01.20.2025
Today 4 years of disgraceful national criminal corruption came to an end.
Four years of graft, attacks on American patriots, weaponization of federal law enforcement, protection of foreign enemies, enrichment of corrupt oligarchs and silencing of dissent are ending.
The exiting administration is responsible for the bankrupting, imprisonment, and even deaths of countless good Americans.
The magnitude or their crimes can be measured by how many of the criminal participants were pardoned by the most corrupt President in American history.
The darkest days of America may well be behind us.
But while much of the country moved back towards sanity and common sense, Oregon and the rest of the west coast sank further into the lunacy of failed Marxist policies.
Aided by bags full of cash from drug dealers and an election system that registered thousands (that we know of) illegals, the Democrats increased their majority in the Legislature and have already promised to double down on their massively destructive agenda.
That agenda includes raising your taxes while promising to make Oregon more affordable, legalizing more crimes including theft, protecting criminals and doing all they can to make you less safe by crushing what’s left of your Second Amendment rights.
The Democrats have a long list of anti-gun bills in the works and more are coming.
The goal is to end the future sales of firearms in Oregon and restrict and punish gun owners who play by the rules.
Rest assured there will be no negotiating, no bargaining in good faith. In spite of the shallow promises of “working together” the majority party plans to ram its agenda down the throats of Oregonians. Having learned they can intimidate or buy off the Republicans they believe nothing stands in their way of creating the kind of dystopian nightmare that Los Angeles has become.
Make no mistake, the far left is in its death loop. The American people have finally tired of the abuse Democrat policies have heaped on them, but the left is not going quietly. Governor Kotek and the Democrat regime are digging in their heels and planning to use every resource and millions in your money to impede efforts to end their lawless and destructive policies.
Democrats have announced their plans to protect criminals who attack Oregonians and continue to spend millions in your money to implement gun restrictions already declared unconstitutional. With their complete control over the executive branch (aided by Republican legislators) the Democrats believe there is nothing to stop them. But there is.
The Republicans still have the ability to control the agenda. While they pretend there is nothing they can do even while promising to “fight” if you’ll just “chip in,” the fact remains that nothing compels the Republicans to participate in this charade. They can leave whenever they want to.
In past sessions the Republicans in the House refused to stand up for your rights by claiming that if they walked out there would be a ballot measure to punish walk outs. And after staying behind and helping the Democrats pass more attacks on our rights, they got a ballot measure to punish walk outs.
Oddly, when that measure was on the ballot there was not a single argument against it in the voter’s guide. It was almost like they wanted it to pass. And in spite of the Republican “leadership’s” claim that voters don’t approve of walk outs, when the House DID walk out some years ago, every single Republican House Rep who walked out got re-elected. And in the most recent election, two conservative Senators who walked out were replaced by their family members, proving that conservatives back people who stand up for them.
The reality is that legislators don’t lose their right to run for re-election by walking out. They lose it by having absences that the leadership will not excuse. When former Senate Leader Tim Knopp agreed to provide a quorum for the last failed session, he could have demanded that his Senator’s absences be excused. But he refused and handed a massive victory to the far left at the expense of the most committed Senators in the Republican Caucus.
Now we expect the Republican leadership to claim they cannot walk out because of the threat of a change in the quorum rules. Well, it’s not a “threat” any more.
The Republicans can talk all they want about fighting, but the fact is as long as they continue to participate, Oregonians will continue to have the boot of the state on their throats.
Today was a great day for America. But make no mistake, the incoming administration, while a reason for hope, has a checkered record on gun rights.
From Trump’s ridiculous ban on bump stocks, to his comments about “taking the guns now, due process later”, to his Attorney General nominees dangerously mixed record on the Second Amendment, there are plenty of fights ahead for American gun owners.
In Oregon, the situation is far less positive. With the Democrat promise of eliminating gun rights, all that we have is the willingness of Republican Legislators to stand up for us.
The current Sentate Republican Leader, Daniel Bonham, has walked out in the past. That is a good thing. But his peculiar willingness to buddy up to the man who ended his future in the Senate is disturbing.
Of course, the House Republican Leader, Christine Drazan, has regularly voted with the Democrats on some of their more absurd bills, lead the attack and removal of pro-gun House Rep Mike Nearman, and even supported a bill to protect one of Kotek’s staffers when she was arrested at an antifa riot.
Drazan has proven over and over that she will capitulate and surrender when faced with a real battle. This is not good news but the simple reality is these two people have the ability to block the Democrat’s scorched earth policies of obstruction, corruption, and destruction.
Please take a moment to remind them that they were not elected to protect the Democrats.
Senator Dan Bonham
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bonham
Representative Christine Drazan
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/drazan