Distrust, disappointment, distraction, Kabuki dancing in the face of a fleeced and powerless electorate by a class consumed with the concept of power. The whole system has an aroma that will not improve until vote by mail is replace by an in-person, concerned, informed and verified voter process. What other remedy can the beleaguered citizen demand? It looks like we'd all be better if the legislature didn't convene at all.
The deeper problem, in my view, is how performative the system has become. It’s not just about how we vote, it’s about why too many elected officials would rather posture than govern. That’s what breeds cynicism. If we want to rebuild trust, we need more accountability, not fewer voters. And definitely not fewer legislative sessions. The answer isn’t disengagement, it’s fixing what’s broken and demanding better.
Talk about performative? Yes, Democrats are performative. To stay and listen is like dealing with 2 year olds. They feed off the attention. What breeds cynicism is when Republicans want to parley acting as if they have something credible and then vote with these performers. Fact is that Oregon Democrats have no respect for you because you are not a Democrat. You don’t even recognize that they are making fun of you. Maybe you need to change parties? They might like you and listen to you then.
Fewer legislative sessions is exactly what we need to keep the political class from screwing the state up even more. That short session to help 'fix' minor technicalities really hasn't done that has it? Things were better when politicians could only meet every two years.
If we really want to clean up the incentives behind sclerotic politics and partisan chaos, I’d start by rethinking the primary system and how we fund campaigns. That’s where the pressure gets baked in. Fix the upstream incentives, and the downstream behavior starts to change.
😂 Money is free speech. Money doesn’t buy elections. Trump won his election against Kamala and she overspent him. That is a lousy excuse that every weak candidate uses. Lots of candidates overcome a lack of funds by being strong communicators and competitors.
Totally agree that people and groups should be able to speak, spend, and organize around ideas they care about. That’s foundational. But here’s the catch: Super PACs don’t have to answer to voters. They can raise unlimited money, flood a district with ads, and say whatever they want. And, they can do it without ever having to face a debate, a question, or a single constituent.
So while I don’t think money itself is the problem, I do think we’ve created a system where the people with actual accountability, i.e. the candidates, are often drowned out by groups they can’t control and technically can’t even coordinate with.
And, that’s not speech. That’s distortion.
So, if we want stronger candidates, let’s give them the tools to speak directly and transparently to voters. And, let's stop outsourcing persuasion to anonymous middlemen with deep pockets and no accountability.
Definitely do NOT AGREE. Showing up means constituents get represented. When it is not possible and the outcome is extreme damage to citizens I'm for using every possible remedy.
I get the impulse to use every possible tool when the stakes feel high. But here’s where we disagree: I don’t believe walking out is representation. I think it’s what happens when we stop trusting the process to work at all.
That’s what elections are for. If people don’t like the laws being passed, they can vote. They can organize. They can fund candidates who reflect their values. They can even put measures on the ballot.
But once we decide that any hard vote could be a reason to shut it all down, we’ve left self-government behind, and started playing a game where only one side is ever allowed to win. That’s not a republic. That’s a standoff. And nobody wins those.
So you think with mail-in ballots and gerrymandering, the system isn’t broken? We haven’t had a Republican governor in how many years? 43 years!! Ya right, the system isn’t broken at all. It is completely corrupt. It would be better to shut it down, limiting the damage being done.
Just change parties already. You vote against what you were elected for. At times the only tool left is to walk out. You are not really a conservative at all.
Showing up to watch groomer clowns and getting your head knocked into the ground (again) doesn't seem to benefit half the state. However, it does seem to benefit the 2nd place winners that reach hard across the aisle to enable the leftists.
It's hard to imagine a more self serving, deceitful pile of BS than this ode to cowardice. Javadi is essentially a democrat so it makes sense that he would promote any plan that accelerates that agenda. The reality is the state of Oregon is disintegrating. And it is disintegrating because of the policies the Democrats craft and the Republicans roll over for. And it is a national disgrace. The job of an elected official is to safeguard the rights of their constituents. Most Oregon Republicans will not. And they use these absurd claims ("If we don't show up our voices don't count".... Mark Owens) to justify their refusal to stand in the way of the demented bulldozer that is Democrat/Socialist policy. A denial of quorum is not a refusal to work. Those are Democrat buzzwords. It's a constitutional tactic to stand in the way of the mudslide that is crushing this state. For the people of Oregon losing their rights, their property, and for some in the near future , their liberty, all this talk of "persuasion" and the "process" rings pretty hollow when it comes from self important frauds whose main desire is to continue the illusion that they matter because they have an office and a parking space in Salem.
