forgottenliberty.com

Doug Keller is a conservative running for Congress in Oregon’s 1st Congressional district and he was kind enough to allow me to ask him a few questions.  I was told about Mr. Keller’s campaign by someone on Facebook and found him to be a very interesting candidate.  For example, he makes himself available for the people in his district by having a regular “Coffee with Doug” event at a local coffee shop.  Mr. Keller is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and served proudly in our armed forces.  For more information about him, please visit his website, Doug Keller – Join the Resistance.

1.  Why have you decided to run for Congress?

I am running because I am tired of status quo…taxation and misrepresentation.  I don’t like it that we have so many lawyers in Congress.  The height of my frustration came when my Representative voted yes on the biggest spending bill in the history of the country without even knowing what it was about or even reading it.  I said, “That is dereliction of your basic duty, you should be fired.”  I looked for someone to replace him and found no one so I said, “I’m not rich, I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a politician, but someone has to stand up for freedom and against this ever expanding government.”  So, I did.

2.  Who is your favorite character in American politics, past or present, and why?

Toss up, I love all the characters involved with the formation of the United States, but personally, it would have to be Ronald Reagan.  I liked his optimism and I saw the results of his tax cuts first hand.  We need that now.  He was right, “Government isn’t the solution, It’s the problem!”

3.  Health care reform is a big topic in the news today.  What do you think should be done to lower health care costs, and what types of reforms would you be willing to support?

Today in Massachusetts, voters are going to the polls for a special election for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.  Massachusetts is the bluest of blue states, yet the latest poll shows Republican Scott Brown ahead of Democrat Martha Coakley by 9 percent.  Brown has made this election about Obama and his policies by bringing up health care and the Democrats’ runaway spending at every campaign stop.  He has repeatedly said that if elected, he will be the 41st vote to enable a Republican filibuster of the health care bill.  This has resonated with the people in Mass and he has been consistently rising in the polls.   To be fair, Martha Coakley has run a bad campaign, but the voters are clearly sending a message that the liberal policies of Obama are losing support… in Massachusetts of all places!

The way this race has played out is that a vote for Coakley is a vote for the health care legislation while a vote for Brown is a vote against the health care legislation.  Polls have shown that about 51% of people in Mass are opposed to the current health care bill.  Coincidentally, the latest poll shows Brown has about 52% of the vote.  I think it is safe to say that those who are voting for Brown are probably the same people who are opposed to the health care bill.  The logical conclusion as to why Brown is in the lead is that the people of Mass are fed up with what the Democrat controlled Congress has been doing.  Because of this, they may (if the polls are right) do something they have not done in a long time…  send a Republican to the Senate.

However, Democrats cannot admit this.  It is impossible that the people of Massachusetts are choosing a Republican over a Democrat because they are upset with Obama’s liberal policies.  Impossible!  So it has to be something else.

Republican Scott Brown has a real chance of pulling off an upset victory in Tuesday’s special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy.  If Brown wins, the Democrats will loose their 60 vote super majority in the Senate required to overcome Republican filibusters.  This could be trouble for 2 of Obama’s top legislative priorities, health care and cap and trade.  The health care and cap and trade bills are bad for American businesses, and smart investors know this.  However, if Brown wins, the passage of these two job killing bills could be doomed.  This would be great for our economy and may spark a rally in the stock market.

Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money, a long time Democrat agrees.  In his own words he believes, “… investors who are nervous about the dictatorship of the Pelosi proletariat will feel at ease, and we could have a gigantic rally off a Coakley loss and a Brown win.”

Below is a partial transcript and video clip of Cramer’s show where he commented on the Massachusetts Senate race.  The best line of the clip has got to be, “Pelosi politburo emasculation!”

This video, “Massachusetts Miracle”, would be great as Scott Brown’s new campaign commercial.  A recent poll now shows Republican Scott Brown is up by 4 points over Democrat Martha Coakley.  If Brown is able to win this election, the repercussions to the Democrat’s agenda (and Obama’s in particular) will be huge.  If the bluest of blue states chooses a conservative candidate over a liberal one, it would amplify and accelerate the move our nation is already making to conservatism.  The people of Massachusetts have a clear choice between individual liberty and government control, personal responsibility and government nanny-ism,  free markets and socialism.  I pray they make the correct choice.  It would help stop the leaks in this sinking ship called America.

People of Massachusetts, your forefathers fired “the shot heard ’round the world” in defense of liberty.  On January 19th you have a chance to do it again (symbolically of course) by voting for Scott Brown.

On January 19th, Massachusetts will hold a special election to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat.  If this seat is won by the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, Obama will no longer have a 60 seat majority in the Senate o do his will.  This could prevent the current health care bill from passing a final cloture vote in the senate and becoming law!

Now I know what most of you are thinking, ” How could a Republican win Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat?  Never in a million years!”  I must admit I was thinking the same thing until I saw a new poll from Public Policy Polling.  It shows that Republican Scott Brown is now 1 point ahead of Democrat Martha Coakley.  This is within the margin of error and makes this race a toss up between the 2 candidates.  This is startling to me and shows how even the people of an extremely liberal state are becoming angry with the Democrat controlled Congress and the White House.  Another shocking fact in this poll is that Republican Scott Brown is winning 17% of Democrats in the state while Democrat Martha Coakley is only winning 6% of the GOP vote.  Independents are also preferring Brown over Coakley, 63% to 31% respectively.  This is a winnable race for the Republican!

If Brown pulls off this election, the repercussions will be huge.  It would most likely cause

I just returned from my local polling station here in the great state of Virginia.  It felt great to cast my vote for some real conservatives: Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I vote, I get a little emotional.  I cherish the ability to have a say in the leadership and direction of my locality, state and country.

I believe most Americans have forgotten the price that was paid for them to walk into a polling station and cast their vote.  They have taken their gift of self government for granted.  Voting is an awesome, rare, and coveted responsibility that is taken too lightly by most of us.  Many American’s don’t even take the time to vote!  Countless generations of people throughout history would have given anything (and some gave all) to have the opportunity to vote, but many Americans stay home on election day and don’t even think twice about it.  If given the opportunity to have a say in your own government, how can you pass that up?