I support legislation that secures the right to bear arms and will vote against any legislation that seeks to weaken it.

The right to bear arms is essential to a free society and should not be infringed.

Stated another way, this right allows us the ability to defend ourselves and families adequately from criminals, hunt, and enjoy a sport, but its main purpose is to give us the ability to protect our natural rights from oppressive governments, whether those oppressive governments cross our borders or are created within them.

The right to protect your life, liberty, and property is a fundamental right that must be secure; without it, the people would be powerless to protect all of our other rights. I will not waiver on this issue.

www.NRA.org – National Rifle Association

www.gunowners.org – Gun Owners of America

www.saf.org – Second Amendment Foundation

www.ccrkba.org – Citizens Committee Right to Keep and Bear Arms

I do not believe the Supreme Court was constitutionally justified in issuing a blanket decision about this issue, and favor returning the abortion discussion to the state and local level.

Priority should be given to encourage a more constructive local debate on how we can prevent unwanted pregnancies and empower local, accountable organizations to provide alternatives to abortion. I believe that a discussion at the local level has the potential to change hearts, and once we change heart it will be easier to change laws.

The federal government has tried to intervene with programs like No Child Left Behind, and increased the money doled out to states for education. This intervention has failed. It is time to recognize that the answer may lie in the hands of the parents.

As a representative to Congress, I will be committed to increasing choice for parents in their children’s education. Primarily, this commitment means putting education dollars back in the pockets of the parents, through tax cuts and credits, that will allow them to spend their hard-earned money to put their children in the private school, parochial school, charter school, or home school of their choice.

Education is not a one-size-fits-all program, and parents know best the needs of their children.

I believe the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.

I believe in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless or race, creed, sex, age or disability.

I believe free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

I believe government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn.

I believe the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations and that the best government is that which governs least.

I believe the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.

I believe Americans must retain the principles that have made us strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.

I believe Americans value and should preserve our national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world.

Finally, I believe the republican Party is the best vehicle for translating these ideas into positive and successful principles of government.

Source: Republican Party Principles

For your information:

2008 National Republican Platform

http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/

2009 North Carolina Republican Platform

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” 10th Amendment

A government that governs closest to the people and governs least, governs best. Bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., cannot and do not know what is best for North Carolinians.

We The People find it difficult to work against a Federal Government that wishes to control us. Only a powerful state government can protect us from a federal government that has lost its way. We must elect not only members of congress that support this view, but also members of the North Carolina State Legislatures that will protect North Carolinians by all means necessary. The ultimate check and balance is state sovereignty. As of October 2009, “state sovereignty resolutions” or “10th Amendment Resolutions” have been introduced in the legislatures of 37 states. In seven states, the resolutions passed (Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee). This is the first step toward regaining our constitutional democratically elected republic, our birthright as Americans.

Please contact your local and state representatives and express your concerns and feelings on this issue.

I am deeply concerned with our almost decade-long “War on Terrorism.” Terrorism is a tactic of war. To wage war against a tactic lends itself to endless wars. When it comes to war, we must get the job done and get out. It always better to fight a war on their soil
and not ours.

We must also look at our foreign policy in terms of economics. Currently our situation is economically unsustainable. With our debt at over $12 trillion and a trillion dollar price tag on our current foreign policy, we simply cannot afford endless confrontation. If the world needs and wants us to keep it a safer place, then the world should help fund this effort. America is paying the greatest price with unpayable debts and the lives of its young men and women.

I believe we have the strongest, swiftest, and most well-equipped military in the world –– and I want to keep it that way. We should not be closing military bases here at home; we should be closing them around the world. We currently have over 700 military bases in 125 countries. Placing and maintaining bases close to our borders in the southern U.S. will protect us more from the illegal invasion from Mexico than any potential invasion from a distant third world. A country without a secure border cannot last long as a country.

I am opposed to undeclared wars as they tend to drag on forever, reaping devastating results with respect our national security, our military, and innocent civilians. Our presence in foreign lands allows those of dubious influence to gain support and focus hate towards our peaceful country. Attacking other sovereign nations and establishing our troops as an occupying force because a country “might” want to do us harm only serves to strengthen the resolve of those who wish to do just that. We are the most generous country in the world and usually the first to arrive at any crisis. However, all that good is forgotten when we bomb and kill innocent civilians purely out of inflated fear.

We must rethink our foreign policy. A policy of preemptive war that sidesteps the constitutional process of declaring a “just” war simply begets more war, weakening rather than strengthening our national security while diminishing the personal liberties of Americans.