Congratulations, To Whoever Wins, and Good Game

I know people still have time to vote today in the primary, but I wanted to say congratulations to whoever wins.

This was my first time taking part in a primary under a specific party and it sure was an exciting primary season.

Royal Rumble

This year we had a lot of candidates for the governor’s race. Ten candidates at least, with a few more refusing to run. Bruce Cuff pulled out of the race to throw his support over to Greg Wooldridge.

It was great to see so many passionate people who desired a chance to get our state back on track. It would have been nice to see some of these talented and worthy people aim at other offices so we can balance out the state in other areas as well.

In the end we had three candidates who stood out above the rest: Knute Buehler, Greg Wooldridge, and Sam Carpenter.

Rough and Tumble

This year was a rowdy primary season. Each of the front runners had strengths and flaws in their campaign, which were exploited by the other candidates.

Of course this created tensions between supporters of different candidates who defended their preferred candidate with a passion and love for their state.

Buehler was seen as a moderate, this would help win over unaffiliated voters and disaffected Democrats, but created trouble with the base Republicans who felt he was at odds on certain topics such as abortion and the right to bear arms.

The Carpenter campaign seemed like an imitation Trump campaign. Carpenter was ready for a street fight and his fighting spirit is admirable, but his campaign was perhaps too eager for a fight. His campaign manager and a brigade of supporters attacked anyone who dared to disagree.

As Republicans and conservatives we have had to deal with these sort of tactics before from Progressive Democrats. This did not sit well with many people but drew in those who were tired of establishment Republicans that would seemingly roll over without a fight.

Wooldridge had lots of support but entered the race very late. He did not have the time to get a solid campaign up and running. By the time he started to become a contender most people had already chosen a candidate to back. A boost came when Bruce Cuff withdrew from the race and endorsed Wooldridge.

It would have been interesting to see Wooldridge as a candidate if he had joined the race sooner, but his late entry was a major handicap.

Good Game

At the end of each of my high school football games we would line up on the 50 yard line and walk down the middle of the field and high five the other team while saying good game. At the time I understood that it was sportsmanship and the right thing to do, even if I did not fully understand why.

Now, looking back, I understand the lesson taught by that action. That even if we were playing against each other as hard as we could, not giving an inch without a fight, we respected the other players. We did not love them, or even liked them, but we shared a bond of giving our all for our team while trying to win the game.

Each candidate fought a hard primary because we are all passionate about our principles and our love for our state.

So I am here to say to the winner of the primary, whoever that is, good game. The battle is over (or will be soon) and I will support you in the next part of this contest.

Sam Carpenter: By Any Means Necessary

Recently a photo was circulated by the campaign manager for Sam Carpenter. This photo showed respected Republican and Communications Director for the Wooldridge campaign, Jonathan Lockwood at a fundraiser for Maria Garcia.

Maria Garcia is running for Multnomah County Commissioner and is a moderate Democrat, who has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders.

Since then I have been watching the activity of the Carpenter Campaign, especially the activities of his campaign manager David Bacon Gulliver and the hyper active brigade of supporters that surround him.

First let’s look at the events of a few weeks ago.

The Lockwood Affair

It did not take long for David Bacon Gulliver, Sam Carpenters campaign manager, to start casting aspersions on Lockwood, calling him an “LGBTQ activist bomb-thrower” and labeling Garcia as a “radical socialist.”

Make Oregon Great Again, who is strongly tied to the Carpenter campaign, echoed this sentiment and was followed by Carpenter loyalists online.

The problem is they missed a few things in their rush to judgement. One Lockwood is an independent contractor working on the Wooldridge campaign not a direct staffer.

Two he did not directly raise funds for Garcia, simply attended a fundraiser for her as a local business owner interested in local politics.

Third he was allegedly fired from the moderate Knute Buhler campaign for being too Republican.

