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Issues
Pro-Life
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” as endowed by “the Laws of Nature, and Nature’s God.” If we cede one, we cede them all. The unborn child is a separate being from his/her mother, and terminating that life is feticide. There are proven life-long physical and emotional damage to the mother of a terminated child that cannot be merely brushed aside for ideological convenience.
There are obvious hardships to carrying any pregnancy to term, but none of them amount to a capital crime by the unborn child. Also, allowing feticide to cover a crime such as rape precludes justice against the perpetrator, and the failure of the justice system to properly prosecute such crimes cannot be justification to commit another. Allowing abortion through birth, and denying life saving measures to an infant delivered alive, and permitting the use of their bodies in research for organ transplants will usher in a new low in human trafficking and organ harvesting not seen since the holocaust. Given the prevalent placement of feticide clinics in minority neighborhoods should demonstrate that Margaret Sanger's Eugenic dream lives on.
Pro-Gun
Democrats refuse to prosecute crimes committed with guns, while wanting to turn law-abiding gun-owners into criminals, and place them at the mercy of the actual criminals they released.
“Shall not be infringed” seems pretty clear; infringements must be excised from the law United States Bill of Rights, Amendment II, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Colorado Bill of Rights, ARTICLE II, Section 13. “Right to bear arms. The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons.”
Red Flag Laws: No! Violating Due Process is no excuse for violating the Second Amendment.
Amendment V “No person shall ...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;”
ARTICLE II, Section 25. “Due process of law. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”
School Choice
2016 Colorado Public Schools
Since the Colorado Constitution precludes appropriating money to any entity “not under the absolute control of the state,” tax credits should be applied in support of a child’s education, which is not the same as providing “aid of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatsoever.”
“Of Colorado’s $9,575 in per-student spending, $5,423 is for instruction..., of which $3,759 is for instructional salaries ... and $1,069 is for benefits...Colorado per-pupil spending also includes $149 for general administration ...and $695 for school administration.” That leaves $3309 per student per year, or approximately $5million in a school of 1500.
Assume:a teacher teaches for 4 hours, so 6hrs of classroom instruction requires 1.5 teachers students attend 6 hours per day, and the classroom has 20sf per student (500sf):
500sf at $300/sf is $150,000;
Amortized over 20years is about $1000/mo
25 students at $9575 is $239,375/yr
1.5 teachers at $75k is $112,500/yr
Classroom: $ 12,000/yr
$114,875/yr per classroom
There are numerous other expenses involved in schooling, but I think we should have a serious look at where $114,875 per classroom per year is going, and if those can be achieved in a more cost-effective manner. A large chunk is going to the State Board of Education which, from SB21-067, seems to be more focused on indoctrination, and has grown well beyond its Constitutional charter.
ARTICLE V, Section 34. “Appropriations to private institutions forbidden. No appropriation shall be made for charitable, industrial, educational or benevolent purposes to any person, corporation or community not under the absolute control of the state, nor to any denominational or sectarian institution or association.”
ARTICLE IX, Section 1. Supervision of schools - board of education. (1) The general supervision of the public schools of the state shall be vested in a board of education whose powers and duties shall be as now or hereafter prescribed by law. Said board shall consist of a member from each congressional district of the state... (there are 7).
ARTICLE IX, Section 7. Aid to private schools, churches, sectarian purpose, forbidden. Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township, school district or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatsoever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money or other personal property, ever be made by the state, or any such public corporation to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.
ARTICLE IX, Section 11. Compulsory education. The general assembly may require, by law, that every child of sufficient mental and physical ability, shall attend the public school during the period between the ages of six and eighteen years, for a time equivalent to three years, unless educated by other means.
ARTICLE IX, Section 16. Textbooks in public schools. Neither the general assembly nor the state board of education shall have power to prescribe textbooks to be used in the public schools.
Vaxx/Mask Mandate
“That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the CONSENT of the governed.”
Constitutionally, a mandate violates the “consent of the governed” and is therefore unjust.
“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” ― Galileo Galilei
Scientifically, there was no scientific basis for the mandates. The “absolute risk reduction” provided by the mRNA therapeutics NEVER exceeded 1% (per the Biologic Licensing Agreement), and fell rapidly. Political Science was the justification.
Masks create more problems than they purportedly address, and were especially damaging to children. Mr. Fauci knew and stated that masks were of no value but promoted them for political value.
Do I support mandates? “No.” They are unconstitutional, unwise, and unhealthy. In any future health crisis, the lack of transparency by the CDC, FDA, and pharmaceutical companies demands a high degree of mistrust for any future proclamations. Dr. Fauci should familiarize himself with the tale of “the Boy Who Cried “WOLF!”” The early data made the solution clear–those at risk should self-isolate, and effective preventative methods like hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin be used broadly. By their own estimations, over 85% would never even have symptoms while their body dealt with this “novel” virus, just like your body deals with trillions of viruses every day.
If the mRNA therapeutic worked, it would only provide an immune response to <15% of the virus, which Pfizer knew would provide “fertile ground among the vaccinated majority” for “a viral variant capable of evading vaccine protection.” They knew this by May of 2021 before they encouraged the vaxx’d to cram into concerts and sporting events unmasked...right before the variant outbreak in August.
Besides the immediate problem of approving a gene therapy on merely 2.5 months of preliminary data, the CDC demonstrated the grave danger with agencies empowered to make de facto laws. Laws should only be made by duly elected legislators for whom there is no provision to pass such responsibility to executive agencies.
The lockdowns also demonstrate the danger of something as benign as licensing, as one government functionary acted on behalf of another government functionary to threaten the livelihoods of non-compliant businesses even beyond the two-weeks of perpetuity.
The deadliest part of this pandemic was the “experts.”
