From the October 2000 Idaho Observer:

An open letter to candidates for public office:

Many voting Americans still believe that there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats and a politician's position on the rising cost of addictive pharmaceutical drugs is a window into his compassion for the elderly. Many of us believe that the real issues are more serious than that.

There are a handful of us who have made it our passion to find out what is really happening. As the days, the months and the years go by we get closer and closer to the truth; as the days, the months and the years go by and you traitors in public office continually engage in activities that reinforce the truth: That you are nothing more than duplicitous administrators for evil men who struggle amongst themselves for control of the world's resources -- including people -- including you.

We have gotten so knowledgeable and your tactics have become so transparent that we forget that many voting Americans still believe that we are just one more politician's promise -- just one more government program -- away from utopia here in America.

Through the marvels of Internet communications, we have gotten so adept at locating and disseminating solid information while accurately reading between the lines of disinformation that we sometimes forget that the American people go to sleep believing that Dan Rather reports the real news.

If what I saw at a candidate forum in Blanchard, Idaho, September 22 is any indication, your participation in the most treacherous conspiracy in world history will not become common knowledge before you get elected once again to feed parasitically at the public trough for at least one more term.

At the Blanchard forum, I watched a man who had proudly called the Bonner county commissioners a lot of names for years over their refusal to fix his road get up and demand a round of applause from the crowd because his road got fixed this last summer. Never mind the fact that $25 million has disappeared from county budgets since 1983 and millions of dollars are being illegally invested and profits are kept off budget in bank accounts all over the county; never mind that there have been dozens of people whose suspect deaths have been officially determined to be suicides; never mind that the sheriff's department is staffed with abusive, harrassive deputies who are able to use excessive force against people, perjure themselves in court and enjoy immunity for their actions; never mind that the county's general expenses have increased from $294,503 in 1983 to $2,793,825 for 2001 though the population has only increased from 23,000 in 1980 to just under 40,000 in 2001 -- by gosh, my road has been fixed so let's give the commissioners a round of applause!

Though he lives in the same county as me, has access to the same information as me, he hasn't a clue. He still thinks that America's future may very well rest on whether Bush or Gore becomes president. He still believes that the government may be slow but, by gosh, it is here to help us. He was laughing and smiling as Rep. Wayne Meyer (R-Rathdrum) and Senator Clyde Boatright (R-Rathdrum) told the inspiring story of how they managed to get the huckleberry officially named the state fruit.

To many voting Americans, no matter how absurd things get, politics is merely huckleberries and road maintenance, lower prices for pharmaceutical drugs and the usual raft of worn out campaign rhetoric that usually gives mention to a return to traditional family values.

To those of us who know better, you have trashed every one of the amendments in the Bill of Rights; you have completely ruined public instruction; you have allowed the court system to become a litigation racket; every war we have fought has been for the wrong reason; you are imprisoning us at such a rate that we will all be behind bars by 2056; the legislatures of this nation are nothing more than machines to pass special interest-driven-and-motivated laws designed to extract revenue from our activities and restrict our freedom; your wars against poverty, homelessness, drugs, sex and violence on TV, intolerance, violent crime, inflation, polution and..and...worsen with every session of the legislature. But, repair Americans' roads and give them cheaper pharmaceutical drugs, legislate a state fruit and promise them a return to traditional family values and they will demand people give you a round of applause.

Many voting Americans refuse to look up from the poisoned pasture grass to contemplate the red tag you have metaphorically stapled to their ears. They still need to believe you at face value and will vote for you based upon what you promise to do for them. You have little to fear this time around as enough voting Americans will put you into office at least one more time; they will continue throughout this election cycle to accept the mean labels your media has attached to the handful of us who have done the homework and know that your career at the public trough is a perverse fraud.

Rest fitfully between now and election day because your ability to exercise an insane authority to tax everybody and everything to pay for your seemingly bottomless ability to fail the people of this once great nation will not be taken away this coming November 7.

But -- will your promises of roads, huckleberries and traditional family values get you through the next election cycle? ~DWH