Meet the candidate: Dan Bahlen, Libertarian Party
9 min read
Meet the candidate: Running in the 4th Congressional District, Libertarian Dan Bahlen.
Dan Bahlen (Libertarian Party candidate, 4th Contressional District): Hello, world. I extend my appreciation to all. My name is Dr. Bahlen. I’m on the ballot as Dan Bahlen.
[00:00:10] I’m a man from Geronimo’s people, the Apache. I worked for my Tribal government for many years and eventually I had to report corruptions and abuses to the Office of Inspector General. I knew there were risks and I decided to take the bullet for my colleagues and my people. I was retaliated against as a federal whistleblower and I became a displaced refugee here to Eugene, where this past summer I finished my doctoral degree while living homeless.
[00:00:32] I’m running for U.S. Congress because in 2003, I had a visionary experience of biblical proportions where I heard my older voice speak to the world and I saw the coming of the Lord as a magnificent cloud across with perfect edges, and I know I win this election, and I win with no money and no campaign team.
[00:00:49] Absolutely no votes ought to go to Val Hoyle. We all know millions of our tax dollars have been paid out for racial discrimination cases under her leadership, and I’m familiar with that behavior, and cases like those are hard as hell to get going, prove, and win.
[00:01:03] If Val Hoyle wins, Donald Trump and the GOP will wake up every morning and say, ‘What’s for breakfast? Ah, the corrupt and racist Val Hoyle and the Democrats who chose Rep. Hoyle over an American Indian man who fought government corruption.’ Trump will say, ‘Mitch McConnell, pass the salt, please. Ted Cruz, pass the pepper. Lindsey Graham, pass the gravy, please.’
[00:01:23] My three main solutions are:
- A massive market-driven Civilian Conservation Corps
- A reduction of federal power by giving the U.S.-Mexico border back to the Apache
- Establishing an international City of Peace in the heart of Israel.
[00:01:40] John Q: At the City Club Oct. 11, a question about how federal education policy might help Oregon’s struggling students and school districts.
[00:01:49] Dan Bahlen (Libertarian candidate, 4th District): Education: I’m for a moderate and balanced approach to education. First, we need to prioritize critical thinking, where we teach students to think critically rather than solely focus on the content of specific subjects, and to teach students to see and understand multiple viewpoints without promoting a single ideology.
[00:02:05] Second, we need to compromise on sensitive and contentious issues, such as sex education and discussions of race while maintaining educational standards.
[00:02:14] Lastly, I support reasonable parental input along with professional research into what to educate and how to educate. I also believe we need to streamline higher education so people are educated with degrees quicker and at less of a cost and start getting to work faster. Within my market-driven Civilian Conservation Corps solution, there also needs to be a strong educational component that moves people forward in life.
[00:02:37] John Q: He was asked about health care, abortion rights, homelessness.
[00:02:45] Dan Bahlen (Libertarian candidate, 4th District): Our healthcare system is broken. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring, which is what my market-driven Civilian Conservation Corps solution intends to do.
[00:03:00] The healthcare system is broken, while social assistance programs are only keeping people alive to be beggars.
[00:03:05] Our system is efficient at being ineffective.
[00:03:08] There are many problems with our health care system, spending on Medicare and Medicaid are going to double in the next decade from billions of dollars to trillions of dollars, and we have the poorest health outcomes out of all the developed countries.
[00:03:19] Obesity has tripled. There are roughly 200,000 deaths of despair per year from suicide, liver disease, drug overdose because we have a mental health crisis in our country with a longstanding culture of poverty and government dysfunction.
[00:03:32] Our system is efficient at being ineffective. We see everything getting worse everywhere. Yet politicians keep throwing money at it.
[00:03:41] Abortion. We live in a sinful world, a world driven by sin, and our world has been driven by sinful men. Women shouldn’t have to pay the price for the failures of man’s leadership in this world. The culture of poverty plays a significant role in the decision to seek an abortion. End the culture of poverty with my proposed market-driven Civilian Conservation Corps solution, and we will end a significant number of abortions.
[00:04:03] I will protect women’s right to abortion at the federal level. We have seen all the attack ads worth hundreds of thousands of dollars against Monique DeSpain, so she obviously is not the candidate of choice in this election.
[00:04:14] We have seen the attack ads worth hundreds of thousands of dollars against Rep. Val Hoyle. Hoyle is a risky liability in defending women’s rights. Millions of dollars in payouts in racial discrimination cases under her leadership. And she’s playing the ‘great white savior’ in the hunting and fishing rights of the Indians.
[00:04:31] Homelessness: I’m homeless right now. I’m living in a whole bunch of US Army tents with 125 other homeless. I see what’s going on from the bottom and right here in Eugene. I know what’s going on with the system.
[00:04:43] My solution of a market-driven Civilian Conservation Corps can begin here in the 4th District, but it’s desperately needed in all 50 states. We have too many people homeless, too many in poverty, too many incarcerated. All those billions of dollars spent on just keeping them alive, alive to be beggars.
[00:04:58] It’s an awful waste of money. We need to invest smart. This solution will help reduce wasteful spending and compassion burnout at the local and state levels. The CCC is about true purpose, achievements, real contributions, and will help build infrastructure, environmental conservation, disaster preparedness, wildfire management, and more.
[00:05:17] It will help this population become disciplined, self-sufficient, proud, and ready for any all-out war and the consequences of climate change when that day comes, and the millions upon millions in this population will not suffer and die first or be a liability to this nation.
