but some men are more essential than others...
Posted on 11/19/2021 5:35:59 PM PST by Fester Chugabrew
Dear Elected Officials of [City, State],
Since you took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitutions both of [State of Residence] and of the United States, I and others are genuinely interested to know your answers to the following questions, as these will help us to be informed of your attitudes and qualifications for the offices you hold:
1.) What is meant by “the pursuit of happiness” as expressed by our founding fathers? 2.) What is the difference between a “right” and a “privilege?” 3.) In applying for and attaining to public office, were you ever officially questioned as to your fidelity to the Constitution and given opportunity to demonstrate how you have advocated the principles espoused therein? 4.) What is the difference between being a citizen of [City and State of Residence], a citizen of the United States, and a citizen of the world? 5.) If you were to revoke your citizenship in the United States, what would change about your life and being? 6.) Do you believe efforts to “defund the police” are aimed toward domestic tranquility and would enhance the same? 7.) What measures would you propose to keep enemies of the Constitution from being eligible for public office? 8.) What measures would you propose to enhance the common citizen’s ability to verify that his vote is accurately counted as cast?
These questions are posed to you in all earnestness and with the expectation you will not avoid them, but rather welcome them and respond.
Please be aware that I am blind copying acquaintances of mine who are involved with the media and general citizens and will publish any responses or lack thereof as time and opportunity allow. If there is no response by April 15, 2022, I will take that to mean these questions are of no concern to you.
Also, I have taken time to review and become acquainted with your respective credentials as posted on the [City] website. You are an incredibly talented group of public officials. The citizens are truly blessed to have your assistance, and I am certain your hearts are “in the right place” when it come to serving in a public capacity as you are.
I hope and pray for your success in every way, with the understanding you each demand a great deal of yourselves and are serving in difficult times.
God bless!
Regards,
-FC ------- Full Contact Info
Please use the above as a guideline to communicate as needed. I would discourage copying and pasting, but encourage original thinking and words. That's what "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are about. Not power and glory.
I set a date of April 15, 2022 to assess the response from my local government and hope to publish publish it here. Feel free to predict what might happen. As for me, I think it will be crickets. We'll see.
NOTE: The original email format provided a means for each question to be indented.
The ineligible British subject Kenyan from Indonesia was approved by ALL of our elected and appointed, despite the fact that he is not a natural born citizen.
The Constitution is a relic in a glass case.
That is why I believe CLERKS are the touchpoint for vetting candidates and should be responsible for verifying their credentials both in detail and in principle. Not pro-Constitution? No representation on the ballot.
“...1.) What is meant by “the pursuit of happiness”...”
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The last year or so comes to mind,
when various levels of governments determined
that some businesses, and some people, and some activities
were considered to be “non-essential”.
The more I think about that, the more I hate it.
The question bears careful consideration. Most people understand “the pursuit of happiness” to mean “whatever floats your boat.” So, I will be very interested to learn what my local officials understand it to mean.
Another concept that bears closer thought is that of inalienable rights. Our forefathers wrote, “Among these are . . .” before naming the big three. So what other rights would they have included?
I am hard pressed to find people who are able and willing to discuss and debate these matters. I hunger for conversation with people who know the law and are not arrogant about it.
I think the best definition came from John Paul II:
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
That is a wise way to put things. I assume you substituted the word “freedom” for “liberty,” which is another term our local officials ought to define publicly before we admit them to the ballot.
Early versions of the document used “property” instead of “pursuit of happiness”; latter likely used for art. Owning what you “own” is important.
“Feel free to predict what might happen.”
It’ll be ignored for the most part. You’ll get a few form letters starting with “I share your concern….” If you’re lucky it won’t get you on yet another blacklist.
Personally, I think you would have had more positive impact on more lives if you had sent the same number of letters to conservatives at random in very blue states inviting them to come join the rest of us in America.
Well, I did not send many letters. It is a single email to every elected official in my city, and they are all on the same address line, including the mayor, of course.
I blind copied some media at the same time.
Please, if you have time, elaborate on contacting blue state conservatives. I happen to live in a blue city, red state. It’s called South Bend, Indiana.
