes people. The same people who are willing to liberally apply the term Nazi to anyone who disagrees with them while saying it is okay to punch a Nazi. The same people who will call anyone who supports Trump online a Russian bot and then advocate for all the Russian bots to be banned from social media.

 

The NPC meme is a comedic criticism of the Progressives so it is expected that they would act as they always do when criticized. Instead of laughing and understanding the joke, they follow the programing and get outraged, which is exactly what is expected of them, thus making the meme even funnier.

Twitter even started banning accounts who were using the NPC image to create parody accounts for famous people. As we have seen before, the harder you push against a meme the more popular it will become.

So do not be an NPC, think for yourself and be the hero in your own story.

Alexander Flores has Oregon Democrats Very Worried

On Saturday 13^th 2018 I spent some time helping out Alexander Flores and his campaign. We met at the new Washington County GOP office, an office made possible by the hard work and dedication of the Washington County Republican Chair Tracy Honl, by donations from generous individuals, and staffed by dedicated volunteers. (You can donate here or find volunteer opportunities here, every little bit helps.)

  

When I arrived Alexander was very welcoming and offered to take me on a tour of the office. I got to meet some of the other volunteers and what struck me first was the level of engagement from everyone. Most the volunteers were young students who were excited about helping in any way they can.

The more time I spent in the office I also noticed the level of hard work from everyone, including Alexander Flores. Alexander was not shy about doing the work necessary to ensure his campaign was doing everything they could. He had spent some time earlier that morning knocking on doors, he made phone calls and helped set me up with the app they were using for canvasing.

No detail, no matter how small, was beneath his attention. This is the work ethic that has made his campaign successful despite the uphill battle he has faced. It is hard enough to be a Republican in Oregon much less run for office on a Republican ticket. This success has his Democratic Party opposition worried, which can be seen in a disgusting attack ad taken out against Flores.

Racist Attack

Flores is running against incumbent Chuck Riley (D-Hillsboro) for the state senate seat in Washington County. This race is close, much closer than the Democratic Party of Oregon expected. It is so close in fact that the Democratic Party of Oregon paid for a mailer attacking Flores.

The mailer, as reported by Oregon Catalyst, included a photoshopped image of Alexander Flores with a sideways MAGA hat attempting to evoke a racist caricature of Hispanic-Americans. Condemnation of this caricature was immediate with the Independent Party of Oregon, through twitter, calling on Chuck Riley and the Democratic Party of Oregon to “withdraw & apologize for the vile photoshopped race-baiting photo…”

These kinds of attacks are an attempt to discredit a candidate’s character while trying to cover up for years of failed policies. It is these sort of failures that Alexander Flores seeks to address if he is elected.

Education

The education system in Oregon is one of the worst in the country. According to the Oregonian a new study puts Oregon at 38^th out of 50 when it comes to public education. This is despite the fact that Oregon spent $10,842 per pupil according to the Census Bureau.

Alexander hopes to take this issue on in a couple different way. First, according to his website, he wants to “fight for relief for students and families struggling with debt by allowing tax deductions on student loan interest.” He also seeks to rein in the increasing PERS cost that take dollars out of the classroom.

 

He plans on fighting to rework the budge to ensure more dollars going to the schools reach the classrooms. This will increase the resources available to each class and help set up Oregon children for a better future.

Government Spending

Working in the private sector and raising a family, Alexander Flores knows the importance of budgeting. He understands that raising taxes puts an increased burden on hard working families and small businesses.

Instead of raising taxes or proposing new taxes, Flores plans to find areas where the government is wasting money and shift those funds toward things such as education. Alexander opposes the introduction of a sales tax as well as an increase in taxes on “childcare, groceries, healthcare and energy bills.”

Alexander Flores will bring to his incredible work ethic to Salem. He wants to reduce wasteful spending and protect against increasing taxes that places an additional burden on hard working Oregonians. He wants to make sure our tax dollars go to where they should, to help create a better future for our children through education. This is why I believe you should support Alexander Flores for State Senate.

Backing Buehler: The Right Person for Oregon

Lately I have been frustrated with some of the positions Knute Buehler has taken. It seems he has gone out of his way to disrespect his own party in order to prove to swing voters he is not the typical Republican.

Even though we disagree on issues that are important to me, I will still be voting for Dr. Knute Buehler in November.

