Dangerous extremist not suited to serve

“Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired” – Jonathan Swift

The Irish satirist’s words immediately bring to mind the dogmatic ideology held by Rod Taylor, a candidate for Coos County Commissioner. That’s being charitable of course, and assumes he genuinely believes the cockamamie schemes detailed below that he proposes for funding county services because the alternative is he knows he’s lying and simply doesn’t care.

Case in point, Taylor holds the false opinion that the federal government cannot own land, notably the highly coveted and timber rich Coos Bay Wagon Road (CBWR) lands. Taylor’s belief has been thoroughly debunked here and by legal scholars across the country but to date I haven’t seen that he has made a retraction to correct the false statements he has made during his campaign.

Taylor further holds an irrational distrust of state and federal grants, which happen to comprise approximately 80% of the county’s $130 million annual budget.

“There are strings attached,” claims Taylor. “I will not accept state and federal funding.”

Again, as previously written here, there are strings attached to grant funds. No one grants millions of dollars without some expectations that the money be spent for the specified purpose. One can’t use money designated for public safety, for example, to develop a strip mall or a microbrewery.

Public lands are areas of land and water that today are owned collectively by U.S. citizens, like you and me, and managed by government agencies. It’s unclear who Taylor thinks owns the CBWR, the State or the county, or whomever but his plan for making up the $100 million shortfall his ideology would force upon county citizens is to steal public lands and log them unsustainably.

The CBWR is not a mythical Shmoo, a la Li’l Abner and friends magically reproducing itself as needed. Does Taylor have a funding option after year one or two when the timber is depleted?

Taylor, participated in the attempt to overthrow our government on January 6, 2021, at our nation’s capital and is cofounder of a local faction known as Citizens Restoring Liberty (CRL). Despite all the factual evidence to the contrary and in keeping with Swift’s passage, Taylor believes the Big Lie and that Trump really won despite losing the popular vote by 7 million.

Under Taylor’s leadership, losing county candidates and CRL members, Pam Lewis and Diane Rich have filed a lawsuit accusing Commissioners John Sweet and Melissa Cribbins, and interim County Clerk DeDe Murphy of corruption and fraud. The allegations could have been sent to the Oregon Secretary of State, Elections Division but they missed the time limit to challenge the results and the lawsuit clearly makes for better political theater.

The meritless lawsuit will go nowhere but makes for good headlines as we near election day. (More on this lawsuit in an upcoming post).

If Taylor’s antics and lies somehow get him elected, he will immediately be faced with a dilemma as he must swear an oath to uphold state and federal constitutions. Stealing federal property and trying to overthrow the results of a democratic election is both unconstitutional and criminal.

More on why the radical extremist Taylor is not suited to serve as a county commissioner later this week.