You don’t have to agree with me. But calling a legislator who shows up, casts votes, takes heat, and explains his reasoning a “coward” isn’t an argument, it’s a performance. And frankly, that’s what I was writing about.
You talk a lot about liberty, but the founders warned us that some of the most dangerous threats to liberty would come from people who use its name to justify wrecking the system that protects it. That’s Federalist No. 1. That’s Hamilton. That’s Madison. That’s the whole design of the republic: debate, vote, lose, come back and make your case again.
Denying quorum isn’t sacred. It’s a tactic. And like any tactic, when it’s used carelessly or constantly, it does more harm than good. You say it’s constitutional. So is staying in the room and fighting. So is doing the job you were elected to do.
I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to create chaos when I don’t like the odds. I’m not afraid to stand up to bad policy. But I’ll do it with my name on the board, not by vanishing when it’s time to vote.
If that makes me a disappointment in your book, I can live with that. I wasn’t elected to please an out-of-state commentator. I was elected to serve Oregonians, by showing up and doing the work.
But you're not doing the work. You're collaborating with people who are working to destroy the state. These are not arguments about where to cite the fire station. These are fights over the sexual mutilation of children and putting people in jail for doing things that were legal yesterday and harm no one. These are debates about crushing small businesses because you happen to hate the product they sell. And you can pretend that it's simply a matter of being more "persuasive" but the reality is the Republicans are not even considered a factor. You have ZERO power to do anything that is not approved by your overlords. None, zip, nada. All you can do is make floor speeches and send out angry press releases while showing up day after day to provide the quorum the dems need to pass horrible legislation. Or, in your case, you can go on the record of APPROVING some of this insanity. No matter how degrading and twisted it may be. It's hilarious to listen to people like you pretend you're standing up for something because you make meaningless floor speeches to express your outrage while people like Prozanski publicly humiliate Republican Senators. Your pretense of "fighting" is theater. And not very good theater. You're not fighters, you're enablers. Refusing to be part of the clown show that has made Oregon a laughing stock of drug infested homeless camps, Secretaries of State on the payroll of pot dealers and governors who put their mentally unstable "wives" in charge of mental health issues is not refusing to fight. Quite the contrary. It takes no courage to show up and behave and do the bidding of people who shovel money at far left causes. If you think standing up for the people who elected you is "creating chaos" you have an oddly low bar for circumstances that cause you discomfort. Your friends on the left will do ANYTHING to get what they want, up to firebombs and bullets. But people like you pretend you're "standing up" when in fact you are just rolling over. And over and over.
Kevin, you clearly have strong opinions, and I know you’re not alone in your frustration. But you and I have very different views about what it means to fight for Oregon.
You say I have “zero power.” I disagree. I have the power to vote, to amend, to testify, to push back, to persuade. And to keep doing it day after day, not just when it’s easy or emotionally satisfying. That’s not rolling over. That’s governing.
You call floor speeches meaningless. I don’t. I’ve watched how they influence debate, reframe an issue, or give others the courage to speak up. That’s not theater. That’s representation.
You say Democrats will do anything to win. That’s exactly why I won’t adopt the same mentality. If the answer to dysfunction is to abandon the process, then we’re not saving the republic. No, we’re just fast-forwarding its collapse.
I didn’t run to join a culture war rage machine. I ran because I believe Oregon still deserves adults in the room. If that’s not your kind of fight, fine. But don’t mistake persistence for surrender, or confuse noise with courage.
I’m going to keep showing up. Because the alternative isn’t rebellion. It’s irrelevance.
No. Showing up when the only purpose you serve is to advance the left's agenda (which you appear comfortable with) is irrelevance. There is almost nothing more irrelevant than a Republican in the Oregon legislature. You cannot pass bills and in spite of the comical bombast around the transportation bill, you cannot kill bills. You cannot force bills out of committee and you cannot advance amendments unless they are approved by the Democrats. In Senate Judiciary you may not even be allowed to respond to a comment or question without being told to shut up by Prozanski. Several times.
