MISSOURI CANDIDATE PROFILES

General Election 2018

Will enough Missourians turn out to make a positive difference in the election on November 6, 2018? Do enough Missourians still care about issues of drug use, taxation, and education to make a difference during a mid-term election cycle? Will emotions, stirred up by a biased and selective media succeed in electing their favored candidates?

Elections DO have consequences and the most dangerous voter is always an uninformed voter. How we cast our ballot can effect the circumstances of crime running rampant, churches being silenced, children being recruited into sexual slavery in their schools, families suffering under oppressive taxes and mandates, and having jobs or not having jobs. How much we spend at the gas pumps and what our children learn in school, bring public policy home. These are not just questions of price and curriculum. They are decisions of morality and values: what we believe and why we believe it.

Missourians already made a significant choice this summer in the August primary, when voters chose to reject the legislature and the executive decision in 2017, which would have made Missouri a Right-to-Work State. How this decision impacts the state’s economy and employment over the next decade will be watched closely by both sides in this debate.

Space limits our coverage of ballot issues and state candidates, but we have provided a starting place and great resources for our readers to follow up on the rest of the local races and issues. We encourage you to use this information as a starting point to inform yourselves and others on the issues and candidates so you can make a wise and informed decision. In an attempt to give a sense of the candidates’ positions and qualifications, we have chosen to highlight information from independent sources, especially their endorsements and their supporters. Be sure to go to the candidates’ own websites to see what they have to say. Some of this information can be found on ballotpedia.org and votesmart.org. For some candidates, we could only provide their websites for further information.

Every effort has been made to be fair and impartial in our presentation of candidates, as we do not and will not endorse any particular person or party. We are, however, focused on issues of faith, the economy and free market system, and education, which impact the family and the culture. Our focus and guide, therefore, in selecting information is based on the Constitution and the Author of Divine Providence on whose principles that document was created. With that in mind, please use this information as a guide and then use the available resources to further inform your own judgment and decisions.

Missouri Ballot Issues

Redistricting, Marijuana, Minimum Wage, Bingo, Motor Fuel

Screen Shot 2018-10-24 at 5.23.28 PM Update Prop A: Right to Work: In 2017, the Missouri legislature passed Senate Bill 19 (Right-to-Work), which was then signed, into law by the governor. The law was intended to prohibit as a condition of employment the forced membership in a labor organization (union) or forced payments of dues. Before the law could take effect, the opponents of worker choice gathered thousands of signatures in order to put the new law up for popular vote in the 2018 election cycle. On August 7,2018, union labor and union money that poured into the state to oppose the law were able to flex their muscle and overturn Missouri’s decision to join the ranks of Right-to-Work states across the nation. The new law would have protected Missouri workers and their families from being forced or coerced to join a labor union as a condition of employment. The “no” vote in August means that Senate Bill 19 will not become law, and Missouri remains a forced union state. The extent to which preventing worker freedom by labor unions will harm Missouri workers and impact the State’s economy is yet to be seen.

Amendment 1: Redistricting, Ethics

PROPOSITION A

Ballot Measure/Referendum

BALLOT TITLE

The official ballot title is as follows:

“Do the people of the state of Missouri want to adopt Senate Bill 19 (“Right-to-Work”) as passed by the general assembly in 2017, which prohibits as a condition of employment the forced membership in a labor organization (union) or forced payments of dues in full or pro-rata (fair-share); make any activity which violates employees’ rights illegal and ineffective; allow legal remedies for anyone injured as a result of another person violating or threatening to violate employees’ rights; and which shall not apply to union agreements entered into before the effective date of Senate Bill 19?

State and local government entities expect no costs or savings.”

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MISSOURI CANDIDATE PROFILES

Primary Election 2018

The Missouri primary season is already underway with the election on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, fast approaching. The filing period for candidates seeking election ended on March 27, 2018. Many candidates filed for statewide and district wide seats including state auditor, United States senatorial and congressional terms. With five political parties in Missouri (Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Green, and Constitution), there are many options from which to choose.

This year, there are significant decisions to be made that will impact our state and the nation for many years to come. From the balance of power in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, to the right-to-work issue, i.e., Prop A, many people are watching Missouri to see what kind of future we can hope for as the people choose from a crowded field and complicated issues.

