This is just a sample of the things important to me

I pay attention to a lot of different things and have an opinion on most of them.  I doubt that I will ever be able to list every issue that I have an opinion on, but I can list a sample which indicates my way of thinking.  I am starting with just a few issues but it will be a growing list.  You can use the contact page to ask me about other issues that you think should be included here.

 

 

Abortion

Life begins at conception.  Killing any innocent human for any reason and at any age is morally wrong, but I do believe in one exception and that is self defense.  If someone, even a baby, becomes a physical threat to the life of a woman, it is moral to eliminate the threat.  If the threat is only for economic wellbeing or embarrassment of the mother then that is not a life or death choice and it is not moral to kill for that reason.  

Capital Punishment

Execution and abortion both end a life and some see no difference.  The difference is innocence.  If a criminal received a fair trial and was found guilty of murder, rape or torture, he must be punished.  Death penalty for serious crimes is a detourant.  

Common Core

Common Core by itself is not a problem.  It is the  symptom of the much larger problem of government overreach.  We the people have demanded that the government do for us what we should have done for ourselves.  The government responded by not only doing what the people demanded but created more situations that caused an even greater demand for government service.   We have been falling down the pit of government dependancy for generations, but at such a gradual pace that few notice. 

One of the places that government overreach should have been most obvious is in education.  That is the place where government intersects with our children and grand children.  Government has interfered with local schools from the time of seperate but equal,  into the school of your choice, and concent decree times.  It continued into the times of gerrymandered school zones and race ballance by forced bussing.  We saw prayer and devotionals being outlawed.  We saw the so called "new math" come into play.  We saw the Department of Education become a federal cabinate position.  We saw revisionist history being taught and we the people worried a little about it but never really made a stand.  Now we have Common Core.  The answer to stoping Common Core is not to fight only against Common Core.  We have to make a total effort against all forms of goernment oerreach.  

Gun Control

The second amendment to the US constitution says that the right to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed. 

Keep means to own.  Bare means to carry, but there is no mention of how to carry.  The terms open or concealed never appear in the second amendment.  Arms means any kind of weapon.  It can be a fire arm or it might be a rock.  It might even be a battle ship.

The second amendment protects citizens in the right to keep and bare the arms of our choice but it does not say that illegal use of any weapon is legal.  If you kill someone with an illegal military style weapon or beat him to death with a ball peen hammer, he is still dead and it is murderer who did it and not the weapon.

Homosexual marriage

If people wants to hire a lawyer to make a contract for cohabitation or division of property, they are already free to do that.  The problem is calling such arrangements "Holy Matrimony"  If someone wants to have a ceromony they have that right but they should never demand that a church or our government sanction that sort of union.

There is an organized and well financed gay rights push going on in our nation.  They are asking for a progresive list of demands that can never be met because they keep asking for more.  It did not start with marriage but with an end to open discrimination but the definition of discrimination kept moving from beatings to joking to failure to respect and so on.  Now in some states a baker, photographer, or other such small business owner can be fined for something they did not do. 

After serving four years on active duty at Travis AFB in the San Fransisco Bay Area, I stayed an extra two years in a reserve unit so I could continue working with a local Baptist church.  One of the things I did to support myself was work as a teachers aid in a public school.  Being at ground zero gave me a chance to see what happens when progressives are left unchecked.  People keep asking me why homosexual issues make any difference in a deep red southern state.  They say it cannot happen here.  I know some old people in California who remember when Reagan was their governor.  They said it could not happen there.    

Road side litter

It is bad for tourism and property values.  It damages mowing equipment.  It reinforces the image that our state is backwards.  It is ugly.  I can think of nothing good to say about litter.  

There are three things to do about litter.  We already have fines for people who do it but the fines need to be higher the litter laws need to be inforced.  Another thing is a shaming campaign.  There are already a few advertisements telling people not to do it but people still do it because they feel no guilt in it.

The third part is the one that kills two birds with one stone.  We have both a litter problem and a crime problem.  Insead of continually turning criminals loose so they can continue doing damage, we should use their labor.  No more early release and short sentances because of no room in jails.  County officials are already begging for more state prisoners in their county jails and work camps because it is not only a source of money but labor.  That labor was used for clean up and other important tasks.  The  state lately has been cutting back on the programs that make that happen.  There are some safety issues and such that the department of corrections are afraid o,f but there is no problem that cannot be solved by someone who actually wants to solve it.

Taxes

We pay taxes to every level of government from federal down to the local water association, and in nearly every case we get less goods and services for our money than we would get if a for profit business handled it.   In many cases we pay taxes to buy things we do not want.  In many other cases we are paying taxes to subsidize dependancy.  As a state legislator, I will have almost no power to control waste at the federal level and only limited power at local levels.  If I had the power, I would end a lot of stupid programs including Obamacare.  There are some forms of federal waste that goes to states if they pay matching funds or modify their laws in ways the national government wants.  I might be a lone voice by saying no to a lot of that federal sugar, but I stand on principle.

 

Some people see me as dangerous because I might turn down money going to people who want the money.  I know that there are a few government programs that are not so bad and would not try to cut them.  Such things as fire and police protection should be increased.  If spending is just a special favor, I will be dangerous.

It is very popular for politicians to talk about cutting taxes in ways that do not reduce money to the government.  That is not hard to do because it is proven that putting money back into the hands of people who spend it more wisely than government can stimulate growth in the tax base and cause more money to go to the government.  Eliminating business inventory taxes would stimulate sales more than enough to replace all the money collected from inventory taxes.  My goal is not to bring in the same amount of revenue but to reduce revenue to the point that beurocracy will have to cut waste.  Reducing taxes to that level will be hard to get passed but I will try.

I already said that as a state legislator, I will have very little power over federal taxes but there is one tax proposal that I do advocate for.  That is the Fair Tax plan which would eleminate the IRS and replace the income tax with a national sales tax.     

Three Strikes you're OUT!

Jail is expensive but crime is more expensive.  We cannot afford to allow criminals to continue causing blight on our economy and being a danger to our citizens. 

If someone commits a single felony, it might be a one time thing.  If he does it again, it was not just one time.  The third time he has proven himself to be an habitual criminal and we cannot afford to give him a chance to harm a fourth victim.

I know that that law would be a hard thing to pass.  There is always the argument that jail cost too much but those who  make that argument do not factor in the cost of crime.  There is the compassion argument that has no compassion for victims.   To get it  passed our spineless legislature I might have to compromize by allowing a fourth strike or by not counting certain named felonies as strikes.

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© Elect Cliff Brown.