National Geographic estimates there are over 10^30 (30 zero’s) viruses on the planet.
That is about 10^21 per person, on top of the 40,000 trillion bacteria living in and on you.
If you’re going to live in fear, you should at least have it in proper perspective.
Medical Costs
Medical providers should be allowed to accept direct payments at Medicare Rates. By paying about 1⁄5 of the billed amount, the effect is to force medical to charge 5 times the actual price in order to recoup actual costs. Those without Medicare are forced to purchase insurance, which will essentially negotiate a price closer to that allowed by Medicare, then charge a co-pay of 10-20%--essentially paying the actual cost of the procedure. Direct-pay patients more efficiently forgo the administrivia required to collect from MediCare and Insurance.
Occupational Licensing
The COVID lockdowns demonstrated the danger in giving this power to the State, and the willingness of one group of functionaries to impose de facto laws on citizens in support of other functionaries' de facto laws. Unless there can be provisions for assuring such usurpation of property Rights can not happen again, then the State has proven itself to be untrustworthy with the power of licensure.
Term Limits
Article II, Section 1. “Vestment of political power. All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government, of right, originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.”
We cannot live by the ideals of President Lincoln “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” if our elected representatives become a separatist class of elite governors. Term limits are the only way to make certain a return to legislation by statesmen who serve, then return to live under the law. Any one State could impose term limits on its own representatives, but that would place them at disadvantage among the legislators of other states.
I am afraid that while Article V convention of States is an appealing shortcut to that end, it should be approached cautiously since it stands to put the people who are the problem in charge of solving the problem. Instead, it might be a better idea for individual States to pass term limit legislation to go into effect when a plurality of states have done so as well. While the convention seems a great shortcut, we need to ensure full control of the genie before we release him from his bottle.
Not sure about this one yet... much of the problem we had in CO was that the emergency orders were done when the legislature was out of session. I don’t know if they tried to use the 2⁄3 to request an emergency session, but if it was mostly democrats, then I'm sure they were happy to just let Polis pole us.
Emergency Government Operations
ARTICLE VIII Section 3. (4a) describes a "Disaster emergency" as “the occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, illness, or loss of life or property resulting from an epidemic or a natural, man-made, or technological cause.”
If such a disaster makes State government in Denver untenable, then “ after consulting with the chief justice of the supreme court, the president of the senate, and the speaker of the house of representatives, the governor may designate a temporary meeting location for the general assembly.”
Then “the general assembly shall convene at the temporary meeting location, whether during regular session or in a special session convened by the governor or by written request by two-thirds of the members of each house.”
The Colorado Constitution does not indicate the Governor can legislate denial of constitutional Rights for any reason, yet the misuse of Executive Orders has done essentially that.
The Legislative session should be trimmed by two weeks, with those days being held in reserve for an emergency session, and remaining in-session until culmination of the emergency, with legislators working with their district medical and first responders.
Climate
While it is our responsibility to be good stewards of the planet we’ve been given, it is also incumbent on us to make wise choices for the benefit of all. The current green movement has little to do with Climate and everything to do with Control.
The only thing “green” about “Green Energy” is the dollars flowing to the ilk of Gore & Kerry. “Green Energy” is primarily manufactured in China because of no environmental constraints and expendable slave labor. “Green Energy” destroys large swaths of the environment and does nothing for climate. But, it makes you feel virtuous as long as you don’t actually think about it.
Climate Change is responsible for unprecedented levels of gullibility.
The Story of Chicken Little was not about farm animals, it was about human nature. Spoiler alert: the sky really wasn’t falling, Chicken Little got her friends killed, and the sly fox gorged like a king because they did not stop to think.
What follows is a scientific discussion, but Climate Change is an emotional issue. It is yet another existential esoteric threat to keep you in a fight-or-flight mode, which fuels your muscles and depletes your brain. You’ll be given one side of the issue, with unverifiable numbers with no comparisons for perspective.
Small Business
Entrepreneurs and small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy and our communities. They are the backbone of “the middle class” so hated by the State because they are disparate, and more difficult to control.
Big Government loves Big Business because a few at the top can be bribed or coerced into betraying the many in the trenches. While the lockdowns shuttered 600,000 businesses, the megaliths fed on their corpses and raked in record profits. We even see businesses Politicians will talk about adding more Trojan Horse Policies “that encourage job creation,” and “incentives for smart development,” but where government money and favors flow, “ABSOLUTE CONTROL” and meddling follows. Historically, there is no problem the government makes that it cannot make worse with a “solution.”
“Were we directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
“(Should we) commit to the governor and council the management of all our farms, our mills and merchants’ stores? No, my friend, the way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to.”
Thomas Jefferson
The Government doesn’t need to encourage small business, it needs to get out of the way.
I think our best way forward is what I call Free Marketism–”From each according to his motivation, to each according to his utility.” Even if well intended, legislation to encourage business ends up encouraging graft and corruption.
Individual Responsibility
While being individually sovereign should absolve us of governmental intervention and tyranny, it does not absolve us of our responsibilities. Instead, it allows us to take care of our responsibilities without government interference.
Is it truly charity if it is done at gunpoint, and ultimately that is the nature of taxation. Before we think in terms of the things we’d like the government to handle, we should first consider whether those are things over which we would like the government to have “absolute control,” because that is the cost of legislatie appropriation.
Too long to copy here, "Not Yours to Give" (James J Bethune, 1867) is an excellent essay on governmental benevolence, and likely a previously unknown aspect of Colonel Davey Crocket.
“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it”
HL Mencken
“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast view beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service, when it is violating His Laws.”
John Adams
“The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.”
Dr. Thomas Sowell
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive ... those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience”
CS Lewis
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
Gerald R. Ford, 38th President