You COULD slow things down by demanding bills be read. But day after day Republicans move to suspend that rule. You can serve notice of minority reports but that only works in the last days. To suggest that to deny quorum means irrelevance is a demonstration of a serious lack of historical knowledge. In fact, when Herman led the walkout that Drazan reluctantly followed, many, many, many, bad bills were killed because that was the requirement he negotiated and won. Hardly irrelevance. In fact it was a victory. Of course the governor came back and instituted some awful stuff by executive order, but that was totally on her. And the latest rap from the Republicans that "if we walk out the bills will just be back next year" is, on its face, absurd. OF COURSE THEY WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR. And they will be back if you stay and provide a path for more liberal victories. Unlike Republicans the left does not accept losing. Ever. They will not stop until there is nothing left to destroy.
Persistence is not surrender. But you know what is surrender? Surrender. If you are in a wrestling match and your opponent pulls out a knife, do you stay because you don't want to be irrelevant or do you realize the other side is not interested in playing by the rules, they just want blood?
You won't adopt "the exact same mentality" as the Democrats. Well that certainly demonstrates what a courteous gentleman you are. But the people who will. no longer be allowed to attend city council meetings, the landlords who are losing control over their property, the families whose kids cannot play in their front yards because a crack head is stealing their water don't really give a damn that you are so mannerly. They want someone who is going to say "this crap has gone far enough." While you are concerned with decorum good people are being beaten deaf, dumb, and blind by corrupt clowns. And while Republicans allow garbage to pass saying "the courts will handle this" they never put up a dime for those fights while Oregonians get to pay those bills AND the state's lawyers,
For God's sake, we have transgender turtles giving mental health advice and you want to demonstrate your willingness to lose gracefully. The state has run out of time for that. It's an outhouse fire and the Republicans are the problem.
When a party with a majority will not listen to constituents and are trying to push through laws that are contrary to our beliefs into our constitution sometimes a walk out is the only answer for those who care about their constituents.
All we have to look at is the disaster that Oregon has become over the last 20 years. Failing industry, failing cities, drug crisis. I ask you, sir, to make sure who you want to represent.
The cows were shipped out to eastern Oregon. The extension service doesn’t even have a Dairy specialist in Tillamook anymore. How much longer will it be that your area will even be able to boast of making cheese and ice cream? Why is this happening? Oregon politics.
Distrust, disappointment, distraction, Kabuki dancing in the face of a fleeced and powerless electorate by a class consumed with the concept of power. The whole system has an aroma that will not improve until vote by mail is replace by an in-person, concerned, informed and verified voter process. What other remedy can the beleaguered citizen demand? It looks like we'd all be better if the legislature didn't convene at all.
The deeper problem, in my view, is how performative the system has become. It’s not just about how we vote, it’s about why too many elected officials would rather posture than govern. That’s what breeds cynicism. If we want to rebuild trust, we need more accountability, not fewer voters. And definitely not fewer legislative sessions. The answer isn’t disengagement, it’s fixing what’s broken and demanding better.
Spoken like a true believer to a true disbeliever...
Talk about performative? Yes, Democrats are performative. To stay and listen is like dealing with 2 year olds. They feed off the attention. What breeds cynicism is when Republicans want to parley acting as if they have something credible and then vote with these performers. Fact is that Oregon Democrats have no respect for you because you are not a Democrat. You don’t even recognize that they are making fun of you. Maybe you need to change parties? They might like you and listen to you then.
Fewer legislative sessions is exactly what we need to keep the political class from screwing the state up even more. That short session to help 'fix' minor technicalities really hasn't done that has it? Things were better when politicians could only meet every two years.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness and reasoning behind your post Representative Javadi. Well said.
Ending vote by mail (motor voter) would clean up a lot of walkout nonsense while eliminating fraud perpetrated by the DNC.
If we really want to clean up the incentives behind sclerotic politics and partisan chaos, I’d start by rethinking the primary system and how we fund campaigns. That’s where the pressure gets baked in. Fix the upstream incentives, and the downstream behavior starts to change.
Go for it!
😂 Money is free speech. Money doesn’t buy elections. Trump won his election against Kamala and she overspent him. That is a lousy excuse that every weak candidate uses. Lots of candidates overcome a lack of funds by being strong communicators and competitors.
Totally agree that people and groups should be able to speak, spend, and organize around ideas they care about. That’s foundational. But here’s the catch: Super PACs don’t have to answer to voters. They can raise unlimited money, flood a district with ads, and say whatever they want. And, they can do it without ever having to face a debate, a question, or a single constituent.
So while I don’t think money itself is the problem, I do think we’ve created a system where the people with actual accountability, i.e. the candidates, are often drowned out by groups they can’t control and technically can’t even coordinate with.