It’s something thats been burning in my craw. We continue to think of conservatives spread across America as fighting the good fight. Well, yeah, I guess you can see it that way, but I’m thinking of it more in terms of a conservative diaspora. And what we need is a homecoming. So why mot reach out to those in heavily blue states and tell them about the better life awaiting them?
Folks in the red states complain that they’re being “invaded”. They can’t do much about that, but we can in a small way tilt the scales towards whom we would prefer. Ties to my bigger view that in the long run, cultural divorce is coming.
I also think that communication via the net is limited in scope and effectiveness. What’s old is new.
I surmise that your idea is not to convert the minds of the blue in blue states, but to awaken into effective activism those who suffer under their malicious policies and ideologies. I’ve always believed the common citizen to be far more wise and prudent than those who rule over him.
There are 519,682 elected officials in the United States. How is it that so many of them are walking affronts to a constitutional republic? How did they even get on the ballot when, in principle, they would violate their oath of office the first hour they are sworn in?
The best strategy is to identify those who have time, ability, and zeal effectively to counter the left in two fundamental places: the ballot and counting the votes.
The latter could piggyback on True the Vote. Their effort would be to implement policies that guarantee any voter the ability to see *how his vote was counted.* The former should work under True the Ballot (if there were such a thing). These would vet every single candidate for public office by testing their ability to articulate constitutional and civic principles. If they cannot tell the difference btween a right and a privilege, then they have no business running for office, let alone voting.
This information and effort should be coordinated on a national scale, so that any citizen may easily drill down on those he choses, or assents, to have in office.
As of now, if we do not sink our teeth into the vote counts and ballots, we will forever cede rule to those we despise and who despise us, which is very much the case at hand.
The best demographic I can imagine to engage in these efforts are retirees who are active in their local GOP. You only need about 12 in each county who will fully devote time and effort to both of these fundamentals, namely accurate vote counts allowing the individual to audit his own vote, and ballot content that reflects candidates who truly understand what a constitutional republic is all about.
As is stands, we could ask every single one of those 519,682 elected officials, “What is the difference between a right and a privilege?”, give them one hour to think about it and write down their answer, and we’d be fortunate if 10% could respond in accord with historic western jurisprudence.
Having attended one or two meetings of my local GOP, it seems apparent their efforts are largely concentrated on fundraising rather than vetting candidates for principled governance.
Thanks for the post and your obviously well thought out response. My idea is more to getting our people out of the deep blue states. We’ve already seen that the radical left targets those who cause them trouble. I expect that to get gradually worse. Its only a matter of time till the average Joe who dares speak their mind in a deep blue area will find themselves a target. We’re already seeing the start of it. At what point do conservatives find themselves targeted merely because of their party affiliation?
While I’m certainly in the minority here, I don’t see spending time and money on voting system as being effective A lot of that is born of personal experience making the sausage as it were within the gop but moreso within the democrat party. To continue the sausage making analogy, conservatives are now focusing like a laser on the voting, which is really the final packaging of the sausage, but omitting all the steps that came before that. Such as the feeding and quality of the inputs, and how its processed. Or even if sausage is to be made. Bluntly, the elections system from start to finish is largely outside the average persons control. The larger culture though is more amenable to change and influence.
I do like your adaptation of the letter writing idea. Why not use it to vet people? Or even to encourage folks to run? Not my cup of tea, but I’ll tell you that the decision to challenge, even a so called “safe” seat is a big deal. Because it costs the opposition resources.
I’ll end with a true story. You probably have heard of Winsome Sears. What you probably haven’t heard is that she once ran for Congress against a black democrat Congressman by the name of Bobby Scott. It was a safe seat for him. But by running she cost the opposition resources that couldn’t be spent elsewhere. She lost of couse. The mistake that the VA gop made was not seeing that as a grooming and battle test for bigger office at the time. She was out of politics really for the better part of a decade. Part of that was due to a personal tragedy, but still.She was not expected to win this race either and wasn’t well funded. This was an obvious star who was ignored until she basically got herself elected largely on her own.
First reply from one of 11 elected officials:
Dear FC,
Thank you for your correspondence. I am going to spend a bit of time with these questions so that I can offer a complete and thoughtful response.
Be well!
-[Elected Official]
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
Who determines what we “ought” to do?
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