It is up to us
      Protecting our children, our future, and our freedom
by Curtiss Wikstrom

     America has been exceptional because most of our associations and activities have been voluntary.  We could make most of the important decisions in our lives ourselves, rather than having them made for us by a government agent or committee.   We have been free to choose our friends and associates. We have had the right to own, use, buy and sell property, rather than live as serfs or tenants of royalty or government agencies, required to get permission to do anything.
     Because of that freedom we could all create, innovate, invent, and start businesses, services, or charities.  We could start our own groups with people willing to work for the same goals or causes.  We were free to trade with each other, compete, and cooperate.  Because there are so many people creating and innovating, we have become unbelievably prosperous in comparison to the rest of the world.  Each of us benefits from the creative work of so many free people, no matter how humble our own contribution.
     When we deal with free enterprises we can patronize those that treat us the best.  If we are not satisfied doing business with one group, we can walk across the street, or drive down the road and patronize another group.  If we feel that one doctor is not finding an adequate remedy we can go get treatment from another.  Free private businesses work hard to keep us coming back for business.  They know that if we are happy with the products and services we will come back for more.
     We used to respect and protect freedom of conscience.  We were not forced to do things that we thought were morally wrong.   Even during times of war, those who could not kill others were excused from combat. We could disagree strongly on issues and still tolerate and live with each other. We could call other people wrong or mistaken without giving offense, and it didn't occur to us to call opposing views "hate speech".
     The rights of parents to make decisions was respected.  Parents and children could choose where the children were educated, whether in public or private schools, or home schooled. Public schools were run at the local level so that parents had considerable influence over who ran the school and what its policies were. This freedom does not exist in much of the world, including Europe.
     Government is an agent of force.  Force must be used to protect us from tyrants, violence, or fraud, to regulate traffic and settle disputes.  But government must be restrained and limited to its proper purposes. 
     Our Federal Constitution assumes that our rights are from God, not the government, and it limits the power of our federal government.  Government is subject to a higher authority and a higher moral code.  We have a right to overthrow the government if it tries to take our rights away from us.  That is why America has been an exceptional nation.  Other governments of the world, including the United Nations, look upon themselves, or wish they were, the highest authority.  They are the social engineers, and we are their subjects.
     Our federal and state constitutions were designed to keep most governance local or near to us, so that we have an actual voice in what force is being used, so that those who are in positions of power are more directly accountable to us. When government is close to us we have some influence over the policies and we can see how our tax money is being used and can keep it under control.  And replacing representatives and leaders can actually change the policies.  America was unique and exceptional because the power of government was limited and people could be self-reliant and responsible for their own lives.
      But we are rapidly losing the freedom to make decisions for ourselves, to disagree, and to live our lives in accordance with our moral values.
     There are always those who want central planning and extensive controls over people, and power for themselves. And they are abetted by those who seek government favors for themselves, to impose themselves on others or put limits on the freedom of others.  They have gained control over our federal government.  It is increasingly treating us like subjects, trying to control every aspect of our lives.   In the process they are destroying our prosperity and hanging an albatross of debt over us, our children, and our grandchildren.  We need to do something now before it is too late.   We must change the regime in Washington, DC. and in many of the states.

Rising above our parochial concerns
     We must vote for candidates who will protect our freedoms rather than those who will give us the most "free" stuff from the government, or provide us with special benefits or power to force ourselves on others.  The federal government gets more and more control over our lives by creating dependency, and giving special benefits and privileges to various groups. Freedom requires a higher degree of self-reliance and individual responsibility.  That is why those who want power work to destroy self-reliance and force people into government programs.
     Vote for the candidates who support balanced budgets, adherence to the checks and balances of our constitution, and adherence to the traditional moral code that underpins all of our freedoms.  If we vote selfishly, as many candidates are counting on, we will end up poorer, because we will destroy our prosperity and make ourselves slaves to debt. 

