We Will Win in 2012

Dear Friends,

It is now just over one year before the 2012 national election. Americans do not yet know who the candidate for President will be. Hopefully, the choice will be good. Oregonians have only a small voice in this selection.

We do have, however, a much larger voice in the composition of the U.S. House of Representatives. While the media constantly glorifies the Presidency, it is the U.S. Congress that has the primary ability to lead or mislead our country. Congress controls the national purse. Obama cannot pay the water bill at the White House unless Congress appropriates the money.

During this last election cycle, the composition of Congress was improved, but not yet by enough. Oregon has 4 Democrat seats in Congress. Those seats need instead to be occupied by principled legislators with common sense.

Our Goals

We will know that our country is back on track when our economy is thriving and there are abundant job opportunities; the federal budget is balanced; the national debt is being repaid; our senior citizens and veterans are not frightened that they will be abandoned; all of us are able to go about our lives without being constantly interfered with by bureaucratic regulations; our public schools are once more academically excellent and under local control; our money is sound; and the hourly news is not constantly filled by reports of the intrigues in Washington.
In other words, American liberty must return to that of several decades ago before statist, leftist congressmen – from both major political parties – allowed the federal government to take away additional large parts of our fundamental freedoms.

We cannot return to liberty and prosperity by re-electing the same congressmen who have wrecked our economy and endangered our country. Congressman DeFazio from Oregon District 4 has been one of the most extreme statist, big government, “progressive” socialists in congress for the past 25 years. He has lots of campaign cash supplied by the special interests to whom he has given unconstitutional favors in Washington, interests with very little activity in Oregon.

It is not surprising that it is taking two years and two election cycles to unseat DeFazio. In 2012, we will complete this job.

Robinson Students at OSU

Our family can certainly attest to the fact that running for political office against unprincipled people is hazardous. Many continue to ask about the situation of Bethany, Joshua, and Matthew Robinson at OSU. There has been some progress. Joshua, after 6-months of effort, is once again allowed to use the equipment that he built for his PhD work, and Joshua and Matthew are once again progressing toward their PhDs.

This progress has been the result of actions on their behalf by the Dean of Graduate Students, Dean Brenda McComb, and their thesis adviser, Professor Jack Higginbotham. On the other hand, Bethany Robinson is still being administratively suppressed and denied the PhD she has essentially already earned, and Professor Higginbotham is still the subject of a serious political “blackballing” program in reprisal for his efforts on behalf of the Robinson students. We are hopeful that these problems, too, will be resolved.

We are very thankful for the many inquiries and other efforts that many of you made on behalf of the students. Without your efforts, the students would certainly have lost their educations. Moreover, these efforts were quite appropriate. The people attacking the students are public employees, so they are answerable to the public.

Funding of our Universities

We must all understand that our great universities, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon, will not be free of severe partisan political influences until they are independently endowed. Independent endowment from private and public sources should be their principal financial goal. When OSU receives more the $300 million in support each year directly from the activities of politicians, (including $30 million in earmark funding directly from congressmen in the last congressional session), it is not surprising that it engages in partisan political activities.

The people of District 4 in Oregon have suffered especially severely under the boot of federal controls, which have destroyed much of our industry and prevented the establishment of many new enterprises. Our prosperity has diminished and our freedoms have wilted under the onslaught from statist Washington. The first step is the elimination of the misrepresentation we now endure in the U.S. congress.

With your help, we will win in 2012 and then work vigorously to return our nation to good government.

Thank you all for your wonderful encouragement and support.

Art Robinson

P.S. Our presence on Facebook is rapidly growing and our campaign web site (www.ArtRobinsonForCongress.com) is becoming increasingly useful. Please monitor and contribute to these Internet activities as the campaign goes forward.