It’s Okay to Disagree

Growing up near Portland and going to college at Portland State University as a non-Democrat you have to learn to be okay with people who disagree with you. If I were shocked or offended every time a student or teacher said something I disagreed with, I would have been in a constant state of outrage.

Instead I made the choice to accept that people have different opinions. An event that crystalized this view came my freshman year of college when I asked, a bit naively I admit, ‘When does life start?’ I asked this question publicly on our class forum page so everyone in class could see and comment.

When I returned to the forum page the next day I was shocked to find close to 100 comments. I remember thinking this was odd because we only have about 35-40 students in the class. As I scrolled through my classmates comments I realized two things. First thing was that I had accidentally touched on a hot button topic. The second was that everyone had an opinion and reasoning to back up their opinion.

This topic got heated at times and got so many replies that my teacher brought it up in the next class session. He was excited to have the discussion and glad to see so many of us engaged. I, only 18 at the time, was mostly embarrassed from all the attention. Even though the class was divided on this issue it never devolved into shouting, name calling, or cult-like chanting.

Instead what I saw were people who were able to set aside this difference and work together on other projects. Throughout the rest of my time at college I had teachers openly bash candidates I had voted for. We even had a teacher cancel the lesson plan for the day to have everyone sit in a circle and talk about how the 2004 election made us feel.

I was uncomfortable saying I voted for Bush and mostly just observed the meltdowns from my fellow classmates. It was clear I was in the minority of opinion. Yet through all of this I learned that it was okay to disagree with someone. That just because they did not think or believe the same thing as me that did not mean they were a bad person.

While Dr. Knute Buehler and I disagree on certain issues that does not mean he is incapable of effectively running the state. In fact I believe he is a highly competent person and would be a vast improvement over his opponent and the incumbent Governor Brown.

Reality Check

Some people hold out hope that a write in campaign will have a chance at successfully getting someone into office that more aligns with their beliefs. The optimist in me secretly hopes this is true and on a theoretical level this might be possible.

In order for a write in campaign to work the person written in must be both very active in promoting their candidacy as well as have massive name recognition across the entire state. Currently no one matches that description.

The only thing a write in campaign would accomplish would be to split the vote. In a tight race such as this that split, even a minor one, could end up costing Dr. Buehler the Governorship. I am not going to tell you who to vote for, it is your right to make that choice yourself. I would just ask that you consider everything before you cast a vote for a write in or refuse to vote at all.

Who would you rather vote for, someone who will listen and talk with you but might disagree with you on a few things or would you rather vote for someone who does not need you, will not listen to you, and will do everything they can to #resist?

End the Insanity

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. Oregon has a lot of problems facing our state. Our education system over spends and under performs. Our roads are congested and we have a problem with homelessness in our major cities, specifically Portland.

Will Dr. Buehler be able to solve all these problems for us? No most likely not, after all he is only one man. While Dr. Buehler might not be able to fix everything in our state alone he is definitely a step in the right direction, a direction that Oregon sorely needs. It will take all of us working together to fix these problems.

We know that over 30 years of steadily increasing Democratic control of the state these issues have not improved, in fact they have become worse. Even if you think Kate Brown and Knute Buehler are similar, you have to admit they are not the same.

We can either continue to try and do the same thing over and over hoping for a better result, or we can take a chance and try something new. I might not agree with Knute Buehler on everything but it is okay to disagree. In the end he is the right man for the job and any attempts to mount a write in campaign will only result in more of the same.

When you go and vote ask yourself do you want to vote for someone who is willing to do what is necessary to get the state back on track, or are you going to hand the election to the party of resistance and mob rule?

The Meaning of Make America Great Again

I was recently asked a question about one of my blog posts. The question essentially was ‘what does Make America Great Again mean to me?’ This is a question I have been thinking about for some time but have never really articulated it in any meaningful way.

This slogan has many different meanings for many different people, but also multiple meanings for each individual. This makes it difficult to clearly determine what it really means as it is subject to each individual’s opinion and experience.

The Critics

First I am going to address some of the critics of this slogan. The people who say or believe that America was never great or apply the worst parts of America’s past to this slogan.

To me it seems the biggest problem people have with the statement Make America Great Again is the last word. Again. When these people look back at the history of America all they see is the horrors.