     To change the corrupt regime in Washington DC, we need to vote differently. That takes humility and courage. Many Democrats will need to bolt from their traditional voting habits for us to have any chance to save the unique freedoms that only we have in this country.   Democrats who still believe in preserving our sovereignty, protecting our basic moral values, and preserving freedom of thought, association, religion, and freedom of enterprise need to change the leadership in that party or leave it.

 The drive to relinquish our sovereignty has been very deceptive.
     To take away our local control over property rights, the internationalists have created Agenda 21.  Agenda 21 basically turns local government into an agent of the United Nations, forcing us to follow extensive rules controlling every aspect of the use of our property.  They manipulate us with global warming and population control enticements that divert attention away from the power grab.
     To take away control over how we raise our children and operate our families, the internationalists have created the UN convention on the rights of the child, the rights of the disabled, the rights of women, and so forth.  By granting rights, rather than protecting rights, the conventions put obligations and mandates on parents, local and state governments. The power grab is to give the UN court jurisdiction over families.  The UN could abolish the right to private schooling or home schooling (a freedom that other countries don't have), and punish those who don't comply through the World Court.  It could force schools to teach how to engage in Sodomy despite objections from parents or the local community.  There are cases in Europe, especially Great Britain, illustrating the oppressive power this gives UN officials who don't share our values.  Very few countries in the world have as much freedom as we have, including the right to bear arms.  Most other countries would not vote to keep that freedom. 
     To control our operations in the open seas there is the UN convention on the law of the SEA.  This essentially transfers sovereignty over the oceans to the UN, giving the UN extensive power, and furthering world government.  They want to directly tax individuals, once again giving them jurisdiction over individuals.
     Obama, and the Clintons, have signed the conventions.  Most Democratic officeholders support relinquishing sovereignty to the UN, and a handful of Republicans do.  But Republican opposition in the Senate has been enough to stop these treaties so far. Our Constitution requires the Senate to ratify treaties. Romney has stated that he opposes ceding sovereignty to the UN over matters that should be under parental, local, or state jurisdiction.   It is very important that we vote for a President, and for senators, who will protect our sovereignty, and who understand what makes us free.  It is very important to replace the President and Senators of either party who support these treaties.   Michael Baumgartner would protect our sovereignty and should get our vote.  Maria Cantwell does not.

Protecting our traditional Moral Code
     Most of the problems that we face in this country are a result of the abandonment of the moral code that underpins all of our freedoms.  Without that moral code, we cannot be free.
     The most serious consequence of the abandonment of the moral code is the breakdown in the family structure.  The federal and state governments have aided and abetted this moral breakdown by creating dependency and by facilitating sexual promiscuity and deviancy.
     If young men and women were taught how to love God and their fellow man, waited until they found the right partner, and got married before having children, the vast majority of our social problems would be resolved at a fraction of the cost to society.   Abortion clinics, counseling and remedial clinics could be closed.  Whole agencies of government could be disbanded and the people working there could get into productive work.

Protecting our children from Exploitation:   Penetration of the rectum, or Sodomy, is dangerous and unhealthy; physically, mentally, and emotionally.  It is filled with harmful substances which the body wants to excrete. No decent parent would knowingly expose their children to these unhealthy practices, nor allow those promoting the practices to exploit their children when they are most vulnerable.  We have a right to place our children under teachers who will not exploit them, nor indoctrinate them to accept unhealthy activity.  When your six year old son comes home and says "mom, I think I am a lesbian", you know that the teachers are already indoctrinating him to accept the teacher's union's word view.  We have a right to guide our children into good associations, where they will not be intimidated and exploited.  If we let them hang around with drug addicts, they will eventually experiment with drugs.  If they hang around with those with foul language, soon they will start talking that way themselves. If we let them hang around with sexual deviants, they will be coaxed, intimidated, and challenged to experiment with deviant sex. Don't believe the lies. There is no Sodomy gene. Deviant activity will multiply exponentially if our children are indoctrinated to accept it and to experiment with it.
   Those who want to exploit your children will call you a bigot, hateful, homophobe.  They will yell "I am being discriminated against".  Don't let them fool or intimidate you.   They are just substituting the word "discriminate" for the word "choice".  You have every right to choose who you and your children associate with.  You have every right to make choices in your life.  Let them yell "discrimination" all they want.  But don't give in.  It is the homosexuals who have the phobia, not you.  And they "discriminate" when they don't choose the opposite sex.  Democrats "discriminate" when they don't vote for Republicans, and atheists "discriminate" when they chose not to go to church.  Don't play those games with them. 

