About Me

John Lyon for Arizona State Senate–American Government for the American People!

My first home was in Orono, Maine, where I was born and raised until the age of twelve.  My family moved to Arizona in 1970—Glendale has been my home of record ever since.

After being graduated from Glendale High School, I earned an associate’s degree from Glendale Community College, a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Arizona State University, and a master’s degree in History from Arizona State University.

Following a four year enlistment in the US Army, I did substitute teaching and custodial work for a number of years, and served seven years in the US Army Reserve.  I now work as a security guard.  I am an elected Precinct Committeeman from the Manistee Precinct, and am a proud member of the Arizona branch of Convention of States.

Why I’m running for the Arizona State Senate:

I believe that Arizona has suffered needlessly as a result of half a century of unwise, unsustainable federal policies in the areas of Open Borders, Free Trade, Welfare State, Funny Money and Debt, and Foreign Interventionism.  Rather than just standing around waiting for Congress to enact better policies, we Arizonans should do all we can on our own behalf.

My goal as a legislator will be to make Arizona the best possible place for people who live within the law and pay their own way.  I feel that government at all levels should make such people their top priority.

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American Government for the American People!

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Introductory post

John Lyon for Arizona State Senate–American Government for the American People!

 I am a US Army veteran with a master’s degree in History from Arizona State University.  I am seeking the Republican nomination for a seat in the Arizona State Senate from Legislative District 30.  LD30 lies mostly between Dunlap Avenue and Van Buren Street, and between 19th Avenue and 43rd Avenue, with an additional northwestern section which mostly uses Grand Avenue as a southwestern border and extends from 43rd Avenue and Camelback Road to Olive Avenue and 71st Avenue.  You can find a map of Arizona’s legislative districts at the Redistricting Commission’s website:  http://www.azredistricting.org

The election will be held Tuesday, 30 August 2016, and will be open to voters registered as Republicans, Independents, or Party Not Determined.

My legislative priorities would include:

  • Replacing “weapons free” zones with second amendment zones
  • Privatizing and phasing out Welfare State programs in Arizona
  • Privatizing our expensive public schools
  • Abolishing the state income tax
  • Defending Arizona’s southern border using Arizona law enforcement
  • Blocking any NAFTA Superhighway through our state
  • Supporting a convention of states to propose amendments to the US Constitution to limit federal power and balance the budget

I will not accept any bundled or PAC money.  Please send personal checks or money orders totaling $160 or less ($320 for married couples, but both husband and wife must sign the check) to:

John Lyon for Arizona State Senate
5610 W. Belmont Ave.
Glendale, AZ 85301

Please include your name, address, occupation and employer.  Call (623) 853-5661 or e-mail john_lyon56@yahoo.com with questions.  I will spend contributed money for advertising and professional services for my campaign, not for any personal use.

I am running as a Clean Elections candidate.  I need to raise 250 $5 qualifying contributions in order to receive public funding for my campaign.  Please visit the Arizona Secretary of State’s website to make a contribution on line: http://www.azsos.gov.  Click on the E-Qual button in the middle of the page, and enter my name.  You must be registered to vote and reside in Legislative District 30 in order to make a Clean Elections qualifying contribution.

Thank You,
John J. Lyon—American Government for the American People!

Paid for by John Lyon for Arizona State Senate

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John Lyon for Arizona State Senate

American Government for the American People!

John Lyon for Arizona State Senate

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Masters of Deceit

In 1959, J. Edgar Hoover published a fine book titled Masters of Deceit on the subject of communists’ use of deception in carrying out their subversive goals in America.  Hoover thought the American people should be warned of the propensity of communist propagandists to deceive them, and of their highly sophisticated skills for doing so.

Communist propagandists have published an ocean of disinformation in the American market place of ideas over the last 80 years.  The American people should be aware that communists are notoriously unreliable sources of information.  They seldom tell the truth, and on the rare occasions that they do, they usually have an ulterior motive, and are holding back important information in an effort to create a false impression.

