Ours is a nation in peril

You cannot control the economics of a country until you first make the populous sick and poor. This has always been the avenue of Despotic Regimes and is the same today. It is no accident that this nation continues its slide into poverty and eventual chaos in an attempt to unravel our constitution and our God-given rights.

President Obama and his cabinet have taken it upon themselves to accomplish these goals in any manner they see fit. Using the media with its bias reporting, propaganda, promises of largesse, coercion and in some instants even intimidation of some legislators, to get his agenda passed. If the President doesn't get what he wants he gets it by fiat. This we should not tolerate and yet no action is taken to stop him. Obama has the power and he is using it.

Republicans know that many things have to change. First we must open new areas for mining. All advanced civilizations started with mining, for without mining no modern tool could be readily made. The development and use of oil and gas has advanced this country far beyond the wildest dreams of people living here 200 years ago. Without the development of oil and gas the land east of the Mississippi would be devoid of trees.

Today everything from fuel, pharmaceuticals, plastic bags to the manufacture and use of cars and jets depend on oil and gas. Over regulation by numerous agencies has had an adverse effect on farming, manufacturing, transportation and general industry in the U.S. These businesses are essential for the productivity and stability of this Nation. Green energy is not cost effective and only produces electricity. Ethanol is one of the biggest boondoggles forced upon the public in recent times. It is directly or indirectly raising the price of fuel and food while at the same time depleting the soil due to the lack of crop rotation. The Department of the Interior with the help of The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and other tax exempt organizations are closing millions of acres from development including whole watersheds beginning with the smallest streams to the most fertile river bottoms.

Obamacare is and always has been a diabolical force to subjugate the people and now it is unraveling at the seams. Corruption abounds in every corner of this administration.

The right of private citizens to keep in their possession a gun for their own protection is systematically being eroded by this administration. The BATF and Homeland Security agencies continue trying to obscure the work of the FBI. Through propaganda, our education system, intimidation and the liberal court judges, immorality has become the norm.

The U.S. immigration situation has existed more or less for at least the last 100 years. Recently this has become more critical with porous borders, drugs and terrorist crossings. The lack of accountability with visas, passports and intelligence gathering leaves our nation at risk. Some illegal aliens have been here working in the shadows for more than 20 years We must at this time treat them individually and with compassion.

The environmental movement under the EPA and ESA has added to the chaos. We are over regulated and not represented by these unelected bureaucrats. They are an impediment to our balance of trade and our free market system.

We are now blessed with a $17 trillion debt which some say we will never be able to overcome. The I.R.S. is making many citizens shiver with their intrusive tactics.

The welfare system is socializing this nation and creating with the poor a huge dependency on our Government.

As Republicans all these statements made above may be mundane; however we cannot sit by and let this great country slide into socialism or despotic rule. We have the opportunity now to abolish Obamacare, reduce the national debt and be fiscally sound, to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, appoint pro-business people as Secretary of the Interior, Agriculture, Trade and numerous other agencies. We must be able to eliminate or reduce the scope of those departments and agencies which are now preventing the U.S. from being competitive in the world market. This administration has made a mockery of our national security and our military fortitude. This can only be reversed with experienced professional leadership.

If Republicans can combine and overcome numerous factions within the Party as Lincoln did with the Whigs and the Know Nothings and become one force, one voice from the Grand Old Party and at the same time stand firm on those God-given moral principles this great nation was founded upon, we will be rewarded with a majority in Congress and a Republican President in 2016.

If we choose to continue as a party so divided we are destined to be the minority party for the foreseeable future. It is our liberty at stake now. We cannot improve the lives of those who are disadvantaged until we have the power to do so.

Remember Freedom is not free, free men are not equal, equal men are never free.

Bob Hollingsworth represents Republican Precinct 61 in Kootenai County