They see things like slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, and the examples of racism. To them that is the history of America, so when they hear Make America Great AGAIN, they believe people want to go back to those horrific practices. It is an understandable criticism because of the vague nature of the statement.

But it does not take into context the other half of the history of America. The part where America was founded on the ideals of freedom and liberty, the same ideals that gave voice to end the horrible institution of slavery, not only in America but across the world. The same ideals that gave voice to extend the vote to women. The same ideals that allowed individuals to make advancements in medicine, civil liberties, technology, and industry.

It is easy to look back at the past through our modern morality and point out how horrible things were. These moments need to be viewed in the context of their time. Imagine a group of Americans attacking a tribe of Native Americans. On the surface this seems like a horrific event caused by ‘greedy racist white men’ who only want the land the Natives are living on.

Yet if you seek out context you might find that these Americans lived on the frontier, surviving by farming the land. There are no police, no national guard, and these farmers have experienced raids carried out by the Native Americans. Livestock stolen, children killed before their eyes, wives and daughters raped and taken as slaves.

If taken in this context, while you might not condone the raid and the violence it makes it a bit more understandable. If you have children you might understand their anger and desire for revenge a bit more as you too would probably move heaven and earth in order to get to someone who has willingly hurt your children.

History is never as clear cut as we all would like it to be. With that said I am going to move on to what Make America Great Again means to me.

Individual Self-Reliance

President JFK once said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” The American people took pride in being able to provide for themselves. They knew that was part of the price to pay for the precious gift of freedom.

Lately we find people who are more eager to point out a problem and demand something be done, but will not do anything to take on the responsibility of fixing it themselves.

America is a society where you take responsibility for yourself instead of demanding the government take responsibility for you and provide you with the things you want. Food, healthcare, school. I am not opposed to providing a safety net, but it needs to be a temporary status not a method of sustaining oneself.

We need to move away from incentivizing people, through welfare, to remain in a state of compliant dependence that keeps them at the bottom of society.

Those who are proponents of increased welfare say they want freedom from want, but the truth is that want is a part of life. Your body will always want food and shelter and those who want to increase welfare say you should be free from that want in your life. That if you did not have to worry about those wants you would be freer to pursuit your interests.

In reality you still have those wants but you have them fulfilled by someone other than yourself, in this case the government. I would argue that this is a reduction in freedom as opposed to an increase in freedom. This sort of freedom from want is really just dependence. When you are dependent on someone for your wants and needs you are not truly free but rather at the mercy of those on whom you depend.

When you ask for government healthcare and school you are saying your friends and neighbors all owe these things to you. I am not saying we can be 100% independent and do everything ourselves, because there are just somethings individuals cannot do as effectively by themselves.

I am not saying that people cannot ask for assistance or that asking for help is bad, rather I am saying that instead of seeking help from those in positions of authority instead we should turn to ourselves first and our fellow Americans second. When I say our fellow American I am not saying the government but instead I mean our friends and family, our neighbors and local communities. This would increase the effectiveness of the type of help as well as the accountability of those who are seeking help.

For example if you see a homeless person and think, ‘if only they had more money their life would be better’ you might actually be making the problem worse. If that homeless person is addicted to drugs and is not serious about getting clean, more money could actually make their life worse.

They would spend all the money on their drug of choice, increasing the likelihood of an increase in drug traffic to the area. The homeless person could overdose and do serious damage to their body or someone else they came across while under the influence of the drug. For the homeless person it might be more beneficial, in part, to be poor because they are unable to feed their destructive drug habit.

A large federal system set up to help give money to this poor person is not going to be able to understand their individual needs. A local community would know it will only make it worse to give the person money but might understand that when they are ready, rehab would be a more effective method of assistance to that person.

Ending Identity Politics

I think it would be beneficial to describe what I mean when I use the term identity politics. Identity politics is advocating for a group of people based on an immutable characteristic.

There is a differences between advocating for the rights of a particular group as opposed to advocating for human rights which include a particular group. For example it is different to advocate for black rights as opposed to human rights for black people.

Black rights imply that there are specific rights that only apply to black people, while human rights for black people means to include them in the same rights as everyone else. A clear example of this sort of identity politics can be seen in the SAT.

As reported in the LA Times people get additional points depending upon race. Black individuals get an additional 230 points simply for skin color, meanwhile Asians are penalized 50 points for their skin color.

