Each of the currently announced Republican candidates for AD 77 was invited to submit a guest column to SD Rostra. This is the first of what we hope is four parts. Click here for all the 77th AD candidate statements and posts on the race.
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by Richard Bailey
The State Assembly District 77 race to replace Joel Anderson has prompted a frenzied competition to claim the title of “Most Conservative” amongst the Republican candidates. If you look at any of our campaign websites there are three common themes in each of them: taxes, guns, and some element of promoting pro-business policies. Our positions are so similar that it would be repetitious and wasteful to devote the brief space I have available to spelling out the intricacies of my positions on the host of “hot-button” issues facing our state. Instead, I’d like to share my convictions on government as a whole. For anyone can have a stance, but unless that stance is founded upon a set of unshakable beliefs and principles, there is little guarantee that stance will hold up to the unrelenting pressures facing state legislators.
My philosophy on government is simple: the proper role of government is to protect our lives, not manage them. When America was founded, the role of government was limited to the protection of life, liberty, and property. Steadily however, the role of government has expanded to encompass a dizzying number of programs and services that are funded by “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” We now find ourselves in a culture that thinks it is the role of government to provide numerous “protections,” protection from poverty (through welfare); from ignorance (via government schools); from poor health (through “universal healthcare”); etc., the list is nearly endless. The reality facing our state is that resources are limited and taxpayers cannot afford this expanded role. The only way government provides for Paul is by taking from Peter. This practice is unsustainable and immoral. I am a committed supporter of charity; but, I am principally opposed to coerced charity.
By the government’s expansive and unwelcome definition of “protecting” our lives, the management of them is an unfortunate, but automatic, byproduct. When government regards us, the citizenry, as its children with needs to be provided for, is it any wonder that we are treated like children? Is it any surprise that our basic civil liberties are infringed upon in the name of our general welfare? If we Californians want to be treated by politicians as anything more than dumb livestock to be herded, poked, and prodded then we must elect representatives that believe in empowering individuals, not cradling them.
California politicians have repeatedly instilled and reinforced the belief that large segments of the population are entitled to goods and services, and, furthermore, that bureaucrats are necessary to secure and legitimize the seizure of these entitlements via taxation. As the tax rates in California continue to rise in an effort to finance these expanding entitlements, businesses and productive individuals continue to leave the state.
How much longer can our state flourish if politicians degrade and deprive our producers while rewarding the unproductive? How much longer can Peter bear Paul’s increasing weight? Our government has been turned upside down and forgotten its true purpose. Instead of protecting our lives and property, it has been turned into an instrument of extraction, succoring the politically privileged at the expense of the enterprising and the productive.
If elected, I pledge to:
1) Oppose any legislation that further burdens business or working individuals;
2) Support the right of individuals to maintain and bear arms;
3) Reduce government programs until a balanced budget is achieved.
My experience is in the private sector, from working in financial services to pursuing ventures of my own. Though I lack political experience, we would be remiss if we forgot that the “experienced” politicians are the ones that have driven California into financial ruin. We need a fresh approach, not more of the same.
I do not believe it requires political experience to support lowering taxes, protecting gun rights, or balancing the budget…it takes principles. I am running to represent and preserve the principles and values of District 77.
If you share these beliefs about government, then support my campaign and put someone in office that has real-world experience and the principles to support an improved direction for our state, a restorative return to our finest values.
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Visit Bailey on the web at www.baileyforassembly.com
Comments 4
Your Second Amendment stance is spot-on, my friend. Good work.
Well if writing ability counted for anything, Richard would probably be favored to win. But, I will with hold judgment until the other candidates have posted.
Its nice to see a candidate focus on the broader philosophy of government rather than JUST the issues…very refreshing
You know something, I’d like to think voters are good at spotting a phony when given an alternative who has a real chance to win (major party, big name, etc).
It’s pretty obvious this guy both believes and knows a little bit about what he says, as opposed to talking in platitudes like most people looking for a vote…
I’m outside his district, which is too bad. He’d have my vote.
Occasionally, the rare opportunity presents itself to break away from the normal routine, the circus, the fray or whatever dismal descriptive one may happen to assign “politics as usual” these days. As a longtime friend and colleague of Richard Bailey, I can assert with unreserved confidence that he embodies just such an alternative.
What passes for governance today is hardly acceptable. Nor should current affairs be tolerated as normal or routine by any honest measure. Eternal vigilance towards our government is ever the paramount duty of the American public. The faithful exercise of this duty shall carry Mr. Bailey into office with ease, I have no doubt.
But note carefully the word “exercise.” Inactivity, wishful thinking, and delay will not accomplish anything. We (concerned patriots) will have to work together on this. Our time, our efforts, and, not least, our financial contributions will be vital to Mr. Bailey’s success.
He’s got my vote.