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Staying Safe in an UNsafe World

When the children of this editor of FRONT LINE were young, and she was active in a community study group, they decided they would practice what they had been preached, e.g., practice makes perfect. Accordingly, one summer day at home with company in the front room, her oldest son decided he would train for his Boy Scout merit badge. She realized her guests were not paying attention to the discussion and knew something was distracting them. It seems that her guests were drawn away by a strange procession of small children repeatedly going up the stairs, but never coming down.

Suddenly, she saw her six-year old daughter fly past her from the upstairs bedroom window into the front bushes. It seems that fire drills were the activity of the morning (for the merit badge), and who better to practice with than the smallest child to test the evacuation plan of throwing down a blanket onto the bushes, and then dropping out the second story window to see who survives. They were going to be prepared!

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Winning the Individual Health Decision War

Restoring Patient Power, Individual Choice, Privacy Rights & Health Freedom

A lot of people think healthcare is very, very complex. But it’s only been made complex by all the third-party payers that are in between the patient and the doctor. So, let me share five facts to help you better understand the healthcare issue.

Fact Number One: There’s no such thing as healthcare. Healthcare is a socialist term. There is medical care or medical services, and there is health insurance. But there’s no such thing as healthcare. But everyone has grabbed onto that term, saying for instance, “I get healthcare at my employer.” You don’t get healthcare at your employer. You get coverage at your employer. Not healthcare. But because everybody is still holding onto that term, you don’t blink twice when the hospitals are buying the health plans and the health plans are buying the hospitals creating an enormous conflict of interest against the patient: the payer and the deliverer of care are the same.

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Missouri Legislation

Spring Session 2018

Jeff City CapitolIn his inaugural address of April 30, 1789, President George Washington said, “The propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained.” George Washington was not alone among the early presidents and other patriots who recognized a higher source of authority for our country. Too often we look to our government as the initiator and provider of blessings to the People. We breathlessly await an opinion from the Supreme Court, as if Moses himself were delivering news from on high. This should not be. Eternal rules of order and justice are not ordained out of a depraved heart. We must pay attention when “government is in session” to stay alert to what laws and actions are being considered for our good. Our fellow citizens, in both Jefferson City and Washington D.C., require our heartfelt support and prayers as they perform their legislative duties.

SMART Cities

Pet Project of the Surveillance State

Adams Don We all love SMART! Especially being told by others that we are SMART! Smart phones, smart cities, smart meters all make sense to us as they benefit us in many ways. But, is there another level of SMART we need to pay attention to?

“Good thinking, 99!”

In the late 1960s, families laughed at “Get Smart … an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. It was … [a combination of] James Bond and Inspector Clouseau. Some of the popular catchphrases generated during its run, included:

“Would you believe …,” “Good thinking, 99,” “Missed it by that much!,” “Sorry about that, Chief,”  “The old (such-and-such) trick,” “And loving it,” “I asked you not to tell me that …”

Six-Shooters, Sex & Schools

Six-Shooters

No one read the following article after the Parkland School Shooting:

DATELINE: In wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, it was revealed that the Nikolas Cruz was allowed, and even encouraged (with one exception that we know about) to act out the philosophy of moral relativism. As part of his class assignments in government and economic classes, the shooter made a video, which showed himself as a hit man, a protection ring of sorts, who could be hired out to wreak justice on jocks who picked on other students. The video was violent and ended with him bludgeoning the head of a dummy amid much fake blood. When another of the students was asked if this was not odd, she “noted that many of the videos were violent and that her own contained sexual scenes. “Everybody’s video involved fighting,’’ she said.1

“This is Not a Daycare”: An Answer for the Absurdity

Everett Piper, President, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, August 26, 2016, (http://www.okwu.edu)

The school year has started and the “snowflake” rebellion of 2015 is anything but dead. Micro-aggressions, trigger warnings, and demands for “safe spaces” continue to dominate the campus news from coast to coast. As the university president who wrote the viral “This is Not a Day Care” op-ed, I have been called by the media in recent days with essentially this question: “Dr. Piper, okay – your ‘Not a Day Care’ piece identified the problem, but what’s the solution?”

Here’s my answer:

In 1948, Richard Weaver told us “ideas have consequences.” A few short years earlier, Hitler said, “Let me control the textbooks and I will control the State.” Huxley and Orwell warned of dystopias where education would be used as a means to total power and total control. Yes, ideas clearly do have consequences. Good ideas lead to good culture and good government, and bad ideas lead to bad culture and bad government. As your grandmother said: Garbage in, garbage out. She was right – ideas matter.