There are many examples of communist deceit at work in America.  During and after World War II, communist propagandists in America’s governmental, academic, and journalistic institutions worked hard to put Mao Tse Tung in a positive light, while aggressively disparaging the anti-communist Chang Kai Shek.  Commentators explained to the American people that Mao was not a communist at all, but an agrarian reformer, a Chinese George Washington.  On the other hand, Mao’s chief rival, Chiang, was a very corrupt man, whose wife had 300 pairs of shoes while all too many of her countrymen had none.

The Truman administration abandoned Chiang.  Deaths in Red China since Chiang and the nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 have exceeded 60 million so far.  The rise to power of the communists in China has been, by far, the greatest single calamity in human history.  America lost over 100,000 service people in Korea and Vietnam, wars that would not have been fought if Chiang had prevailed in the Chinese civil war.  These deaths would have been avoided if the American people had detected communist lies and half truths for what they were.

The American people must become aware of how highly sophisticated communist propaganda efforts are in America, learn to detect them, and counter them with truth.  Otherwise, if things continue as they have over the last half century and more, America will soon cease to exist as a free nation.

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American Government for the American People

For many years, many patriotic Americans have complained about the quality of governance provided by our federal government in Washington, D.C.  Whether on immigration, trade, poverty programs, foreign interventionism, or funny money and debt, Congress continues to enact policies that are harmful to American society.  It seems as though governing in the best interests of the American people under the United States Constitution is the last thing on our leaders’ minds.

In my view, this is probably because the voices of the American people have to compete for their lawmakers’ attention with powerful, un-American influences.  Principal among these are: globalist groups like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission; large, multi-national corporations; communists and ethnic extremists.

Globalists seek to usher in a New World Order in which every nation in the world would lose its sovereignty to a One World government.  According to the globalists’ brochures, that government would be federalist, extending the example of the American central government and individual states under the United States Constitution.  In practice, it would probably be on the model of the old Soviet Union, with an all-powerful politburo of plutocrats actually ruling, and a rubber stamp legislature providing the illusion of legitimacy.

Globalists’ influence in the US government can be seen by the fact that most American secretaries of state, defense, and treasury since 1933, regardless of political party, have been CFR members.  Further, beginning with Dwight Eisenhower, six of the last ten US presidents have been members.  Another, Jimmy Carter, became a member after his term in office.  President Barack Obama is married to a CFR member.

Globalists are often aided in their efforts by large, multi-national corporations, which collectively employ thousands of professional lobbyists in Washington, D.C., promoting policies intended to maximize profits for their shareholders, and salaries for their top executives.  Sending American jobs overseas and admitting lots of cheap foreign workers to compete for the jobs that are left have been high priorities for them.

These efforts please the globalists, who see immigration and trade policies as means to redistribute America’s wealth to poorer nations around the world.  The corporatists’ success is reflected in the skyrocketing compensation received by their top executives over the last forty years–a period in which the compensation received by most American workers has been stagnant.

Communists and racial extremists seek to destabilize American society by re-spinning history in a way very unfavorable to America’s predominately white and Christian founders and subsequent generations of Americans.  Their premise is that whiteness is the problem, and color is the solution.  This has been the operative assumption of America’s immigration and welfare policies for the last half century. Further, communist influence is very evident on many university campi, where some professors in colleges of liberal arts and sciences devote their class time to running down America and instilling hostility in their students based on race, sex, and other demographic factors.

If American voters were more aware of the agendas and activities of globalists, multi-national corporations, communists, and ethnic pressure groups in the US government and throughout American society, they would be better able to protect their own interests.  They would scrutinize candidates for public office for affiliations with those lobbies and reject those beholden to them.

The American people could have an American immigration policy, in which the right to immigrate here is based on America’s needs, rather than bestowed as an act of charity on needy foreigners.  Americans could have trade policies based on the long-term best interests of American consumers and workers, rather than one that serves as a disguised form of foreign aid to Red China and other countries.  They could have welfare policies that promote the long term well-being of individuals, families, and communities rather than promoting irresponsibility, dependency, family break down and criminality.  They could have foreign policies based on America’s interests, rather than the New World Order’s.  They could have real money and fiscal responsibility, rather than funny money and debt.

Americans could have American government, at all levels, rather than the globalist/communist/racial extremist/ corporatist government we live under now.  It is our job as citizens to accomplish that.  That is why I am seeking a seat in the Arizona State Senate.

