January 6th insurrectionist and Coos County Commissioner Rod Taylor was forced to admit the sneaky and underhanded way in which he introduced a resolution to ignore nonexistent state, or federal COVID safety mandates was unethical and violated county policy. The resolution is laden with provably false whereas statements that rival anti-witchcraft proclamations of old and yet Taylor and fellow commissioner Bob Main unashamedly signed their names to it so future generations may reflect on the dark ages of Coos County.

Taylor claims authorship of the resolution and amongst these whereas statements are claims that health safety protocols are unconstitutional. The glaring irony of Rod Taylor, who joined an assemblage of right-wing MAGA zealots at the US Capitol with the purpose and intent to oppose the continuing authority of the United States Constitution having the audacity to believe he is an authority on what is and is not constitutional cannot go unchecked.

Taylor also made a point of correcting fellow commissioner, John Sweet after the latter referred to the US as a democracy at Tuesday’s BOC meeting.

“We are a representative republic,” asserts Taylor.

The Constitution establishes a federal democratic republic form of government wherein we have an inseparable union of 50 sovereign States. We are a democracy because people govern themselves and are representative because we choose elected officials via free and secret ballot. For Taylor to correct a fellow commissioner over his interpretation of a perceived distinction between democracy and republic is like arguing over ‘to-may-to’ vs’ to-mah-to’ and is both rude and uncalled for.

Taylor’s real point in making the distinction in my opinion is that he doesn’t abide by majority rule, so he invokes the republic vs democracy claim to discount the wishes of the majority. This makes him an authoritarian and not a representative.

It is doubtful that either Taylor or Main could win an election outside of rural Oregon. An argument should be made that based upon their ties to anti-government militias and white supremacists and of course Taylor’s participation on January 6 neither one of them irrespective of age or fitness would even be accepted into the US Military.

While Taylor and Main are wasting time on nonexistent mask mandates the county is so broke that it had to tap into reserve funding to the tune of $3.7 million to make ends meet. This is not sustainable and we need some adults willing to set aside their ideology and dig down to solve the county’s real problems.

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