McHaddad: CD5 Voters Deserve Honesty from Candidates
Oregon's 5th Congressional District is a notoriously purple constituency, represented for over a decade by NRA-endorsed Democrat Kurt Schrader. Former...
Opinion
The Disappearing Voter
“A registered voter who doesn’t vote isn’t participating—they’re spectating.” Oregon doesn’t have a voter suppression problem. It has a voter...
Worshiping the Pointy Stick: The Tribalism of Ignorance and the Ignorance of Tribalism
If you’re a writer (and you are exceedingly fortunate), you might write one thing in your life that captures...
On Assignment: The Sulla Precedent: A Dispatch from the Scorched Zone on ‘Route 66 Tourism’ and ‘Orange Man Bad’
I am blessed with more worldly and sophisticated friends than I deserve. And some (but by no means all)...
Voices From the Sidewalk: Oregon’s Mental Health System is Failing
In Oregon, we need a complete overhaul of our mental health system. In 2025, according to Sheriff Duncan, Linn County...
McHaddad: Reflections on Candidate Visits to Elgin
When you manage the day-to-day affairs of a town of 1,800 people hours away from recognizable metropolitan areas, you get...
Beyond the Guilt Grift – A Report from the Scorched Zone on the Japanese-American Bromance
As he works feverishly to liberate X from the Scourge of the Bots, Mr. Musk recently deployed a capability on...
Voices From the Sidewalk: Forced Treatment Would Save Lives
It was an early day in Spring when I arrived at C.H.A.N.C.E. (Community Helping Addicts Negotiate Change Effectively) and heard...
Voices From the Sidewalk: A Challenging Case Ends in Tragedy
As a former case manager at a homeless shelter, I learned much about what works and what doesn’t work when...
The Family Business — Oregon’s Quiet Cartel
Let me tell you a story, not the one you get in campaign mailers with smiling candidates and soft promises...
The Unspoken Truth About Homelessness and Trauma
The traumas that go along with homelessness are something we rarely speak of. As someone who experienced homelessness first hand,...
The Substack Scouts and the Actual Adversary: A Field Report for “On Assignment” from the Scorched Zone
Those of us who care about the maximization of Individual Autonomy in a manner not inconsistent with the Common...
Apathy Is the Real Threat to Oregon Elections
Two competing strategies, one shared goal, and a growing problem we’re creating ourselves There are two very different conversations unfolding...
The Shirley Syndrome: Stop Waiting for a Hero
“Wouldn’t it be great if Nick Shirley showed up in Oregon?” That’s the sentiment making the rounds right now. While...
The Fringes Have Merged: A Response to Helen Andrews’s Compact Essay “America Needs a Better Meritocracy”
There is a debate raging within conservativism between mimicry and merit, and the resolution of that debate will determine far...
McHaddad: Oh No, a Rural State Legislator Did Something (Not) Bad Again!
Rules for thee but not for me, that is the rule of the day in Oregon's legacy media. Another principle...
The Dispensationalist Trap: A Response To “The Long Game and the Conservative Right”
In a recent viral essay, “Insurrection Barbie” alleges that a network of “Catholic Integralists” and “Russian ideologues” are engaged in...
One Leader, One Manager, and One Megaphone
Saturday night in Coos Bay, the Republican candidates for Oregon governor stepped onto the stage to make their case to...
The Island That Could Break the Iranian Regime
Trump Saw the Pressure Point 40 Years Ago For all the noise in the current war between Iran and the...
McHaddad: The Peace President Goes to War
Several months ago I wrote an editorial entitled, "President Trump is Waging Peace Across the World." At the time, the...
Oil, Ayatollahs, and the Fight for Iranian Women
How a Cold War chess move ignited decades of conflict — and why Trump may have triggered a historic pivot....
Did Salem Just Catch a Little Fetterman Fever?
One Democrat Sneezes… and Suddenly the Supermajority Reaches for Cold Medicine.SB1599 was all dressed up this morning, sitting on the...
McHaddad: The Left Found Their New Man in House District 57 – Recalled Morrow County Commissioner Jim Doherty
House District 57 is the rural heartland of Oregon's patriotic agricultural sector. Ten years ago, someone posited to me that...
McHaddad: Moving the Gas Tax Ballot Measure to May Reeks of Political Cowardice
I submitted the testimony below in opposition to SB 1599, which attempts to move the referendum on the gas tax...
They Took Your Signatures… Now They Want to Rewrite the Deal
A certified November vote, pushed into a partisan May election. Oregonians did exactly what the law says to do.They gathered...