This is the truth about the racism of identity politics. It creates a stereotype box to place people in based on immutable characteristics, assuming everyone with that characteristic is exactly the same.

America was founded on the idea that you are more than your skin color, national identity, or national origin. You are an individual and as an individual you have the sovereignty to make choices for yourself and to run your own life. Instead of being an Irish-American or African-American we are all just Americans.

I am talking about the end of identity politics on both the left and the right. An individual’s identity is more than just a single characteristic. People are not simply black or white, male or female, gay or straight, but rather an uncountable number of identities that come together to form an individual.

Identity politics on both the left and right is simply the reemergence of Marxist collectivism. At its core this collectivism has a built in philosophy of hatred. Originally Marx proposed that the proletariat were justified in hating, and subsequently morally justified in destroying, the bourgeoisie because they were being oppressed.

Identity politics changed this by generalizing the concept. Instead of classes of people such as proletariat and bourgeoisie identity politics used oppressor and oppressed. They then set about to separate people into stereotypical groups and identifying one group as oppressed and another group as oppressor.

Under this type of thinking men oppress women, straight people oppress LGBTQ people, cis people oppress trans people, white people oppress people of color and abled people oppress disabled people.

The reason identity politics needs to divide people up in this way is because the entire worldview is based on power. To an identitarian there is nothing but power and the world is just these groups at war for more power for their group.

As more people start to play the game of identity politics on the left, in the name of compassion no less, they start to force people to the Alt-Right. Independent journalist Tim Pool does an excellent job describing this in his video The Danger of Anti-White Identitarianism in Mainstream News.

He explains how the growth and power of identity politics on the left is fueling the growth of identity politics on the right. Which in turn fuels the growth of identity politics on the left. Both sides see this as a good thing because ultimately they are both identitarians who seek a racial consciousness awakening in all people.

Make America Great Again opposes this sort of collectivism in favor of the foundational idea that the individual is what matters most. If the group is what matters most then you, the individual, only matter insofar as you are part of the group and follow the stereotype of that group. Meaning you do not matter very much when it comes to the group.

Make Men Masculine Again

I know how this sort of statement will be twisted by those who are either ideologues or under ideological possession. They will say that what it really means is that I want women to go back into the kitchen and to be subservient to men. That I seek to go back to a time when women were oppressed. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I am not talking about women but rather talking about men and boys. There is a general sense that masculinity is toxic, that it is nothing but violence, patriarchy and rape culture and that men and boys are nothing but the embodiment this toxicity.

Toxic masculinity is a real thing but it is not the result of too much masculinity, rather it is the result of too little masculinity and the suppression of masculine behaviors. This starts with absent fathers and the rise of single motherhood. This is in part due to men not accepting responsibility for themselves and their own actions and in glorifying the single mother.

I understand why single mothers are glorified. They work, they care for children and balance everything on their own. It is a journey filled with suffering, difficulty, and tribulation that is worthy of respect. We also need to look at the outcome of that journey, what did you produce with all your suffering and sacrifice?

Boys with little respect for authority, with no real example of a masculine ideal or role model, and men who are simply boys in adult bodies. These boys grow into the adults that will marry and form relationships with our daughters. Men who do not understand what it means to be a man, to take responsibility for themselves and those around them.

This suppression continues as boys enter into public school. Boyish behavior is looked down upon as disruptive and bad. Girls are seen as the gold standard, while boys are seen as simply defective girls. Recess is rapidly vanishing across the country, competitive games like tag and dodgeball are being banned, and boys are more likely to become suspended for simply acting like boys.

These difficulties lead to fewer men going to college and even fewer men graduating college. Instead they seek any form of masculine behavior they can find. They get into video games, they get taken in by a gang, or they simply never leave mom’s basement.

Men and boys need to be encouraged and to willingly accept responsibility for the need the world has of them. We need to stop alienating young men as nothing more than oppressive tyrants in waiting. Instead men need to know that the world needs them, not as a collective but as individuals.

We need to get back to a time when men were providers. Not because women are incapable of providing but because by taking responsibility for providing you decrease the amount of suffering not only for yourself but for those around you.

Take the single mother example from before and look at the suffering she has to go through to attempt to balance work, family, and home. Would it not be great to ease that suffering with the help of a responsible man who can help with the kids, bring in additional income, and help take care of the house?