And, that’s not speech. That’s distortion.
So, if we want stronger candidates, let’s give them the tools to speak directly and transparently to voters. And, let's stop outsourcing persuasion to anonymous middlemen with deep pockets and no accountability.
Trying to reason with radical extremism doesn’t make me want to open my wallet.
Definitely do NOT AGREE. Showing up means constituents get represented. When it is not possible and the outcome is extreme damage to citizens I'm for using every possible remedy.
I get the impulse to use every possible tool when the stakes feel high. But here’s where we disagree: I don’t believe walking out is representation. I think it’s what happens when we stop trusting the process to work at all.
That’s what elections are for. If people don’t like the laws being passed, they can vote. They can organize. They can fund candidates who reflect their values. They can even put measures on the ballot.
But once we decide that any hard vote could be a reason to shut it all down, we’ve left self-government behind, and started playing a game where only one side is ever allowed to win. That’s not a republic. That’s a standoff. And nobody wins those.
So you think with mail-in ballots and gerrymandering, the system isn’t broken? We haven’t had a Republican governor in how many years? 43 years!! Ya right, the system isn’t broken at all. It is completely corrupt. It would be better to shut it down, limiting the damage being done.
Just change parties already. You vote against what you were elected for. At times the only tool left is to walk out. You are not really a conservative at all.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🤷♀️
Showing up to watch groomer clowns and getting your head knocked into the ground (again) doesn't seem to benefit half the state. However, it does seem to benefit the 2nd place winners that reach hard across the aisle to enable the leftists.
It's hard to imagine a more self serving, deceitful pile of BS than this ode to cowardice. Javadi is essentially a democrat so it makes sense that he would promote any plan that accelerates that agenda. The reality is the state of Oregon is disintegrating. And it is disintegrating because of the policies the Democrats craft and the Republicans roll over for. And it is a national disgrace. The job of an elected official is to safeguard the rights of their constituents. Most Oregon Republicans will not. And they use these absurd claims ("If we don't show up our voices don't count".... Mark Owens) to justify their refusal to stand in the way of the demented bulldozer that is Democrat/Socialist policy. A denial of quorum is not a refusal to work. Those are Democrat buzzwords. It's a constitutional tactic to stand in the way of the mudslide that is crushing this state. For the people of Oregon losing their rights, their property, and for some in the near future , their liberty, all this talk of "persuasion" and the "process" rings pretty hollow when it comes from self important frauds whose main desire is to continue the illusion that they matter because they have an office and a parking space in Salem.
Hi Kevin,
You don’t have to agree with me. But calling a legislator who shows up, casts votes, takes heat, and explains his reasoning a “coward” isn’t an argument, it’s a performance. And frankly, that’s what I was writing about.
You talk a lot about liberty, but the founders warned us that some of the most dangerous threats to liberty would come from people who use its name to justify wrecking the system that protects it. That’s Federalist No. 1. That’s Hamilton. That’s Madison. That’s the whole design of the republic: debate, vote, lose, come back and make your case again.
Denying quorum isn’t sacred. It’s a tactic. And like any tactic, when it’s used carelessly or constantly, it does more harm than good. You say it’s constitutional. So is staying in the room and fighting. So is doing the job you were elected to do.
I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to create chaos when I don’t like the odds. I’m not afraid to stand up to bad policy. But I’ll do it with my name on the board, not by vanishing when it’s time to vote.
If that makes me a disappointment in your book, I can live with that. I wasn’t elected to please an out-of-state commentator. I was elected to serve Oregonians, by showing up and doing the work.
But you're not doing the work. You're collaborating with people who are working to destroy the state. These are not arguments about where to cite the fire station. These are fights over the sexual mutilation of children and putting people in jail for doing things that were legal yesterday and harm no one. These are debates about crushing small businesses because you happen to hate the product they sell. And you can pretend that it's simply a matter of being more "persuasive" but the reality is the Republicans are not even considered a factor. You have ZERO power to do anything that is not approved by your overlords. None, zip, nada. All you can do is make floor speeches and send out angry press releases while showing up day after day to provide the quorum the dems need to pass horrible legislation. Or, in your case, you can go on the record of APPROVING some of this insanity. No matter how degrading and twisted it may be. It's hilarious to listen to people like you pretend you're standing up for something because you make meaningless floor speeches to express your outrage while people like Prozanski publicly humiliate Republican Senators. Your pretense of "fighting" is theater. And not very good theater. You're not fighters, you're enablers. Refusing to be part of the clown show that has made Oregon a laughing stock of drug infested homeless camps, Secretaries of State on the payroll of pot dealers and governors who put their mentally unstable "wives" in charge of mental health issues is not refusing to fight. Quite the contrary. It takes no courage to show up and behave and do the bidding of people who shovel money at far left causes. If you think standing up for the people who elected you is "creating chaos" you have an oddly low bar for circumstances that cause you discomfort. Your friends on the left will do ANYTHING to get what they want, up to firebombs and bullets. But people like you pretend you're "standing up" when in fact you are just rolling over. And over and over.
