If you have ever gone to rock and mineral or jewelry shows, you will usually find a piece of amber at one of the vendor's booths with a bug stuck in it. Amber is the fossilized remains of pine tree sap. The bug was the unfortunate victim of landing on a sticky substance.

Oregon is like that bug stuck in the sap; I live here, and the government bureaucrats are so proud of their progressive policies that they utter truly bizarre statements and make harmful financial policies.

I had to LOL when a friend outside of Oregon who saw the election results stated, “ It appears that Oregon made pot legal, so the voters would be too stupid to vote intelligently.”

Instead, Oregonians voted to raise their taxes, pay more to the state, and keep failed policies and greedy politicians in place.

In 2024, most of the country voted for change, for Trump, personal prosperity, and less inflation. On the other hand, like the bug in Amber, Oregon (which is ruled by its coastal edge) is stuck with failed policies that raise taxes, toll roads and cause Oregon’s citizens more financial pain.

Different entities in Oregon keep planning for millions of dollars in federal grants for roads, housing for people experiencing homelessness, wildfire costs, etc. When I hear these grandiose plans by Democrats, I have to wonder what side of Nov. 5, 2024, these Democrats are living on. Oregon went farther left, and now they brag about preparing to fight Trump and his administration while expecting the feds to give them money for their programs.

Maybe a slight recounting of Oregon's position should be stated here to help the Democrats understand their chances of getting the federal money they want for their programs.

Tina Kotek, the Democrat governor of Oregon, has publically stated she is preparing to fight Trump and all of his people. To the writer, this seems like a strange way to ensure that you are on the list for federal grants for Oregon’s plans. The Oregon Democrat Secretary of State recently certified the 2024 election even though the voter rolls are not clean, and thousands of illegal registrations and ballots are unaccounted for. Trump has been very direct in wanting an ID card to vote in elections and one day vote in person. It now appears that Oregon voted by mail, and the process of obtaining no required identification is about to be challenged. If Oregon doesn’t clean up the elections and voter rolls and continues to operate outside the federal election guidelines, more federal funding will be held back.

Now we come to Oregon’s two Democrat Senators, Ron Wyden, and Jeff Merkley, who have operated under the protective cloak of the Biden administration for years. They have been openly hostile to Trump and Republicans in general. The Biden administration funded almost every request for money Oregon’s two Democrat Senators wanted. With the new Republican administration elected and taking charge at the end of January 2025. The two Democratic senators will be far down the list of priorities, if they are even on it.

I do not see Oregon moving forward, like a bug stuck in pine tree sap. Oregon will experience many months of federal grant request denials and have to raise higher taxes on its citizens or cut programs.

Oregon’s state stone is the Sunstone. Maybe Oregon should add another one: a piece of Amber with a bug stuck inside it.

John Woods is a husband, father, conservative, and delegate to the State of Oregon Republican Party.

Image: James St. John, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0 Deed