If elected, I will work to strengthen SB 1070, the Employer Sanctions Bill, the Border Strike Force, and all other immigration law.  I will seek to place sufficient Arizona law officers on the border to shut down the flow of illegal aliens and drugs into our state from south of the border.

I will seek to end the inter-generational pattern of welfare dependency.  First, by requiring adoption of babies born to indigent mothers.  And second, by requiring both biological parents to pay child support until their offspring’s 18th birthday.

I will seek to involve Arizona in a Convention of States designed to propose amendments to the US Constitution that would impose fiscal responsibility on Congress, and reduce the scope of federal activity and power in our society.  A COS is essential, since it seems very likely that the federal government will act to stop or at least weaken any state efforts to counter harmful federal policies.  In addition to a balanced budget amendment, I feel that a campaign finance amendment severely curtailing the power of corporations and wealthy individuals to buy politicians through direct or indirect campaign contributions would dramatically change the political landscape in America, to the average American’s great long-term benefit.

I will oppose and seek to roll back the efforts of un-American lobbies at the state capital.  I will work to end the Arizona International Development Authority, and will oppose and work to reverse efforts to build a NAFTA Superhighway through our state.  I will fight to privatize and greatly reduce all welfare state programs.  I will support the Second Amendment, law and order, smaller government, lower taxes, and personal liberty.

In short, if I am nominated in the Republican primary on August 30, 2016, and go on to win a seat in the Arizona State Senate from Legislative District 30 in the general election on November 8, 2016, I will do all I can to promote the long term best interests of the broad majority of the law abiding, financially responsible people of Arizona under the US and Arizona constitutions.  That is what I believe American elected officials at all levels should do.

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Welfare State Programs

Before Lyndon Johnson left the White House in 1969, it had already become apparent that his War on Poverty had resulted in some harmful, unintended consequences, especially increases in illegitimacy and dependency on government.  Today, about 40% of births in America are out of wedlock, while about 15% of Americans receive Food Stamp benefits, about 20% are enrolled in Medicaid, and about 4% live in subsidized housing.

Since 2003, about half of the births in Arizona have been paid for by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.  This is unsustainable.

Government at any level should not compel taxpayers to do things for strangers that they would not do even for their own children.  I believe that most parents would not tolerate drug use, sexual promiscuity, or membership in criminal street gangs by children still dependent on them financially.  The state has no right to use tax money to subsidize such irresponsible or criminal behavior.

It is family, friends, neighbors, and philanthropic organizations that should play the largest roles in charity work, not government.  With rare exceptions such as natural disasters or acts of war, I feel that the state has no business engaging in charity work.  The Welfare State is one of the things that have hurt America the most over the last 50 years.  It has greatly undermined Americans’ self-reliance and cost many trillions of dollars nationwide over the years, while promoting drug abuse and gang membership.  It is imperative that Arizona work patiently and consistently to shrink public welfare programs.

The most obvious first step, in my opinion, should be to do everything reasonably possible to break the inter-generational chain of welfare dependency that has plagued America since the late 1960s.  To do this, the state should require adoption of babies born in Arizona to indigent mothers.  Further, state law should require the mother to identify the biological father of her child, and both mother and father should be required to pay child support until the child turns 18.  These changes, I believe, would greatly reduce the practice of some indigent women to conceive children out of wedlock.  That would benefit Arizona’s children, and taxpayers, over the long term.

Arizona should strive to be the best place possible for people who live within the law and pay their own way.  Public policies guided by fiscal responsibility, law and order, and less government will help achieve that.

Paid for by John Lyon for Arizona House of Representatives

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Immigration

Nothing better demonstrates the un-American character of the modern federal government than its immigration policies over the last forty seven years.  In 2005, the Government Accounting Office estimated that about 27% of inmates of federal prisons were criminal aliens, legal and illegal, convicted of crimes committed in the United States.  Clearly, screening out criminal immigrants is a low priority within federal immigration policy.

