Lew Webb of Durango calls himself a “common sense patriot” and uses the words of the Founding Fathers, “we the people,” often. Webb, who sold a family auto dealership in California that employed about 1,000 workers, later a built a mountain retreat in the Durango area to support missionaries, struggling pastors and church groups.
Webb attributes his life experience of making mistakes and the wisdom that comes from them in his decision to run for the 3rd Congressional District seat. It’s not that he wants it badly – he just sees the U.S. government as being corrupt. Election issues we discussed – including education – are merely the symptoms of this deep corruption, he said. It all comes back to the system.
“Leave the disease uncured, the patient eventually dies,” he said.
One of his more profound comments is that the U.S. economy is being “destroyed intentionally” by the government, in order to make residents more amenable to government services and “socialism.” With a ruined economy, he sees a destruction – right in front of us – of God and family.
He’s adamant that the government not spend money it doesn’t have, and wants much of federal regulation – and its costs – out of businesses. Fees, permits, insurance. So many contracts in producing a product. “It’s a big racket,” he said.
His specific example, is the regulation of nonrenewable energy sources to strong-arm Americans to spend more on gas. He argued that the U.S.’ overreliance on foreign oil dramatically impacts the supply chain and prices at the pump. One more reason life is unaffordable for families in this country.
Webb, though, paints a darker portrait of the U.S. government’s innerworkings than we believe exist.
Webb sees the U.S. as being “deluded by unbridled immigration.” Webb references the 1883 poem by Emma Lazaru on the Statue of Liberty, with the iconic lines, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
He’d like to rub off those words and replace them with, “Bring us your healthy, wealthy and wise.”
It’s a different time, he said. We’re not in need of increased population.
“We just need truth, honesty, transparency, honor, justice in our government,” Webb said. “I’ve made every mistake known to man. My leadership is based on being direct. Telling the truth. I’m applying for the job as representative to be a servant, not a celebrity. Do as the people want and need.”