The history of couples is not the history of men dominating women, but men and women working together to increase the chances of survival not only of themselves but of their offspring.

We as a society need to stop demonizing masculinity. At the same time men need to accept the responsibility that they are needed in society.

The Family

The family used to be celebrated as the building block of our social structure. Over time this foundation has been eroded by both incentives in the form of welfare and social stigma in the form of discouraging women who want to be mothers.

Our welfare system was designed to help those we saw as the most vulnerable, namely single mothers. While the intention was good the unintended consequence of these programs is that we are providing incentives to people to remain in their current situation.

This is understandable because while you might not have much on welfare at least it is better than having nothing. Why risk what little you have in an attempt to gain a little more when you could end up losing it all and being worse off?

This same system incentivizes women to have more children and no husband. It is this incentive that in part results in the rise in single motherhood. Imagine you go into the welfare office because you are struggling. When you sit down with the social worker they ask you a bunch of questions but they will also tell you how to get additional welfare.

They will say things such as If you were single you could get more EBT benefits or if you dropout of college we could also pay your rent and get you a cell phone. It is these financial benefits that cause people who would normally consider getting married to hold off in order to get more benefits, especially if they have children together.

To some people getting married is just signing a piece of paper at the courthouse. In reality it is far more than that, it is a promise you make in front of all your friends, family and community to another person to spend the rest of your life together. To love and support each other and to share in both the joys and suffering of life. It is much harder, morally, socially and legally to end a marriage then it is to end a dating relationship.

So if you incentivize people to remain single by giving them more welfare benefits you erode the institution of marriage. With the corruption of this institution you start to see the breakdown of the family.

Another part of this is the social stigma around wanting to become a mother and a stay at home wife. Instead women are told that in order to be happy and successful you must go out and have a career. If that is what a woman wants to do, great more power to her, but if she wants to be a stay at home mom, raise her children and take care of her family she is questioned.

This is probably best embodied in the evolution of the feminist movement. Feminism originally wanted women to be able to have equal choice and opportunity on the same footing as men. Yet lately it has evolved into a Marxian movement that seeks to frame men as oppressors and women as oppressed who are locked in a struggle for power.

This is because some feminists believed that once you gave women the opportunity to seek a career instead of having a family that women would pursue the career. They believed that they would see more women in positions of power and in part they were correct, just not at the level they had hoped.

This reality failed to materialize as expected, so instead of accepting reality and working with it they looked around for a reason why their predictions failed to manifest. This is where you get politicians shaming women for voting for Trump and saying that they only did so because their husbands pressured them into doing so.

This is the same sentiment used to shame women away from being mothers. It is the idea that you can only be a strong, good, woman if you do exactly what I want you to do. It is as if they are saying you can only be an independent woman if you live your life the way I say you should or vote how I think you should vote.

This is an attitude of condescension toward women who might have a different opinion on how to best live their own life. It is as if they believe you are weak if you make a different choice and that the only way you would have made a different choice is if you were forced or pressured into it by a man.

I can think of nothing more noble then to make the choice to become a mother and raise a family. It is willfully accepting a responsibility that will be around for the rest of your life. A responsibility that, if taken seriously and done properly, will be a lot of work but will yield a lot of love and happiness.

Family is important, a strong family will make strong individuals. Society is made up of individuals and if you want a strong healthy society you must start with the family.

Love of Country

You do not love something because it is perfect, rather you love something in spite of its flaws. America is not perfect but compared too many other places on earth throughout time it is an exceptional place. A shining light of freedom and liberty in a dark brutal world full of violence and oppression.

Make America Great Again means that it is okay to be a proud American. To love your country and what it stands for. The principles of freedom and liberty and the understanding that we as individuals and as a country do not always live up to those principles but those principles are good and important.

It was this mutual understanding of the value of these principles that united the country. They allowed us to disagree on topics while at the same time accept that was okay because we all shared these basic principles.

Lately we have seen a rise in anti-American sentiment. I have personally been called a Nazi and a fascist in Portland Oregon for carrying the American flag. Another person, who came out to protest Patriot Prayer, a pro-American right wing group, was assaulted because he was flying the American flag.