Protecting our Freedom of Conscience and Freedom of Association
     In addition to exposing our children to sexual exploitation, the primary consequences of redefining marriage to equate Sodomy with normal sex is to assault our freedom of conscience, and our freedom of association.
     Freedom of Conscience will be a victim of marriage redefined.  While a homosexual could simply find a justice of the peace who will do what they want, they will instead force those whose conscience are offended to perform ceremonies celebrating Sodomy or be fired.  While homosexuals could go to a state adoption agency to get children, they will violate the conscience of Catholic charities to force them to give them children, or shut them down.  While homosexuals could ask florists or others to service their celebrations who don't care about their practices, they will violate the conscience of florists who don't want to participate in celebrating Sodomy or sue them or shut them down.  Hate laws and Human rights commissions will persecute those who state their opposition to Sodomy, and Catholic Bishops will be punished financially for sending the rules on sexuality of the gospels to their parishioners.  Laws will be proposed to punish those who voluntarily help a homosexual end their unhealthy behavior.  This is not speculation.  This is already happening in other countries or states where marriage has been redefined.  However, it is not primarily homosexuals who are attacking freedom of conscience and association.  Only a small fraction of them make use of the redefined marriage laws, and most have no hatred toward Christians.  It is the "Progressives" (statists/nihilists), including activist homosexuals, who are attacking freedom of conscience and freedom of association and want to either subvert the Christian/Jewish/Muslim/etc. faiths or drive them underground.  Obama and the Clinton's are admitted members of the "Progressive" movement.  And they are financed by a number of extremely wealthy people who do not share our values.
     Freedom of Religion consists of freedom of conscience, freedom of association, and freedom of expression.

     Genuine Christians, Jew, Muslims, and other people of faith need to register and vote for candidates who respect religious freedom, traditional marriage, and the moral code that keeps us free. Even if you are not a religious person, you protect your own, and your children's freedom of expression, association, and conscience when you protect the rights of others.

Keeping our Children free from Indoctrination
     The Obama administration wants to take control of the curriculum of all schools in the United States, latching onto a national curriculum called Common Core.  Promoted by a group of private foundations who want national standards forcing all students to be indoctrinated in the same way, federal control over curriculum will put a final end to parental and local control of education.  All totalitarian states seek to indoctrinate all children, since it gives them control over the minds of the people.  We can only stop this drive to further take control away from parents by voting to replace Obama and the Democratic Senate, and to insist that those who are elected quit trying to micromanage our schools.  We had much better results many years ago when local schools were locally controlled and financed.  The state and federal interference and control has resulted in lower standards and a path to totalitarianism that we need to avoid. 

The President has failed to promote economic recovery because he has been doing exactly the wrong things.  Economic activity results when businessmen and investors reinvest their profits, not when government takes those profits away and spends them on pork barrel projects.  Profits must be re-invested to keep up in a particular industry, to expand, and to innovate.  People's needs and the means to satisfy those needs are always changing, requiring those who know what they are doing to devote resources to those new challenges.  Successful people know how to put resources to good use, which in turn provides jobs to others.  Yet the campaigns of Obama and most Democratic incumbents are focused on attacking those very people. 
     Obama tries to deceive us by saying "we don't want to go back to the failed policies of the past".  Obama is continuing the failed policies that got us into the problems that we have, and he is making them worse.  Obama still clings to the discredited "Keynesian" notion that government spending "stimulates" the economy and improves it.  Creating and spending more money does not create wealth, it just re-distributes and misallocates it.  Wealth is created by people providing useful products and services to others.  Money is just a medium of exchange.  When it is manipulated, the economy suffers.
   Economists from the Austrian School, especially Ludwig von Mises, explained why government manipulation of credit and the money supply, excessive spending, and interference were the causes of recessions and depressions. See Human Action , by Ludwig von Mises

