Darren Barney will be on the May 10 Republican ballot for Morgan County Commissioner facing off against Ken Reed and Jimmy Stewart. No Democrats are running for the office.
Barney is a small businessman. Barney owned a furniture store — Country Traditions — that he says was wiped out by Chinese competition.
“It was never that large, never more than 13 employees,” Barney told This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber. “Just at about the time when we were about to break through, free trade with China was signed. I couldn’t survive the 47 cents an hour they were paying the Chinese people. That was the end of that.”
Barney then went into the hot tub business. The hot tub business was doing really well until the recession hit. “In 2009, my sales dropped 45 percent,” Barney said. “People couldn’t pay their grocery bills, let alone come to my store and buy a hot tub.”
Barney is now in the trucking business and has started a new business — Roscoe’s Bargain Outlet — south of town in the old Largent building just past the Dairy Queen.
Barney he would love to run for Congress someday.
He was critical of Bernie Sanders and those who support Sanders.
“The problem with Bernie Sanders is — too much socialism, to much give,” Barney said. “Where are they going to get the money? The government will end up printing money. Then we will have hyperinflation.”
Barney says he “would like to see us get some industry here without destroying the county.”
“And I know we can do it. I’ve been in almost every state in the country. You can drive in rural Indiana, pass an Amish buggy, and there is a factory. If they can do it, we can do it. You can cross the border into Fulton County and they have industry. And it’s not destroying the environment. “
“Anybody who is willing to come who is not going to destroy things. We need to present the county in a favorable light as a viable opportunity for these factories to come here. There are a lot of people who don’t have jobs. And quite honestly, without offending a bunch of people, there are a lot of people who don’t work. They are lazy. Leave them out of it. They are always going to be lazy. These are the people who are probably going to vote for Bernie Sanders. And I’ll probably lose some votes saying that. But it’s true.”
Bernie Sanders supporters are lazy?
“No,” Barney says. “They have probably gotten lulled into the fact that the government owes them something. And the government doesn’t owe them anything but what the initial rules written in the Constitution (say).”
“Some people would think I’m a little radical. I would consider myself a social and fiscal conservative. I don’t look down on people because of how they believe. I don’t look down on people because of their sexual preferences.”
“We need to get our tax base back so we don’t have to tax the homeowners so much. We need to get some industry in.”
Barney said — “I’m not a big Wal Mart fan.”
“I do think they come in and take away from jobs,” Barney said. “They support China for sure. But the reality of it is, if we don’t allow Wal Mart to come here, it’s going to come to Fulton County or Washington County — and there goes the tax base.”
“If I had to chose between a big box store and somebody local that could grow, I’m going to take the local guy. But unfortunately, there are a handful of us left.”
Barney said he was against the school levy. Why?
“Because we homeschooled our children, for one thing,” Barney said. “My son is like me. He can do just about anything. That’s because I taught him to do just about everything. He knows a little bit about electricity, a little bit about plumbing, a little bit about everything. I love computers. Believe me, that’s great. But not everybody is going to get a tech job.”
What don’t you like that’s being taught in the schools?
“I’m not a whole math person,” Barney said. “I still believe that one and one is two and not what you think it is. If a child thinks one plus one plus one is four, they will give him a passing mark. That doesn’t work.”