This was not done by the people he came to protest but by people who call themselves Anti-fascists. And what did the other ‘peaceful’ protesters around this man do when he was brutally attacked for carrying the American flag? They watched and left him lying on the ground bleeding. His only crime was that he was carrying the American flag. A flag that is a symbol of freedom and liberty.

There are people who seek to shame you into not loving America. They see America as an evil oppressor across the world and in this country but they fail to accept or recognize that the American people are living in the most prosperous time in human history.

They have no gratitude for the sacrifices of previous generations that helped lead us to this point in world history. They take for granted the peace and plenty that we have as if this is the norm. In reality what we have here is rare.

Most of human history is the story of war and suffering. Of countries that are run by people who are more than happy to kick down your door in the middle of the night and kill you if they believe you are a threat or have expressed opposition.

You have protesters in the street chanting things like ‘No Trump, no wall, no USA at all.’ You have politicians telling crowds that America was never really great. You have politicians openly calling for the harassment of cabinet members of a sitting president and who are cheered by a crowd for doing so.

You can disagree with the president, you can protest, you can vote for who you think will run the country best, and you can oppose policy. All of that is part of what makes America great. There is a difference between doing those things out of a love for your country and out of a hatred for your country.

The American author Mark Twain said it best when he said “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” The ideals and principles of individual liberty and freedom, ideals such as free speech, the right to peaceably assemble, and freedom of religion, are the ideals that America was founded on. It is these principles that people refer to when they say they are proud to be an American and that they love America.

The Rule of Law

Some people try to conflate the meaning of the phrase rule of law with the meaning of systemic oppression. Rule of law simply means that you enforce the law as it was written regardless of the emotional outburst it creates in a vocal minority or the damage it may do to your chances of reelection.

We elect people to make and enforce the law, not pick and choose which sections of the law they would like to enforce and which they would like to ignore. That is something a king or a tyrant would do.

If the president or a police officer or an enforcement agency does not enforce the law they are essentially sweeping it under the rug for someone else to deal with. If the law is not enforced how are we the people supposed to know if the law is good or bad, effective or ineffective? How would we know if it needs to be altered or abolished?

If a law is not enforced and then enforced by someone who is following the law then it comes across as selective enforcement. If you are selectively enforcing the laws then you are circumventing the will of the people whose government created those laws. When you selectively enforce the law you are placing the authority of the individual invested with the power to enforce the law over the rule of law.

The rule of law is important because it sets up a system of impartial rules that apply to everyone equally. It should not take into account the wealth, status, race, religion or any factor other than the law itself and the actions of those accused of violating the law. It is the idea that the law should rule the country not an authority.

Freedom of Speech

A few years ago it would have been unthinkable to attack freedom of speech. Hate speech legislation is just that, an attack on freedom of speech. What am I trying to say here? Basically I want to say that with the rise of PC culture and the idea of hate speech we are seeing attacks on one of the important foundational principles of our society.

People who defend the idea of hate speech typically try to explain that all they are trying to do is make people more polite or that they are just trying to protect marginalized people. The only problem with hate speech is that what is and is not hate needs to be defined.

That is the rub, who gets to define what is hate speech? Should we allow the president to do it? That would mean Donald Trump gets to decide what is and is not hate speech, is that a power you want to invest into that office?

The truth is that the people who will get to define what is and is not hate speech are the people you least want to do that job. The idea of hate speech, or that free speech is just a cover for hate, is another form of appealing to authority to enforce your beliefs.

Along with the right of freedom of speech comes the responsibility to speak truthfully, honestly, and clearly. Failure to do so results in the erosion of freedom of speech by violating the trust between individuals.

Making America Great Again

For me this is what Make America Great Again means. It means getting back to the first principles of our country. The ideas and ideals it was founded on and stop chastising people for the sins of the past and taking credit for accomplishments of the past.

What matters is what you do as an individual. Become self-reliant so that you do not need to be dependent on the state. End the tribal cycle of identity politics that only serves to pit groups of people against each other.

Recognize the positive aspects of masculinity and end the attack on men and boys. The family unit has done well to serve humanity for thousands of years and we mess with that institution at our own peril.

You should love your country, not blindly but honestly accepting the flaws but understanding the value of the principles on which it was founded. Understand the importance of the rule of law and of freedom of speech. Getting back to this first principles is what it means to me when I hear the phrase Make America Great Again.