Also Garcia is a staunch anti public employee-labor union advocate. While she was endorsed by Sanders and does support sanctuary status at least she has some common ground with a few Republicans.

Doubling Down

Instead of recognizing that they are creating fractures within the Republican Party Carpenter and his loyalist supporters doubled down and deflected.

They tried to say they were just questioning what Lockwood was doing and that they are standing up for true Republican values. You know the same excuse your nephews give you when you catch them with their hand in the cookie jar and they say they just wanted to make sure the cookies were still there for later.

It did not work when you were kids so what makes you think it would be any different now that you are adults? Also if you had a backbone you would have taken it up personally with Lockwood first.

Instead you were more interested in the public attention you would get for virtue signaling as opposed to doing the real work and sacrifice that it actually takes to have real virtue.

Same Team?

The Oregon Tea Party has released communications from Sam Carpenter’s Campaign manager, David Gulliver, showing him directing Carpenter supporters to paint other conservatives as racists and bigots.

This is to be done to “make Greg [Wooldridge]…ashamed to have them.” This tactic might be effective online and provide short term gain, it does damage in the long run when you have Republicans calling each other racists. It just adds credibility, or at least the appearance of credibility, to the Progressive’s baseless accusations that the Republican Party is the party of racism.

This is the same sort of tactics used by the mainstream media against President Trump. They would say his supports are bigots, racists and violent and when protesters would attack Trump supporters they would say ‘violence erupts at Trump rally’ implying that those who are violent are the Trump supporters. Inferring that Trump is to blame for the violence done by Progressive protesters.

David and his comrades also engage in an online tactic known as brigading. Brigading is a concentrated effort by one online group to manipulate another, usually through mass commenting and down voting. Generally speaking this is an acceptable form of discourse online as it does not seek to silence anyone but rather promotes a differing opinion. Of course it is the internet so expect a few trolls to pop up now and again.

The point of this tactic is to make it appear that there is overwhelming support for one topic, issue or person and drowns out the voices of those who disagree or dissent. If you pay attention you will often see the same small group of people commenting and liking pro-Carpenter propaganda. It also gives the false impression of overwhelming success, which will draw people in who think that he has massive support, when in reality his support base is a minority of people cycling through.

Here are what I believe to be a few members of the brigade: Lori Tiger Davis, David Bacon Gulliver, Carol Leek, Helen Church, and Mary Wellman. Of course you will find a few others who comment and post but they have been taken in by this group think mentality more suited for Social Justice Warriors than free thinking liberty loving individuals.

They even deny reality when confronted with the evidence. Even when provided with screen shots they still deny the truth. The same way the Progressive’s deny biology when it suits them. In this conversation they cannot refute the evidence, so they fall back on personal attack. They call the person dissenting a liar and claim he is engaging in a smear campaign while doing they engage in the same.

My Opinion

These are just a few examples of this sort of behavior.

These sort of tactics accomplish a few different things. One they make people feel like Carpenter is ready and willing to fight it out. It would seem that he is so eager to fight that he is attacking his own party. People want a Republican who is not so soft and who is willing to say I stand for Republican values and I am not ashamed to actively promote and defend them.

Using this on your own party, while it might benefit in the short term, only creates problems in the long term. It gives the Democrats ammunition for the general election and causes sore relationships among party members.

Sam Carpenter, I doubt you are ignorant of the things going on in your own campaign. Meaning that you are not only allowing this sort of behavior to happen, but are fostering and promoting it.

Of course the comments to this blog will be much of the same. You will get people posting things like ‘MOGA’ and ‘Carpenter for Governor’, and ‘I am with Sam.’ You will also get people saying this is nothing but a smear job or a hit piece and they will call me a liar. They will seek to attack me and ruin any credibility I may have while putting me on trial in the court of public opinion.

That is the essence of social justice and we have seen it throughout the history of the world when people try to speak the truth. From Galileo, to Jesus, to Socrates. I am not saying I am anywhere near comparison to these great people, but that we need to learn from their example that the loudest and angriest voices are often not the correct ones.