Kevin, you clearly have strong opinions, and I know you’re not alone in your frustration. But you and I have very different views about what it means to fight for Oregon.
You say I have “zero power.” I disagree. I have the power to vote, to amend, to testify, to push back, to persuade. And to keep doing it day after day, not just when it’s easy or emotionally satisfying. That’s not rolling over. That’s governing.
You call floor speeches meaningless. I don’t. I’ve watched how they influence debate, reframe an issue, or give others the courage to speak up. That’s not theater. That’s representation.
You say Democrats will do anything to win. That’s exactly why I won’t adopt the same mentality. If the answer to dysfunction is to abandon the process, then we’re not saving the republic. No, we’re just fast-forwarding its collapse.
I didn’t run to join a culture war rage machine. I ran because I believe Oregon still deserves adults in the room. If that’s not your kind of fight, fine. But don’t mistake persistence for surrender, or confuse noise with courage.
I’m going to keep showing up. Because the alternative isn’t rebellion. It’s irrelevance.
No. Showing up when the only purpose you serve is to advance the left's agenda (which you appear comfortable with) is irrelevance. There is almost nothing more irrelevant than a Republican in the Oregon legislature. You cannot pass bills and in spite of the comical bombast around the transportation bill, you cannot kill bills. You cannot force bills out of committee and you cannot advance amendments unless they are approved by the Democrats. In Senate Judiciary you may not even be allowed to respond to a comment or question without being told to shut up by Prozanski. Several times.
You COULD slow things down by demanding bills be read. But day after day Republicans move to suspend that rule. You can serve notice of minority reports but that only works in the last days. To suggest that to deny quorum means irrelevance is a demonstration of a serious lack of historical knowledge. In fact, when Herman led the walkout that Drazan reluctantly followed, many, many, many, bad bills were killed because that was the requirement he negotiated and won. Hardly irrelevance. In fact it was a victory. Of course the governor came back and instituted some awful stuff by executive order, but that was totally on her. And the latest rap from the Republicans that "if we walk out the bills will just be back next year" is, on its face, absurd. OF COURSE THEY WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR. And they will be back if you stay and provide a path for more liberal victories. Unlike Republicans the left does not accept losing. Ever. They will not stop until there is nothing left to destroy.
Persistence is not surrender. But you know what is surrender? Surrender. If you are in a wrestling match and your opponent pulls out a knife, do you stay because you don't want to be irrelevant or do you realize the other side is not interested in playing by the rules, they just want blood?
You won't adopt "the exact same mentality" as the Democrats. Well that certainly demonstrates what a courteous gentleman you are. But the people who will. no longer be allowed to attend city council meetings, the landlords who are losing control over their property, the families whose kids cannot play in their front yards because a crack head is stealing their water don't really give a damn that you are so mannerly. They want someone who is going to say "this crap has gone far enough." While you are concerned with decorum good people are being beaten deaf, dumb, and blind by corrupt clowns. And while Republicans allow garbage to pass saying "the courts will handle this" they never put up a dime for those fights while Oregonians get to pay those bills AND the state's lawyers,
For God's sake, we have transgender turtles giving mental health advice and you want to demonstrate your willingness to lose gracefully. The state has run out of time for that. It's an outhouse fire and the Republicans are the problem.
We want him! We want him!
When a party with a majority will not listen to constituents and are trying to push through laws that are contrary to our beliefs into our constitution sometimes a walk out is the only answer for those who care about their constituents.
All we have to look at is the disaster that Oregon has become over the last 20 years. Failing industry, failing cities, drug crisis. I ask you, sir, to make sure who you want to represent.
The cows were shipped out to eastern Oregon. The extension service doesn’t even have a Dairy specialist in Tillamook anymore. How much longer will it be that your area will even be able to boast of making cheese and ice cream? Why is this happening? Oregon politics.