Welcome to this edition of the Richard Urban Show, where we present news and views from God’s point of view. Today, May 22, we’re happy to have Doug Six, a Republican candidate for Governor of West Virginia on. So please introduce yourself.
“Thank you very much for having me on. I’m Doug Six, a Republican candidate running for governor of the state of West Virginia. I’m not a polished politician so I will stumble around, probably answering questions and giving you my views on things, but please take those as being my true views,” Six said.
“I am a God fearing young man, live in the country, believe in our rights as citizens of United States and especially our rights as citizens of the state of West Virginia. I’ve got 32 years of business experience, under my belt. I’ve been in the real estate business, engineering, surveying, areal mapping work for other companies both in Petersburg, WV, Moorefield, WV, and over in Virginia, I’m 61 years old, live on a farm and enjoy the rural lifestyle of our state. I believe our state has so much to offer for every individual out there, who wants to come to our state to live. And my campaign is probably 98% self-funded, I do have a few folks that have made some donations but other than that, it is all self-funded by myself and my wife. Other than that, I’ll let you ask some questions,” Six added
Richard: What would you say your three main campaign points are or three of your top campaign priorities, or priorities for our state? Put it that way.
“Priorities for our state, first off. My priority for our state is to bring our state back into where it should be up in the top, top states in our nation and to be able to do that we need to bring our jobs back, which everybody talks about and believes but we need to diversify but I’m a firm believer in our resources that we have in our state. For the last 20 years, I’ve dealt with coal oil and gas, and believe that those are very good sound industries that would allow us to branch out and diversify from there, but my family has been in the timber and lumbering business for over 40 years within the state,” Six said.
So the jobs and our resources are two of the things that would be on the top of my list. The third thing is that I’m a very open individual. I believe in an open office setting. I believe that our individual voters within our state need to have access to their representatives every day of the week. If they’re good enough to vote you in to promote their thoughts and their wants and desires, you should have at least enough courtesy to listen to what they have to say. So I do run an open-door policy. I would continue that. I would like to set it up to where either every two months or every three months, that I would, within those three months visit each county and allow the individuals in the county the time to spend with me and ask questions and find out what’s going on. Probably the largest thing I see in our state that is hurting us right now is that none of us are going to be able to predict where the corona virus is going to leave our state financially. Probably the governor is the only one that has a handle on that at this time. That is going to be a major project for whomever is elected. They will need to go through and find out where we stand, find out how we’re going to spend the monies that our state has, or is going to receive. I believe those monies need to be spent directly into programs and projects for our citizens,” Six added.
Richard: Could I interject one question about the COVID-19? So do you feel the governor’s handled it well? Many people, myself included, feel there’s been a lot of Constitutional violations, it’s somewhat random, it’s way overblown. Many small businesses could or will go out of business or have gone out of business. Is this really necessary or is it appropriate, or has there been overstep, is it about right, or what do you think?
“Okay, I can criticize our governor in many different ways for the way he’s handled the virus. However, none of us, other than him know the information that has been given by the President or the counselor or the group that is put together to the handle the Corona Virus,” Six answered.
“I do not agree that our state shut down. I do not believe and I’m saying that now based on what I know now, I do not believe we needed to shut down, I believe we needed to target areas, and target parts of our citizens to make sure that they were protected. I believe it’s going to create major problems for our entire nation and in our state. It has taken away our freedoms, and we gave up our freedoms very easily. The press went out and put the fear in everyone to the point that they just holed up and we kind of gave up our freedoms without a fight, and now we see that we’re going to have to fight to get those back,” Six added.
Richard: Okay, that’s a clear answer. I would have to agree with that as well, on the issue of the government reach or possible overreach. I noticed you have some background in the poultry industry, I believe. Do you think that there are too many regulations for small farms that get in the way of meat packing or poultry or do you think it’s about right, or do they more favor the larger producers or what’s your opinion on that issue?
“My opinion on that issue is that regulations stifle the growth of every industry. Regulations are put into place, normally to protect the public, but however, there are small groups of individuals that cause the regulations to be created, and it does not benefit the majority of the public. It only benefits a small sector,” Six said.
Regulations are not to be used as something that would stifle the growth of our current businesses and and/or future businesses. And those that are a good example would be, one of our DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] our DEP needs to be not and as much an enforcer, but an enabler that says, “In order to make this happen, this is what we see you need to do. Let’s work together to make it better for everyone and not stop progress because one small group of individuals believe that we should do that.
Richard: I didn’t get, which position you’re referring to, or which department?