Republican Governors Speak Up

The Westside Republican Meet Up this Sunday was larger than normal. Usually we have fifteen to twenty people at the meeting, but as I walked into the meeting room, it was packed, every seat was taken and a few people were standing in the back.

This meeting was different, this month we had four candidates for Governor, along with a couple of people running for county offices. This is going to be my impression about the candidates for Governor who spoke at this event.

Bruce Cuff: The Underdog Preacher

When Bruce first got up to speak the impression I got was that he seemed like a very friendly approachable man. This impression was not lost when he started to speak.

He spoke about resource management and the poor performance of Oregon’s school system. He said all the right things and made a lot of sense on issues like immigration.

Unfortunately he was not very memorable, more like that person you like and enjoy talking to when you meet them, but forget about when they are not around.

Looking at his website he stands for a lot of things that are important to a lot of Republicans but he did not seem like he was ready to take the state.

Knute Buehler: The Moderate

The first thing I noticed about Knute Buehler is that he seemed incredibly comfortable in front of the crowd. He spoke clearly and appeared much more polished. He also has experience in public office, representing Bend since 2015 as a Republican.

He held a more moderate stance and spoke a lot about working together with the Democrats to put Oregon on the right path. He seemed to want to bring more of a balance to the politics in Oregon.

I had mixed feelings about this, on the one hand I would agree with what he said, we do need more balance. Yet on the other he seemed too eager to engage with the Democrats, something that might be exploited or turn away Republican voters.

At the end of the day he had the look, feel, and sound of someone who would be an effective leader.

Greg Wooldridge: The Boss

Greg Wooldridge has leadership experience, being the squad leader for the Blue Angels, where he was nicknamed ‘Boss’. He has experience with teams that have had problems and he has been able to turn them around.

When he was speaking he seemed incredibly comfortable, even when he made a mistake in remembering a word. He played it off well but he did not seem as polished as Buehler. It is clear that he truly has a deep love for the state of Oregon and wants to move it in the correct direction.

Yet his late entry into the race has left him a little behind the other candidates. He did not seem to have everything ready at this time, but it did not come across as incompetence.

He did point out several problems he sees with Oregon that he believes he can fix and from his speech he seems to be confident in his ability to do so.

Sam Carpenter: The Oregon Trump

When I first arrived I found an open seat and quickly claimed it. No one occupied the chairs next to me but I was told they were already taken. Little did I know that I was sitting next to Sam Carpenter.

Sam is a business man through and through, which he quickly pointed out in his speech. He was the only candidate who seemed as if he was ready for a fight. He was tired of Progressives running the state and wanted to Make Oregon Great Again.

He did not shy away from the fight and, along with his slogan, seemed to be the Oregon Trump. He wants to put Oregon first and take care of Oregonians first.

He was not polished, he was direct, he was not mild mannered, he was passionate, he was not a politician, he was all business.

I got a chance to talk with him afterward and listen to a few questions other asked him. He did not know all the little details of each issue, but he was confident in his ability to surround himself with competent people he could trust.

Personal Criticism

The first thing I noticed was that the room was full of older people. Older people have experience and the wisdom of life, so this is not an attack on old people. Instead it led to a sense that the party is not getting young people on board.

Now is the time, young people are energized and looking to take part in the world. Missing this chance to show young people that there is something more than the endless screaming of rights and oppression the left has fed them for 40 years.

Whichever candidate can reach young people will be the one with the best shot at winning the state.

It was said a few times that while we can battle it out in the primary but that once we select a candidate we need to come together. This is very true, sitting on the sideline and refusing to vote because you are mad that your guy did not win is not the correct way to act.

No matter how much you do not like or agree with the Republican candidate, the Democrat candidate will be far worse. They will not care about you because they do not need your vote to win, they just need you to not vote.