[00:05:32] Si vis pacem, para bellum. ‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’ This is one of the best ways to do it. Vote Bahlen.
[00:05:40] John Q: With comment on the situation in Gaza:
[00:05:43] Dan Bahlen (Libertarian candidate, 4th District): This is about international security. This is about national security. China is ready to wage an economic and cyberwar to force Taiwan to surrender. China and Russia have been doing joint military exercises and they’re friends with North Korea, who’s testing nuclear weapons.
[00:05:57] We are essentially fighting Russia in Ukraine where ground has been gained in Russia. Russia is tied to Iran who’s waging an all-out war with Israel that we are being drawn into. And when Iran develops a nuclear weapon, we’ll probably need to invade Iran like we invaded Iraq in 2003.
[00:06:13] We will not let anyone wipe Israel from the map. As an American Indian, I relate to Israel and what it feels like when a whole bunch of people want to wipe you out.
[00:06:21] I declare the United Nations to be impotent, and we need to do away with the United Nations, like we did away with the League of Nations. And in its place, we need to establish an international City of Peace in the heart of Israel.
[00:06:34] John Q: How would you address climate change, Dan Bahlen?
[00:06:37] Dan Bahlen (Libertarian candidate, 4th District): Extreme weather events, hurricanes, heat waves, heavy rainfall, devastating floods and wildfires, sea level rise, coastal erosion, displacement of communities, ecosystem disruption, agricultural impacts affecting food security.
[00:06:51] The economic costs are coming.
[00:06:54] The world has delayed action for too long. We are on the Titanic with all the threats we are facing, and the first who are going to suffer the most and die are the poorest and that is why my market-driven Civilian Conservation Corps solution is critical. The CCC will go to work implementing green energy along with its other work.
[00:07:11] The other important solution is the international City of Peace in the heart of Israel. We need to end all our wars, stop the wasteful spending, and appropriately face the climate change threat together and reduce the national debts of all the nations.
[00:07:25] John Q: He spoke about the border, the economy, being effective in Congress, and made a final pitch for your vote.
[00:07:32] Dan Bahlen (Libertarian candidate, 4th District): As far as the border goes, and immigration: Give the border back to the Apache. First, giving the border back to the Apaches will alleviate the burden of racism and migration on U.S. politicians and the American public. Americans won’t have to worry about being racist at the border with migrants. The Apache can deal with it.
[00:07:48] Second, it helps rectify racism against Apaches. My bold proposal is to begin the process of returning land to the Apache people. This is not just about land. It’s about addressing past injustices and honoring the Apache Nation’s rightful place and dignity.
[00:08:03] Third, Apaches can make pacts with neighboring tribes to secure the border. This will help end generations of the worst imaginable unemployment.
[00:08:11] Fourth, poor investment in social assistance programs on reservations can be diverted towards Apaches defending the border. And the DREAMers: The DREAMers need to stay in America. As for the rest of immigration, an Ellis Island-style immigration process sounds pretty good to me.
[00:08:26] About the economy. My solution for stabilizing our economy begins with the homeless, the impoverished, the too many who are incarcerated. Reinvest America’s money from just keeping people alive as beggars. My solution is a massive market-driven Civilian Conservation Corps. It can also put to work the millions of students who are part of that $1.7 trillion student debt who don’t have stable work, instead of just clearing out that debt.
[00:08:49] Our debt and deficit are out of control. We’re facing a Social Security system collapse. Our debt is $35 trillion and climbing fast. We’re approaching one-tenth of a quadrillion dollars in debt. Democrats want a democracy, Republicans want a theocracy, but it’s more like we have an idiocracy. We are living with the failure of governance.
[00:09:07] It’s about accountability and transparency, and that’s what I’m about. I’m a federal whistleblower who’s retaliated against in a corruption case that involved abuses of employees on an impoverished Indian reservation.
[00:09:18] I knew the risks. Corrupt and abusive people intimidate people into following their bad leadership for fear of losing their necessities of life. Hoyle cannot hold anyone accountable, especially Donald Trump. She comes with too much baggage with the racial discrimination cases under her leadership and being too close for comfort to the corruption of La Mota.
[00:09:35] DeSpain can’t hold anyone accountable, because she can’t even hold Donald Trump accountable. It is possible, Trump will be the next president. To hold Donald Trump accountable, I will hire Stormy Daniels to be on my Congressional staff if I have to. I’ll take it a step further, I’ll hold Donald Trump accountable to the Lord God Almighty himself in front of the world, since the religious right appears unable to hold him accountable.
[00:09:58] I have a joke for you and it goes along with my neck tattoo (I have a neck tattoo of ‘The end of the trail’).
[00:10:02] A preacher trained his horse to go when he said ‘Thank God’ and to stop when he said ‘Amen.’ The preacher mounted the horse and said ‘Thank God’ and went for a ride. When he wanted to stop for lunch he said ‘Amen.’ After lunch he got back on his horse and said ‘Thank God’ and took off again.
[00:10:16] The horse started going toward the edge of a cliff. The preacher got excited and said, ‘Whoa, whoa!’ Then he remembered and said, ‘Amen,’ and the horse stopped at the edge of the cliff. The preacher was so relieved and grateful, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Thank God!’
[00:10:30] Voting DeSpain or Hoyle and saying ‘Thank God’ will only run us off that cliff. So vote Dan Bahlen in this election to save us from all the threats we are facing.
[00:10:38] John Q: Libertarian candidate Dan Bahlen, at the WOW Hall Oct. 11, seeking your vote in the 4th Congressional District.