      While we need productive jobs to create wealth, it is the wealth that we really want, not necessarily the jobs.  Time wasting jobs don't create wealth.  In the 1930's some of the "Keynesian" economists went so far as to suggest that digging a hole and filling it up "stimulated" the economy. The state of Oregon requires gas station attendants to fill your car, even though in most of the United States you can drive in and fill your.own car.  Having an attendant there and paying them is a complete waste of that person's time.  They are doing something that doesn't need to be done, rather than something that is productive.  They could be doing something that advanced their own well-being without increasing the cost of everyone else's gas.  They could be growing a garden, starting a small business that gave low cost services to other people, or studying to improve their skills in an area that has a shortage of people.  More government bureaucratic "jobs" do not add to the general wealth.  They consume part of our wealth.  Wealth is created by entrepreneurs who come up with ideas for goods and services, invest money that has been saved from prior profits, and organize resources and workers to provide those goods and services that people actually want.  Wealth is not created by keeping people in outmoded jobs.  It is created when we save time and energy, and spend our time on other things that we want.  It is a good thing to free up our time and energy.  Too many controls and red tape making it hard for people to move from job to job causes us to lose the benefits of innovations that save time and energy.  And all of the busybody laws forcing us to get permission to do anything, including improve our own house or property, make it difficult to do things for ourselves.  While Obama is at fault for expanding rules and regulations by thousands of pages, we and our neighbors are at fault for numerous local busybody regulations, thinking "nobody should be allowed to.....".  There needs to be rules.  But they need to be simple and practical, allowing people to make mistakes and learn, and to take responsibility for themselves.

Out of control federal spending is the root of our financial problems.
     Our federal government has been spending money at unprecedented levels for the past several years.  The debt has grown so large that the federal government can't afford to pay reasonable interest rates.  So the Federal Reserve forced interest rates to zero (by means of charging banks no interest on the loans from the Federal Reserve). The low interest rates mean that we can't earn anything on what used to be safe investments, forcing us into riskier investments. This causes wrong signals in the market resulting in misallocation of resources.  It also created high prices and speculation in real estate.  That was further driven by congressional policies that force banks to lend to almost anyone and then guaranteed those risky loans. To claim that the real estate and subsequent financial meltdown was due to "de-regulation" is either rank dishonesty or total incompetence.  Along with extensive credit and money creation, government interference in the lending market has never been more extreme than during this period.  The Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage, government sponsored enterprises, expand the secondary mortgage market by securitizing mortgages in the form of mortgage-backed securities. They provided 75% of the new financing that caused the housing bubble.  People from these institutions contributed heavily to Obama's campaign and now hold important positions in his administration.  This is crony capitalism at its worst. Obama works hand in glove with the same people who created the crises, and are now in charge of managing the fallout, getting bailed out by the government all along the way, making millions in the process.

Destroying the Discipline of the free market
     When through competition certain businesses get out of step with the demands of customers, or if new innovations provide customer with better products or services, or government policy changes disrupt an industry, those businesses that can't compete or otherwise survive will need to liquidate their assets and close.  Those assets and the people can be redeployed into new endeavors.  When government interferes in this market by bailing out the business that have made serious mistakes in managing their resources, or that are no longer making products that can compete in the market, it destroys the discipline of the free market, and causes serious disruptions in economic activity.
     Giving subsidies to certain businesses also destroys the discipline of the free market.  It diverts resources from more productive to less productive businesses.