“Just, all of the departments need to be more open to helping the businesses. We don’t need to be stifling any business in our state, because we need every one of those. We need every job. Yes, there are essential jobs within our state, but in my opinion, everyone who has a job, it’s essential, it’s essential to their lifestyle. It’s essential to their family. It’s essential to keep them in a positive path to their future.
Richard: It seems like they’re definitely some significant regulatory barriers in the agriculture area. I was talking to one candidate about the prime act. You can’t, apparently, sell any of your personal processed meat, it’s illegal. You can process it, but if you want to sell it you have to ship it to some plant, possibly over state lines.
“It’s a very cumbersome group of individuals or a group that is out there, the USDA, that at times, they tend to have overreach that, again, it’s like everything else, instead of being an adversary, they need to be a friend of business, they need to work out the issues. And I am a firm believer that if businesses understand that they can work through issues, they will do that,” Six said.
Richard: One issue that I’ve been working on West Virginia is the issue that we’re one of the fewer states that has no exemptions for vaccinations for school children, meaning if you don’t vaccinate your children, if you feel you want to skip a vaccine for whatever reason, religious reason personal reason, any reason, that’s absolutely not allowed in West Virginia. There’s medical exemption, supposedly. But I know I’m talking to a lot of people and they’re very hard to get. So short question is: Do you support this kind of system of forced vaccination or no school or do you think there should be exemptions or is the whole system ripe for an overhaul? What’s your opinion on that?
“I believe that the vaccinations were put into place for a reason. Do I support all the current vaccinations that our children have to receive? I believe, probably the current vaccinations because they’ve grown in such a large number, there are certain vaccinations that probably should be up to the parents. You know, vaccinations were brought into our system because of very deadly diseases.
We do not want to go backwards to let those diseases come back into our system at all. But, again, I believe your child’s rights should be your child, you should have the right to determine if your child has those vaccines,” Six answered.
Richard: Well, I’ve been working on that issue and I’ve researched it for decades now. Literally those kind of bills don’t get traction. Well, I would say what happens is, they’re almost always squashed in committee. So usually people have conflicts of interest in my opinion, or analysis, for example, doctors have belonged to certain medical associations. They don’t want these things to see the light of day. I think they should be discussed as you said.
“That, or a lot of things that should be discussed that don’t get discussed. And the corruption within our government is, runs, very high right now. And we need to get rid of [break in audio]. That’s very high on my list,” Six said.
Richard: Definitely conflicts of interest are a huge issue.
Richard: One thing I wanted to ask about is, when you think about the long-term effects of things like poverty, or opioid use or so many other things like outside of marriage pregnancy, all those things. I’m wondering, should we have an approach, And this isn’t maybe so much a government thing but something I’m wondering what you personally think, where we encourage youth to stay abstinent before marriage, Our non-profit does that. Is that something that should be encouraged, or not or what do you think? Meaning, stay abstinent, because then if they have a stable family that addresses many of the issues that we see now a days. What do you think?
“I totally agree with what you’re saying, okay, because we can continue to subsidize our programs, but we’re putting that emphasis after everything’s already happened, instead of going back. It’s kind of like whipping the tail of the snake to kill it. You never do. You have to go to where the problem, the root of the problem is. And what you’re saying, about we need to promote our youth not to be as promiscuous as they are,” Six said.
Richard: Well, I think we’re coming more toward the conclusion. I just want to ask how would you compare yourself to the other Republican gubernatorial candidates? How would you differentiate yourself? Why would the voters choose you versus, say, the other five or so?
“I guess that I would say that you could choose me if you really want a change. If you want a change from a politician that knows the system, and knows how to work the system and will work the system for their benefit and not your benefit, then you probably should vote for one of the other candidates,” Six said.
“If you want someone that’s going to back you as a citizen of our state and try and help our state bring itself up and try to make our state a better place to live as far as, it’s hard to make it a better place to live. Our state’s a beautiful state,” Six added.
“But as far as being a productive individual in our state, if that’s what you want, and you want to see our state become productive and not go down the same path, I am the individual. I’m honest. I’m trustworthy and I will be very accountable to each and every individual in our state, not just a few. So, that’s kind of where I’m at,” Six concluded.
Richard: Thank you for sharing. Anything else you’d like to share with the viewers, in conclusion?
“Just please, make sure that you go and vote. It’s very important. It doesn’t matter who you vote for. Do not give up those rights. Those rights have been fought for for many, many years and are being continued every day. Our servicemen fight for those rights. So please take those rights seriously, and go and vote,” Six said.
Richard: Okay, thank you very much. Do vote, June 9th. There are many, of course the gubernatorial primaries, but also you have no less than three Supreme Court justices out of five. That’s unprecedented. And your school board, magistrates and sheriffs. So those candidates, except the sheriffs, will be elected on June 9th only.
