Posted on 04/19/2007 10:03:41 PM PDT by Dick Bachert
We ALL need to rid ourselves of this fixation on the quadrenniel beauty contest for president and pay more attention to the caliber of folks we send to the House.
We SEEM to be lusting for some kind of modern monarchy or a knight on a white horse to “save” us from the boogie-man du-jour. AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN, FOLKS!
Here’s a TRUE story to illustrate the point.
Years ago, Congressman and medical doctor Larry McDonald was working late in his Capitol Hill office when an old friend from medical school knocked on his door. Larry rose and greeted his guest and, after exchanging the usual pleasantries, looking a bit dejected, his friend slumped into a chair.
Larry asked him what was wrong.
With a little sigh, his friend said “Every few years, a group of us have to take time away from our practices and jobs and come all the way up here to meet with our representatives and senators to try to head off some new effort to trash the Constitution. And I often get the feeling that these guys up here just aren’t listening.”
Laughing, Larry offered, “You do know, don’t you, that there’s a better way?”
“What’s that, Larry?”
“You and your friends ought to get together at home and find a House candidates who shares your values and get behind him with support and resources and REPLACE those guys who aren’t listening. And if there is no candidate with those qualifications, go out and CREATE one – maybe even run yourself! And if, down the road, the new guy stops listening to you, work to replace HIM. The beauty of the House of Representatives is that the Founding Fathers designed it so that these folks have to come home every 24 months to get their tickets punched by the voters. And as we both know, the taxing and spending occur in the House. If the lower house refused to fund some liberty destroying or unconstitutional agency or program, it just won’t happen.”
“And voter opinions in those district elections are pretty much NOT controlled by the New York Times, Time, ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest of the leftist so-called main stream media. And THAT’S a real advantage if you’re trying to get a REAL conservative elected to this place.”
“But, Larry, how do we convince the rest of the voters that the incumbent needs to be replaced?”
“That used to be a real challenge since poll after poll asking folks what they thought of congress usually got very negative answers. But when asked how they thought THEIR guys were doing up here got responses indicating that THEIR guys were doing a good job. There’s a new program called Tax Reform Immediately (TRIM) that uses only one yardstick for its quarterly rating of every member of congress – the United States Constitution.” (http://www.trimonline.org)
“Does it work, Larry?”
“One of my favorite stories about that is the 16 year-old paperboy out in the Midwest who every quarter paid to have 10,000 TRIM Bulletins printed and threw them on his route and in another 9,500 lawns in his district – FROM HIS BIKE! After 3 quarters of that, the incumbent was ousted for someone who more closely represented the views of the voters. On election night, the red-faced loser was interviewed on TV and, waving a TRIM Bulletin, sputtered that it was a right-wing plot to “get him.” It was GREAT TV.”
“A ‘plot’ by a 16 year-old paperboy.” Larry and his guest laughed.
“And it’s happening all over the country – even in my state, Georgia. My supporters down there are keeping the voters in the 7th informed about my votes up here. Since my only standard is the Constitution, they keep sending me back. So it works both ways: The good guys get reelected and the bad guys get sent home – or hang around as lobbyists.” Another chuckle.
“But what about the presidential election?”
“While important, if we had 300 or so decent representatives up here on the Hill, they’d take back much of the power they’ve shipped down to 1600 over the past years and the 4 year beauty contest would become far less important than it now is. A metaphor for these elections for president, representatives and senate is a 3 card Monte game: While everyone is focused on the card marked with the “P,” the “R” and “S” cards are largely ignored.”
Larry’s friend returned home, got his friends and neighbors up to speed with TRIM – and within a year, had a new and improved representative.
In our form of government, the President will always be THE most powerful, important man in politics. Though it is still sage advice to get talent at the House and senate levels.
SPAM goes solo!
You’re right. If conservatives held the House a Dem Pres. could hardly do squat. If we held the Senate too he/she would be a lame duck from day one. It’s very important.
Gee, I've never heard such a thing, ever.
My, what an appropriate screen name you’ve chosen. TOTALLY!!
So you think a lesson in how the Constitution in this REPUBLIC WAS SUPPOSED to work for the PEOPLE (remember them?) is SPAM?
If you are so enamoured of the idea of monarchy, strong man and one man rule, it would be my distinct pleasure to buy your ONE WAY airfare to a place where such a system is currently in place: Venezuela, Iran or China come to mind.
I’m certain the rulers in those places would welcome another submissive, grovelling, toadying boot-licker — especially one who thinks a Constitution is a swell Atlanta newspaper.
Might I suggest you spend some time reading the OWNERS’ MANUAL for the UNITED STATES? It’s called the CONSTITUTION and can even be found ON-LINE HERE:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
Pay particular attention to Article 1, Sections 7 and 8!!
Probably because the Founders had a particular fondness for SPAM, those silly old fools listed the legislative powers FIRST!
If you are so enamoured of the idea of monarchy, strong man and one man rule, it would be my distinct pleasure to buy your ONE WAY airfare to a place where such a system is currently in place: Venezuela, Iran or China come to mind.
I’m certain the rulers in those places would welcome another submissive, grovelling, toadying boot-licker — especially one who thinks a Constitution is a swell Atlanta newspaper.
For your coup de grace, you advise JustaDumbBlonde to head for marxist climes, using just that totalitarian abusive attitude they have almost perfected. It's a shame, really. You wrote an effective piece of informative and entertaining work, then threw it away on what I perceive to be a pithy comment from a poster. I guess a level headed response was just too much work?
Or do you simply suffer from thinning skin?
At any rate, you owe JustaDumbBlonde an apology for your abusive reply.