Profits are essential to Discipline
     A private business must satisfy its customers or they won't buy from it.  But it also must make a profit, pay its employees, and pay its bills, or it will go out of business.  This forces the businesses to plan and operate efficiently and effectively.  Competition between businesses makes them even more efficient, because as soon as one business gives better products and better prices, the others need to innovate to keep up with the competition.  Profits need to be reinvested in new technologies and modernized equipment to keep operating and expanding.  When profits are taxed too much, a business must cut back on its plans, which means employing fewer people.  Taxes on American businesses are among the highest in the world.  Increasing them will not make investing in America and creating jobs here more attractive.   The Obama administration's claim that increasing taxes on businesses will solve all of our economic problems is completely wrong.  It will do the opposite.  They probably know that.  More than likely, attacking the so called "rich" is primarily aimed to get the jealousy vote, not an honest economic argument.

Need for Leadership
     By refusing to take action to control spending, President Obama and the Democratic Senate have brought us to a fiscal cliff.  Since our government can no longer sell bonds to keep up with its spending, most of the new spending is fed with newly created money by the Federal Reserve. This is technically accomplished when the Federal Reserve buys the debt, putting a credit balance on the books.  This is bringing us to an economic cliff.  Once all of this extra money finds its way into the economy, prices and values will change so significantly as to seriously disrupt ordinary business and economic activity.  Prices are already rising, not only gasoline prices. 
     Obama has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is incompetent to handle such an enormous economic disruption. [Or he actually wants the disaster to happen.]  We need someone who can weather us through a very bad storm.    The solution to overspending and too much debt is not more spending and adding to the debt.  It is getting the government under control and stop disrupting the economy with one program after another.  We need a President who doesn't spend most of his time golfing, traveling, or politicking.  We need a President who will role up his shirt sleeves and create compromises with Congress that will work to bring spending under control and balance the budget without increasing taxes.  Obama has not done that.  Instead he has ignored Congress and put himself above the law.
     The country is going to suffer during the recovery from this federal spending binge.  If we have someone in leadership who believes in America, recovery will bring us back to a free country.  If Obama is in charge, with a Democratic Congress, we will head into full scale socialism.  America as an ideal of liberty will be over.  The way to get a country to relinquish its freedom and accept socialism is for the government to spend so much money that they bring the whole economy down,  then blame it all on freedom.

Obama-care, or the so called "Affordable Care act" is an assault on all of our basic freedoms.
     It runs roughshod over our freedom of conscience when it forces us to purchase insurance for things that we don't want to participate in.
     Panels of bureaucrats have been put in place to develop "standards" as to how we will be treated, what treatments will be paid for, what prices the doctors may charge, which doctors qualify for insurance payments, and so forth.  This violates our basic freedoms to decide for ourselves which procedures we will take and which doctors we want to do the work.
     Obama lied when he said we will be able to choose our own doctors, just as he lied when he said this type of legislation would be transparent, with open public discussion.  In fact there was no discussion.  The Democrats in the house and Senate voted for the bill without even having the opportunity to read it.  We will have to deal with the doctors that the agencies decide provide the procedures that they will allow and are approved by the plans.  Those who are codependent with government bureaucrats will accept this way of doing things because they are willing to let others make these types of decisions for them.  Socialism creates, nurtures, and rewards dependency.  Those of us who want alternatives, to make our own choices, and to deal with doctors on a free basis will lose our freedom to do that. 
     Obama care destroys the discipline of the market for health care. 
     Mandating insurance coverage for many ordinary and expected things forces people to pay for more coverage than they would ordinarily purchase if given a free choice as to how to allocate their resources.  Since so many things are covered, people will tend to use services that they normally would not chose to pay for. To some extent this is just what the government wants.  They want everyone to have an annual checkup.  So they will force us to pay into insurance for the checkup, then offer it to us "free".  They want all women to use contraceptives to prevent pregnancies and to get abortions if they become pregnant anyway.  So they force everyone to pay insurance to cover contraceptives and abortions, and then offer them "free" to women.  However, running ordinary expenses through insurance increases the costs of those services and products.  It adds two middlemen who have to get paid, the insurance company and the government bureaucrat.  The whole purpose for insurance is to cover unexpected costs.  Government mandates to cover ordinary expenses is a driving force behind the exponential growth in health insurance premiums.  And it has reduced the competition between those who would supply us directly.
     Obama promised that health insurance premiums would go down by $2,500.  They have gone up by that, and that is even before the most onerous provisions of Obama care go into effect.  He deliberately put off the most onerous provisions until after the 2012 elections, fearing that people would be so unhappy that he would lose the election.  Then after the election, he could veto attempts to reform it.  Many new hidden taxes will come out after the election. If Obama care is so bad that we have to have the election before we are shown the true nature of it, we need to vote for people who will end it before we are consumed by it.

