Posted on 07/31/2009 7:58:07 AM PDT by FromLori
From Yahoo News:
On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.
“I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”
Really?
Well Tim, guess what: you work for your constituents, not the other way around.
It would appear to this commentator that the Reps and Senators who feel "besieged" by their constituents in town hall meetings might have paid better attention in September and October when they were told by 300:1 margins not to pass the EESA/TARP bill.
Or when they were told repeatedly to NOT try to advance amnesty for illegal aliens and refuse to enforce our immigration laws.
Or when they were told repeatedly to quit bailing out the irresponsible, looking the other way while the populace is looted systematically by those in the banking and other "coddled" industries.
There are a whole host of issues like this, and Congress seems to think (because it has gotten away with it for years) that ignoring the voters is not only acceptable, but is indeed a good idea.
Let me remind Mr. Bishop, along with the other Congressfolk, that the entirety of our government serves at our pleasure, not the other way around. Specifically, let me cite The Declaration of Independence:
....That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness....
Loud voices of dissent and sign-waving constituents are an unmistakable sign that our government has pressed the line of tolerance, and may, if it does not reverse course, exceed it.
And before someone claims that I am some sort of "right-wing nut" or similar, let me point out that the above text is not mine - they are the words of the founders of our nation, who believed that absent consent government does not exist - that's tyranny, not government.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
How close to the line has our government come?
I have no idea, but this much I do know: I do not want to discover that the line has been crossed.
Again:
Stop the looting and start prosecuting. The bankers, lenders and others in the "bizness side" have been literally robbing the people for over two decades. This includes both so-called "captains of the banking industry" and government officials who have looked the other way and in some cases (e.g. OTS) actively conspired to conceal the truth. Taxpayers have lost hundreds of billions as a consequence yet nobody has gone to prison for it nor are there even outstanding indictments. Quit spending more than you make. We are here because we have turned into a nation of Madoffs, and nowhere is it more evident than in Washington DC. We cannot have a sustainable economic recovery until the debt-to-GDP ratio is restored to a rational and sustainable ratio. Represent your constituents and TELL THE TRUTH. We're tired of being lied to. Our government has become an unacceptable and unaccountable den of liars and thieves, and the people are getting damn tired of it. The evidence of extreme dissatisfaction, which may rise beyond the soapbox and ballot box if this trend is not reversed and soon, is clear. Nobody with a shred of intelligence wants to see the inevitable outcome of a government that refuses to follow the law itself, refuses to prosecute criminal wrongdoing by favored parties, and refuses to listen to the electorate on the issues of the day, instead mollycoddling those who have committed massive fraud upon the public and giving them hundreds of billions of dollars in hand-outs funded by the very people they ripped off in the first place!
The man is a piece of work. He should be tarred..feathered..and run out of town for the scoundrel he is.
It’s the Democrat Way now.
WE SERVE THEM, not the other way around.
There is no point in having you represent your district, either, Mr. Bishop. What a d-bag.
The media loved public protests when the protesters were for liberal causes. Now that conservatives are protesting it is being spun as “unruly mobs”. I never saw gay rights protests referred to this way.
““I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”
Really?
Well Tim, guess what: you work for your constituents, not the other way around. “
Obama’s arrogance is contageous, methinks.
They see the people as merely a source of resources for them to use to increase their own power through a socialist state.
There’s a contradiction here somehow. The people are livid, yet the incumbents keep getting voted back in.
The politicians are wide awake. It’s the voters who play two party monopoly every election that are sleepwalking.
I am SHOCKED, YES SHOCKED that American citizens demand the right to speak and/or communicate with the royalty sitting in elective office.
If that “town meeting” was full of illegal aliens, released terrorists, or families on their third generation of welfare receipients, that politician would listen to every word, all the while nodding his head in agreement.
I need to make a note to get the pitchfork out of the garage for the next Tea Party.
Lets see, you don't listen to your constituents and they get angry, so your solution is to not listen to them even more.
Brilliant politicking there, Bishop.
You ain’t seen a “mob” yet, Congressman, but you’re sure headed that way.
Anybody who wants to run for Congress needs only to call a town meeting, then when cowards like this refuse to attend, HAMMER THEM over it!
Next year’s election is looking better and better by the minute!
THROW THEM ALL OUT!!
This seems like that OPERATION EMBARRASS YOUR CONGRESSMAN thing I saw that I posted about earlier.
http://www.operationembarrassyourcongressman.com
Making the idea is catching big-time!
For years the leftists demonstrated, disrupted and defiled public gatherings and the political left loved it. Now the shoe is on the other foot, the leftist politicians scarcely dare show up in public. Like they say in the hoods, what goes around comes around.
Worst part is, unless those words get repeated constantly, his district will just vote for him yet again.
(Yet NY voted out D’amato for saying Schumer was a putz..)
>>Now that conservatives are protesting it is being spun as “unruly mobs”.
>
>I need to make a note to get the pitchfork out of the garage for the next Tea Party.
I know a roofer, I could probably get some tar.
I don’t know if its related but Feinstein’s cacthin heat to
Police called on retirees at senator’s LA office
http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/1568213.html
Don’t bring a “weapon” until it’s time to bring a REAL WEAPON.
The peasants brought pitchforks because that was the best weapon available to them.
While it’s time to stay symbolic, stay symbolic. Take a large sign with representations of pitchforks and torches.
This will keep you out of trouble until it’s time for trouble.
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