The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Meet Thad and Michelle Wasson

I met and talked with Thad and Michelle Wasson yesterday afternoon. We had cokes and burgers while Hannah, Vivian and Henry, their children, played. This is the family at whom about 90 percent of household product and electronic device ads are aimed.

Thad has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. House, the seat currently held by Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. The Republican Party of South Dakota has seemingly already crowned Secretary of State Chris Nelson as its nominee, something with which Wasson takes issue.

I went prepared with a few questions and was utterly charmed by Thad and Michelle, both of whom seem sincere, honest, friendly and smart. And likely to be disillusioned by how nasty politics will become for them if Thad appears to be a threat either to Nelson or, especially, to Sandlin.

Rather than actually parse my understanding of points of policy according to Thad in this topic post, I’ll just say that I found him to be quite reasonable on those policies we discussed, which included abortion, illegal drugs and Stan Adelstein. I’ll follow up with an extended email interview over the next few weeks and months. You can see his response to my first question, posed to him a few weeks ago, here.

7 comments:

Taunia Adams said...

Priority questions we want answered based on your interview, in this order:

1. Adelstein
2. Illegal drugs
3. Anything BUT abortion.

And this is a little concerning: "This first challenge to our State and Nation is the communist Chinese government."

He has a luke warm reason for his concerns with China, but I'm thinking there are a few other nations that take priority over China.

Bob Newland said...

I've asked Thad if he'd like to comment on your comment, Taunia. He does visit us occasionally.

Thad Wasson said...

1. I was not impressed with the poise of Mr. Adelstein during the 2006 State Senate race, and spent one afternoon last fall handing door hangers supporting Eli S.

2. In my opinion, there is alot of problems we have with other legal drugs. Alcohol abuse is the leading cause of domestic violence and also saps our court system and work of our police force.
Gambling, which is pushed by our State for additional tax revenue, is the cause of a large portion of bankruptcy. A family's entire savings could be lost in two hours at a local casino. This is a concern because we depend on the taxes produced. We tax cigarettes, why not tax cocaine and marijuana?


3. I believe the government should encourage life, because having the extra 40 million that have been lost to abortion since 1973 would help our soon to be broke ssn and medicare programs, by being employed and paying into the system.

4. My concern with China. In August of 2008, China signed a 20year agreement with the government of Iraq for their oil. (Whashington Post Aug 28, 2008) This is not what our military is to be used for, providing a stable Iraq for the Chinese government. In 2009 China called for the U.S. "to guarantee to safety of China's assets." (Bloomberg 2 June 09) I would have reminded those communists that this is a free market, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Nobody is assured of anything. This should not happen to the greatest Nation in the world, unless we aren't the greatest anymore.

Taunia Adams said...

Hi Thad, thanks for your responses.

1. Stan? hehe...sometimes it goes without saying.

2. Illegal drugs - how do we tax marijuana and cocaine, without making them legal?

3. We need those 40 million extra people for tax purposes? The CDC reports that 81 percent of the women who get abortions are unmarried and that 52 percent are under the age of 25. I cannot find a stat on a percentage of the 81% that would be on state welfare, although wouldn't you agree that it's a safe assumption more unwed mothers would have children on state aid than married persons? I think the state aid would cancel out the tax consequence, besides those children being less likely to have higher paying jobs, which is another argument, outside of this one.

I've heard sort of heard this argument before, but not quite like you have said it.

Taunia Adams said...

4. China - Vietnam, India, Indonesia and China have been in Iraqi oil fields for years. China did not want this war with Iraq, and our foreign policy, over the last 10 years, has deteriorated so much that I think awarding Americans oil contracts in Iraq, after saying this war was not about oil, would have sent other countries into Iraq after us.

I also believe that China's oil contracts help to alleviate the rebuilding costs in Iraq, which America is always good for rebuilding a place we destroy.

Worrying about China becoming the main super power is understandable, but from whom did we borrow money from for our regretted rebate checks? Besides, nearly 25% of our foreign debt is owed to China. We need them much more than they need us.

I don't think China being awarded the oil contracts in Iraq is our main concern for China.

Anonymous said...

The 1800's were the British century; 1900's the American; 2000 will be the Chinese century. Jim Rogers is right.

In addition to Iraq, the Chinese have huge oil contracts around the world - recently penned one with Petrobras (Brazil). The Chinese are on a huge commodity and farm-land buying binge. The Chinese learned their capitalism very well and practice it better than we. Last year they became the world's biggest auto market.

Think China's big? Watch India - in a generation India's population will be larger than China's.

The US needs to belatedly heed Ike's advice-stop the Roman-empire-like military-industrial-petroleum-congressional complex, withdraw from and have no more land wars in Asia. We need to learn to live within our means and provide stewardship for what we have. The US empire days can wind down in a manner we control or in a manner controller by others.

Bill Fleming said...

Wow, Anonymous, that rings pretty true, Good thoughts.

Question for you. Are you posting as "Anonymous" because because it's the easiest thing to do given our pain in the ass way you have to leave comments, or because you really don't want anybody to know who you are?

If the latter, could you just please sign off at the end of your comments with with an initial or something, so we don't get you mixed up with other "Anonymous" people?

The initial doesn't have to mean anything. Just XYZ or whatever, so we know it's you.