Kevin Patrick for House of Delegates

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."
                                                                                                         ---Thomas Paine
Liberty in the form we know it is a profoundly American achievement.  We were this great experiment where unlike any civilization before us the power of sovereignty was not vested in a single person, nor in the state, nor in the idea of each other as a collective.  For the first time, sovereignty resided within every man and woman to decide his or her own destiny.  We too often forget what a profound achievement that was in the history of humankind; and we will always have that, no matter what else lies in our future.

    Somewhere in the last century we forgot what it was to be a Revolutionary people.  I find this an extremely disturbing sentiment.  It seems there are a few pockets of resistance left, and I feel that West Virginia is one them.  We remember more than do others what it was to be free men and women.  There was a time when we knew what it was to be beholden to no man, and to live as we choose.

    I believe that we are still that people at our core. 

    Although West Virginia was created during a rough spot in our Nation's history, under less than ideal circumstances; we remember what it is to be free.  The mountains have always been an image of the rugged American, self-sufficient, independent, hard-working, and free.  There are reasons for that.  However, we have allowed State's Rights to be ignored, we have ceded power to a large, central, national government.  We have ignored the advice of our Founders.  We have done what they foresaw, and warned us against.

    Perhaps one of the scariest things, is we have lost respect for our Constitution.  We have allowed an executive branch to take far too much control, and do things not directed by the US Constitution.  We have allowed our Congress to do things not directed, and to give up some responsibilities that were directed to it.  We have allowed our National Guard, the regulated militia, to be federalized and sent overseas; thus leaving the States unprotected.  We have allowed a large central bank, The Federal Reserve, to create fiat currency, with no backing in objective value.  What this means is that with an inflation rate that rises, every year more and more of our saved wealth is literally stolen because they print and "make"  new money, thus making what we do have worth less.  During the 1970's The Fed literally tripled the amount of money in circulation.  How can the dollar maintain it's value if we print off more when it is backed by nothing but faith in it's value?  This is a question we can all answer.  It cannot.

    We must again take back this over-large government, and return the power of it to the people.  Not to career politicians who tell pretty lies and disguised half-truths, but to statesmen, male and female, who serve the people and serve the ideals of this great nation.  I propose a general attitude of Liberty for West Virginia, which will return to us our power, our self-respect, and our prosperity.  Thomas Jefferson once said, “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”  We now know by experience what this means.

    Once, Americans were hailed abroad as a paragon of humanity: the best that we had to offer.  Let us again find that inside us which made us such a great people.  It is not far lost.  We must stand and be the men and women that we know we can be.