Since the financial crash of September 2008, the federal government has continued to admit over a million legal immigrants each year.  Clearly, protecting the interests of American workers during a period of high unemployment has been a low priority for Congress.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, over half of American households headed by legal or illegal immigrants receive some form of public assistance.  Clearly, Congress has failed to protect the taxpayers from the burdens indigent immigrants have placed on them.

During nation-wide pro-amnesty rallies in 2006, American citizens were treated to news photos of innumerable masses of demonstrators marching the streets of American cities waving foreign flags.  Clearly, those flag wavers did not represent just another wave of immigrants wanting to be Americans, but an un-American subculture in which our federal government has been fully complicit.

Where the federal government has failed, the states have a right to step in.  Arizona’s border with Mexico is about 375 miles long.  The state should devote sufficient law enforcement resources to stop the flow of border jumpers.

The state should conduct random checks of employers to determine the legality of documents employees used to prove eligibility for work.  Those guilty of forgery or identity theft should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  Under Arizona’s Employer Sanctions Law, the state should also prosecute employers who fail to exercise due diligence in checking employee documents.

Although limited by the federal courts, SB1070 still empowers local law enforcement to apprehend illegal aliens.  Arresting, photographing, finger printing, and detaining illegal aliens–even if only for a few days–would provide a substantial deterrent.

The goal of the Arizona Legislature should be to make our state the last state in the Union in which illegal aliens would choose to reside.  If elected in 2016, I will do everything legally and morally in my power to make that a reality.

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Privatize Arizona’s Public Schools

Arizona Strong!  John Lyon for Arizona State Senate

It costs about twice as much to educate a student in an Arizona public school as it would cost to pay the child’s tuition at a private school.  For the sakes of taxpayers and students, it is time to turn public education over to the private sector.

Whether in public, private, or charter schools, there is no point to having fine schools with highly qualified teachers, and then allowing young gangsters to disrupt the educational process so badly that good students and staff are driven away.  Taxpayer subsidized attendance at the nicest schools should be contingent on satisfactory academic performance and good citizenship.  Poorly behaved students should attend bare-bones schools specializing in structure and discipline.

After the sixth grade, uncooperative students should be given paid work opportunities in lieu of classwork.  A few weeks of hammering shingles into roofs, laying carpet, trimming yards, etc., may motivate some to come back to the classroom.  All will gain valuable, real-world, work experience.  They will also no longer be in a position where they can undermine the learning experiences of well-behaved, motivated learners.

In 2013, over 20,000 children were home-schooled in Arizona, up from under 1,000 in 1989.  In part, this may be because of many parents’ worries over poor academic standards, the risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, exposure to alcohol and other drugs, or recruitment into criminal street gangs among students in public schools.  In order better to serve the public, all those problem areas must be addressed.  The private sector may be better able to accomplish that then our current system.

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Make Arizona a Second Amendment Zone!

Arizona Strong!  John Lyon for Arizona State Senate

In my view, the right of law abiding, mentally competent Americans to defend themselves is a fundamental human right, transcending the US and Arizona Constitutions.  With few exceptions, “Weapons Free Zones” unjustifiably violate that right.

It is especially important that licensed parents and staff at elementary and high schools be permitted to carry concealed weapons in and around schools where they work or their children attend.  If Dawn Hochsprung, the brave but unarmed principal at Sandy Hook Elementary, had had a .38 in her purse she might have saved 26 lives on December 14, 2012.  Instead, a “Weapons Free Zone” provided a madman with a rich trove of helpless victims.

On the other hand, rights are usually accompanied by responsibilities.  I feel that the public has a right to demand that individuals carrying concealed firearms have a concealed carry permit, with a background check and mandatory training in the safe, legal handling of weapons.

Alcohol and firearms do not mix.  The public has a right to demand that individuals consuming alcohol check their weapons at the door.  Any legislation preventing such a requirement should be changed.  Of course, sober, licensed staff at restaurants and bars should be permitted to carry concealed or openly.

The world has changed a lot since Americans adopted the Ten Amendments in 1791.  Even so, then as now, firearms in the hands of law abiding, mentally competent citizens are crucial to the defense of life, liberty and property.  The public must be able to defend itself from criminals, lunatics, terrorists, or foreign invaders.  The state should do all it can to promote the training and organizing of armed citizens.

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