Interview With U.S. House Candidate Thad Wasson

Thad Wasson, Republican candidate for U.S. House

Thad Wasson of Piedmont, South Dakota has announced he is running on the Republican ticket for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. He is seeking the Republican nomination to run against Democrat incumbent Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

Wasson is a former U.S. Marine currently working as a telecommunications technician.

Currently the only other Republican name being mentioned as a challenger is South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson, but Nelson has not made a formal decision yet.

I met with Wasson on Wednesday and asked him about some of the issues facing our nation today.

There is also a lot of profit to be made by certain people and groups who control “green” products, and such legislation creates millions of new customers for them.

It also has impact locally through a paragraph they included on “indirect land use.”  This legislation is 1,300 pages long and this is only one of the problems with the bill. Say I wanted to buy a farm or ranch somewhere in South Dakota and grow soybeans for ethanol production.  Next year the EPA could forbid this because of what other nations may be doing in the same area of production.  This could even affect our sovereignty.

This will also hurt our economy even to the point of discouraging investment because of the additional cost of offsetting carbon production.  It will also destroy the energy market, including our neighbors in Wyoming and the coal industry.

This is also a direct assault on state’s rights.  Even the Public Utilities Commissioners won’t have a job because all the strings will be pulled by the federal government.

Would you have voted for any of the bailout packages we’ve seen in the last several months? I wouldn’t have voted for any of them.  You need to be free to make a profit, but if you can’t, then we’re all going to learn from you.  And when you prop up a company, especially a bank, you’re asking for trouble.  China owns a lot of the debt we’ve accumulated, and they can start dictating terms, and our kids are stuck with the bill.

What are some of the biggest problems facing our nation today? The problem is that there is no courage in congress to stand up for what Americans want.  We also face a serious threat from the communist Chinese government, and from internationalism.  Just look at recent history when we went into Iraq.  We went into Iraq because UN resolutions were defied.  We should have taken care of business ourselves instead of going to the UN; that slows our momentum and dilutes our military strength. If you going to go in, you strike hard.  Afghanistan shouldn’t have taken as long as it has, either.  Even President Obama knows that if you want to take care of something, you just send in a few thousand Marines.

We need to defend America’s interests, and Saddam Hussein was paying Palestinians to blow themselves up in Israel, but President Bush didn’t do a very good job of explaining the justification for going over there, and left it to average people like us to carry his water, and we’re the ones who are getting a hard time for defending the action.

The trade imbalance with China is also a serious problem.  Every market they enter, they flood it with goods and hurt local jobs.

Our involvement in the World Trade Organization causes us problems in dealing with trade disputes because everything has to go to another group for resolution.  What good does it do us if other countries like France or another are debating what happens here, and there are long delays in resolving disputes.  When our jobs go away, they aren’t coming back.  We may need tariffs on foreign goods to help our economy.

What do you think about “hate crime” laws?  We already have laws protecting people, and to place various minorities and homosexuals above others isn’t right. Everyone should be treated the same under the law, regardless of who perpetrates the crime or for what reason. What good does it do to throw on extra penalties for what is basically a “thought crime”?  All Americans should be protected by the same law; you cannot create two classes of people in America.

Should we continue the war on terrorism President Bush began? I would like to see us get as many terrorists as possible.   It’s difficult now with President Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and who she thinks are the enemies of America: people who oppose abortion, to people who voted for Ron Paul, and on down the line. But we saw who the real domestic terrorists were here on Mount Rushmore a few weeks ago.

If you’re going after the right people, I support it.  I also support leaving captured terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

What are your thoughts on the problems faced by the Native American community? A lot of the money intended to help Native Americans is getting lost as it’s shuffled through the hands of corrupt leaders; it should be dispersed directly to the members.   Look what the federal government has done to Native American culture: they’ve tried to replace fatherhood, and there is a problem with alcohol abuse and violence.

When we hear talk about the government taking over more control of things like health care, people should look at the mess they’ve made on the reservations.

What are your thoughts on the Constitution? It’s definitely not a living document.  If you want to change it, you go through the amendment process and get the states to ratify it. The founding fathers were a lot smarter than many of the people we have running our government now.

We do a good job with our military, but we’re not doing very well with our financial policy.  We have huge debt and lots of printed money that’s out there but nothing to back it but more debt.

It seems something in the Bill of Rights is always under assault, but what they really want to go after is the Second Amendment.  If you can get rid of a nation’s ability to defend itself, the people are vulnerable.  Ownership of firearms is an individual right, not a corporate right.  Americans should know their rights and be able to defend their own property.  Don’t depend on someone else to defend your freedoms for you.

And the Sixteenth Amendment [authorizing the income tax], they’ve taken that one a little too far, too.

Do you have a guiding principle or set of guiding principles that would help guide you in making decisions on issues in Congress? The first thing I would ask myself is, “Does it do harm?”  A lot of these bills have consequences that can last for decades.  No one goes through and cleans up all the old bills still costing us.  As for core beliefs, nothing is more important than keeping your word and staying true to your values.

Assuming Secretary of State Chris Nelson does enter the race, how do you differ from him and what makes you a better choice? I’m just a Republican, not a party man. I hear he’s done a good job, but I don’t know that he’s going to say the things that I say and stand for the things I stand for.  (Wasson smiled).  Who would you rather have representing you: a secretary or a Marine?

I served from 1991 to 1993, which is only two years, I know. I was stationed in Hawaii, and during a Super Squad competition I suffered a heat stroke. I had been in the infantry, and after the heat stroke they gave me the option to be transferred to a desk job or receive a discharge, so I chose the discharge.

What distinguishes you from Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and why should people vote for you over her? She won’t take the stand I will, and if she doesn’t recognize the problems our nation faces, she needs to go.  Even if you’re a Democrat, you value your property and your freedom, and I’ll make sure the UN and the EPA aren’t telling you what to do with your own property.

I’m not afraid of anyone, and I’ll talk to anyone anywhere.  I think we don’t have much time left to save our nation.  We’re $11 trillion in debt and losing jobs, and we must do something.  We have to get out of these international organizations that hinder our freedom and get back to the Constitution. What do you want for your children: freedom, or some quasi-government plan or bureaucracy?

No other nation in the world has been blessed like we have; we are blessed by God to be in this great nation.   All of our problems are man-made, but we have everything we need to fix them.

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