Free markets are essential to personal freedom.  We have the most influence when we spend our own money and buy what we want.  That is when our "vote" actually has the most influence over what we are able to get or achieve. If we aren't treated well in one store, we can walk out and do business with someone else.  This freedom creates discipline within our free markets.  Each one of us influences what we can buy and what is made for us.  A single vote in a world government that owns or manipulates the organs of information can not gain us any freedom.  However, each dollar that we spend in a free market helps us be freer.  Free markets in health care and health insurance are important.  Obama claimed that he is eliminated the "middle man".  The truth is that he created a new middleman.  A government bureaucrat will now be the middleman for everything that is done, whether by providers, insurance company, or by patients.  Red tape will multiply.  Doctors who don't like being pushed around will leave the profession, and others will simply never get into the profession.

We need a Senate that will do its job
     Spending is out of control.  This behavior is irresponsible.  We need to demand that our Senators balance the federal budget every year, or replace them.

Freedom of Religion is important to everyone, not only Christians
     If you are not a Christian, you need to be just as concerned over the loss of freedom of conscience as a Christian would.  Your children also deserve to hear about the dangerous of Sodomy, not only the propaganda trying to entice them.  Non-Christians also have personal standards of ethics.   You may want to choose who you want to do business with, and who to associate with for any number of reasons, and may resent people forcing themselves on you or your family. As a matter of ethics you may not want to sell certain products, or be required to perform abortions as a doctor or nurse. It won't end with abortion.  Once freedom of conscience is dead, you can be forced to do anything the government wants you to do.  That is an extremely dangerous power to give to the government. Along with the power to arrest people without a warrant, as congress passed and Obama signed, and the power to body scan and grope you whenever the government feels the urge, our federal government will have the same power as any totalitarian regime.  Once this election is over, and if we have saved our country from tyranny, we need to work on those who we elect to Congress to restore all of our civil liberties.
     You need to be concerned about freedom of expression as well.  The Obama administration is systematically and methodically assaulting the freedom of Christians, as is well documented in No Higher Power by Phyllis Schlafley.  From a failed attempt to prevent reading the Bible to wounded soldiers, to forcing religious groups to drop their message from their charitable works, to deliberately dropping "by our Creator" and God from historic documents, to forcing Religious organizations to hire people who don't share their faith, to many many other assaults on free expression and belief, the Obama administration has been the most anti-Christian administration in the history of our country.  More than any time in history, the Democratic party needs to be told in no uncertain terms.  Stop destroying our freedom, and keep your deviant hands off of our children!  The only way to do that is for freedom loving Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other people of faith to vote them out of power.  We can't do that if we split our vote with minor party candidates.  Groups within the Republican party have been cleaning up their party, replacing many of those who are luke warm about preserving our constitution and our liberties.  For better or for worse we must accumulate our votes in the Republican party, and continue to support people in that party who will balance the budget, maintain our sovereignty and restore our basic freedoms.

Who is closest to our values
     I have looked through the candidates for various positions to determine which of them would be most likely to protect our sovereignty, balance the budget, keep government as close to us as possible, allow us to make our own decisions about the important things in our life, and respect our freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and who would not permit our children to be exploited and indoctrinated when they are most vulnerable.  Please do not stay home and watch our precious liberties be taken from us. Vote for those who will protect our freedoms, or are the least dangerous to our freedoms.