The article sheds an interesting light on politics in DC today. Think about it: “Bush’s Fault.” Members of the House and Senate - from both parties - project their failure onto Bush. The 3 card Monte analogy is quite accurate.
Since you seem to be so up to speed on INDEPENDENT, OBJECTIVE sources — NOT BASED IN WASHINGTON, D.C. — of congressional voting information — USING THE CONSTITUTION AS THE GUIDE — please post those sources for the benefit of those who are NOT too lazy or apathetic to do some of the heavy lifting necessary to turn things around here.
Or would that be just too much work?
And if there was any abuse in any of these exchanges, it was directed — by others — at the now largely moribund Constitution.
You have every right to espouse your opinion, and to support your causes/information sources. You do not have a right to foist your anger off on everyone else. Your post was abusive in that it attacked the person you were responding to, rather than the opinion expressed.
Your response to me, in fact, demonstrates that you do not wish to convince anyone by the weight of your arguments, FRiend. Instead, you try to intimidate and “shame” anyone with a contrary opinion to yours into silence or full support of your own words. That dog won’t hunt with me.
Civility is a necessary part of civilization - and a much more effective way of swaying opinion in the hearts and minds of your fellow freepers.
Have a good day.
I shall await your list of objective congressional rating organizations so that we might analyze and discuss the pros and cons of each.
I’m certain someone as knowledgeable and highly informed as you appear to be will have some means by which to ascertain which candidates deserve your support in the coming election cycle.
In light of that I highly recommend that you keep your powder dry.
Wasn't Larry Macdonald the Rep who went down with the KAL007 Russian shoot-down?
Gee, thanks! I think the first half of your screen name is a appropriate descriptor for you as well.
The paperboy story was well documented at the time.
And I have one of my own PERSONAL stories about the effectiveness of holding their feet to the fire, to wit:
Around 6 am on dark morning in the early 80s, 4 of us piled into a car in Atlanta with a few hundred TRIM bulletins and other fact-packed flyers detailing how then Georgia Representative Ed Jenkins and Senator Sam Nunn were voting on issues important to all citizens. Our destination was Hartwell, Georgia and an “Eggs and Issues Breakfast” hosted by a large Hartwell church.
We arrived at the church about an hour early and deployed. As folks arrived for the buffet line, each was handed some of this highly informative literature. As they waited in line, they read and chatted as new information came to their attention. Just before the invited dignitaries were to make their 20 minute speeches (aka, pitches for re-election), we made certain a supply of these flyers made it to the head table. Ed and Sam ate precious little of the fine southern breakfast cuisine before them as they periodically glanced menacingly at the table we occupied. In unison, the 4 of us smiled sweetly and waved.
When Ed and Sam each rose to speak, each devoted 16 or 17 minutes of the allotted 20 minutes TRYING TO DEFEND their DOCUMENTED VOTING RECORDS to an increasingly hostile gathering as we returned Ed and Sam’s constant withering glares with more sweet smiles and waves. It was truly one of the highlights of my early years as a political bomb-thrower. YOU should try it!
After a bit more bomb-throwing in other parts of his district, Ed Jenkins was defeated in the next election. Because he ran state-wide and we lacked the resources and manpower to cover the entire state (and he did begin to clean up his act) Sam hung on for another term or two. (And those 2 year House terms — where the power to tax and spend repose — is where the effort must be concentrated.
Friends, THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES: DOGGED PERSISTENT EFFORT OVER TIME. It’s the only acceptable way a system such as ours can be made to operate in any meaningful way.
IT WORKS!
I suspect the reason more of this isn’t done today is that in the 20 years since I and numerous others were doing it is that many of the younger folks who came along behind us are of the MTV, VH1 30 second sound bite, instant gratification, 20 second attention span variety, many of whom seem incapable of the sustained effort this sort of guerilla action demands. Couple that with the lack of personal recognition for the participants and it becomes even less attractive than popping up every 4 years to slap on a bumper sticker for 30 days before the election or hearing your voice on Rush Limbaugh’s show extolling the virtues of the presidential candidate/wolf in sheep’s clothing du jour.
And while our generation didn’t WIN (can the never-ending war for freedom ever be said to be won?) we DID give you Ronald Reagan and bit better congress than you have now — we like to think we may have bought some time.
How sad that so many have chosen to not use that time effectively — or at all.
In the words of the old John Houseman TV spot, we will have acquired our chains the old-fashioned way. We EARNED them.
Here endeth the rant.
That's what newspaper advertising departments are for.
If I, as a lowest-level employee in the entire company, had short-circuited advertising revenue, I'd fully expect the ax.
The paper boy story took place in Kansas and the owner of the paper FULLY SUPPORTED the kid’s activities AND PRINTED THE BULLETINS! (Yes, Virginia, there ARE — or were —newspaper publishers out there in Flyover Country who care about whither goeth their nation more than the BOTTOM LINE.)
And, while the lad DID distribute bulletins on his entire route, in his after-school and spare time, he rolled and THREW BULLETINS ON AS MANY NON-SUBSCRIBER LAWNS AND DRIVEWAYS AS HE COULD MANAGE. EVERY QUARTER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
So, like, besides raging on FR and calling Rush, what are YOU personally doing to save the republic?
How many town hall meetings will YOU be attending and how many hard questions will YOU be asking YOUR congress critter?
Inquiring minds want to know.
If you’ll send me an email, I’ll send you an short clip of my late friend, Larry McDonald, explaining why it’s EVERYONE’S business to be involved in educating those around us.
And, yes, Larry — along with 268 innocent men, women and children — died aboard KAL007 on 9/1/1983 when it was blown out of the sky over the Sea of Japan by our new pals the Soviets.
As is the middle of yours...
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