Bob Vickaryous has been a staple in Boundary County for decades. He is a second-generation, native born rancher of Bonners Ferry, and is running for Democrat Idaho Representative District 1.
Bob’s father started a cattle ranch in North Boundary County back in 1941. Today, Bob still runs the ranch with the assistance of his wife Mary. Together, Bob and Mary successfully run “Bob’s Lazy V Ranch”.
Why is Bob Running
Why is Bob running for the State Representative seat? He told Boundary.News that he wants to bring back the values the Democrat party was founded on. He says “It is time to bring back integrity to the party.”
Original Democrat Values
The Democratic Party, founded in the early 19th century, has devolved significantly over its history. Andrew Jackson was a major force in shaping the policies of the party. Here are some key aspects of the original values and focuses of the Democratic Party:
July 07, 1896
We, the Democrats of the United States in National Convention assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential principles of justice and liberty, upon which our institutions are founded, and which the Democratic Party has advocated from Jefferson’s time to our own—freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, the preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens before the law, and the faithful observance of constitutional limitations.
During all these years the Democratic Party has resisted the tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental power, and steadfastly maintained the integrity of the dual scheme of government established by the founders of this Republic of republics. Under its guidance and teachings the great principle of local self-government has found its best expression in the maintenance of the rights of the States and in its assertion of the necessity of confining the general government to the exercise of the powers granted by the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution of the United States guarantees to every citizen the rights of civil and religious liberty. The Democratic Party has always been the exponent of political liberty and religious freedom, and it renews its obligations and reaffirms its devotion to these fundamental principles of the Constitution.
The Money Plank
Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the Federal Constitution named silver and gold together as the money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by Congress under the Constitution made the silver dollar the monetary unit and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver-dollar unit.
We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase in the burdens of taxation and of all debts, public and private; the enrichment of the money-lending class at home and abroad; the prostration of industry and impoverishment of the people.
We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, and we favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind of legal-tender money by private contract.
We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to the holders of the obligations of the United States the option reserved by law to the Government of redeeming such obligations in either silver coin or gold coin.
Interest-Bearing Bonds
We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of the United States in time of peace and condemn the trafficking with banking syndicates, which, in exchange for bonds and at an enormous profit to themselves, supply the Federal Treasury with gold to maintain the policy of gold monometallism.
Against National Banks
Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and President Jackson declared that this power could not be delegated to corporations or individuals. We therefore denounce the issuance of notes intended to circulate as money by National banks as in derogation of the Constitution, and we demand that all paper which is made a legal tender for public and private debts, or which is receivable for dues to the United States, shall be issued by the Government of the United States and shall be redeemable in coin.
Tariff Resolution
We hold that tariff duties should be levied for purposes of revenue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate equally throughout the country, and not discriminate between class or section, and that taxation should be limited by the needs of the Government, honestly and economically administered.
Immigration and Arbitration
We hold that the most efficient way of protecting American labor is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly reduced by a vicious monetary system which depresses the prices of their products below the cost of production, and thus deprives them of the means of purchasing the products of our home manufactories; and as labor creates the wealth of the country, we demand the passage of such laws as may be necessary to protect it in all its rights.
We are in favor of the arbitration of differences between employers engaged in interstate commerce and their employees, and recommend such legislation as is necessary to carry out this principle.
Declare for Economy
We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from the people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high, while the labor that pays them is unemployed and the products of the people’s toil are depressed in price till they no longer repay the cost of production. We demand a return to that simplicity and economy which befits a Democratic Government, and a reduction in the number of useless offices, the salaries of which drain the substance of the people.
Federal Interference in Local Affairs
We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United States, and a crime against free institutions, and we especially object to government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which Federal Judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges and executioners; and we approve the bill passed at the last session of the United States Senate, and now pending in the House of Representatives, relative to contempts in Federal courts and providing for trials by jury in certain cases of contempt.
Pacific Railroad
No discrimination should be indulged in by the Government of the United States in favor of any of its debtors.
Civil-Service Laws
We are opposed to life tenure in the public service, except as provided in the Constitution. We favor appointments based on merit, fixed terms of office, and such an administration of the civil-service laws as will afford equal opportunities to all citizens of ascertained fitness.
Third-Term Resolution
We declare it to be the unwritten law of this Republic, established by custom and usage of 100 years, and sanctioned by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded and have maintained our Government that no man should be eligible for a third term of the Presidential office.
Improvement of Waterways
The Federal Government should care for and improve the Mississippi River and other great waterways of the Republic, so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tidewater.
Conclusion
Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of its success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration of principles and purposes to the considerate judgment of the American people. We invite the support of all citizens who approve them and who desire to have them made effective through legislation, for the relief of the people and the restoration of the country’s prosperity.
Closing
The bottom line is, if you love Boundary County and want someone who truly aligns with the founding ideas and policies of the Democrat Party, you should vote for Bob Vickaryous.
Oh… If you want some of the best beef in Boundary County, order some from Bob’s Lazy V Beef.
Good for you, Bob! I wonder how the good ole boys
are going to get around you not being a home grown
person.
Thank you Mark M for this piece about Bob Vickaryous! Very well done! I do have a serious concern that I think is shared with a number of others; namely what I perceive is a lack of enthusiasm for current Sen. Scott Herndon. I am seeing way more Jim Woodward campaign signs than Herndon signs as I drive around our area.
Why not go all in for Herndon? His record in the state Senate crushes that of Woodward’s, who turned out to be nothing more than Shawn Keough 2.0. He is smarter, more dynamic, and unlike Woodward, does not support biological males competing in female sports.
I greatly fear that the Swamp, just as it did with Tim Bertling’s write-in campaign victory over Steve Fioravanti for County Commissioner, is going to do absentee ballot funny business to give Woodward the primary victory (just enough to make it appear there’s no fraud) over Herndon. Should that indeed happen, I’ll definitely support Vickaryous over Woodward in November. But the Republican label is so strong here that Vickaryous would get trounced by Woodward, in spite of the fact that the former is a strong Constitutionalist conservative whereas the latter is not. At least I won’t have to leave that part of the election ballot blank in November.
But seriously…we need Scott Herndon as our plan A.
There are, as of 1/24/2024, 663 active and inactive Democratic voters on the voter roll in Boundary County .
With well over 6,500 Republicans , roughly 10% . Democrats have more follwers on facebook than party members.
I do not follow the democratic central commette business but would Bob be considered a DINO by the commettee ?