Pelosi Slams Sept. 8 'AstroTurf' Gathering in D.C.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., today warned Americans that an upcoming health care reform gathering in Washington, D.C., would be comprised of "nothing but bought-and-paid-for minions of dozens of special interest groups ranging from Big Pharmaceutical to the trial lawyers. They are not who they'll appear to be."

"This is AstroTurf on steroids," Rep. Pelosi said. "You'll see them in Brooks Brothers suits, cloaked in fake outrage, acting as if they're speaking on behalf of average Americans. But behind the scenes, the nation's best-funded lobbying groups are pulling all the strings."

The gathering, set to start Sept. 8 on Capitol Hill, will call together participants from every state in the union for "a cynical exercise in plastic Democracy," she said.

"They'll claim to represent the voice of the people," said Pelosi, "but you'll be hard-pressed to find a single 'typical American' among them. Most of them are wealthy. Many are lawyers. Every last one of them had his trip to Washington funded by forces that have their own business interests at heart, rather than the will of the people, or the protection of the Constitution."

The speaker noted that citizens watching the gathering on C-Span on Sept. 8 would hear "impassioned speeches expressing apparent outrage about health care by people who pretend to be mainstream Americans.

"Don't believe them," she warned. "Virtually every word they say is scripted by the very groups that stand to benefit most from changes in the U.S. health care system."

Well, perhaps "We, the People" have news for the Speaker! The content of the speeches from most citizens who are speaking out today, while the phrasing may be more modern, was written for them over 200 years ago by the likes of Washington, the Adamses, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, and all the other brave geniuses who intended to limit the power of people like her and those in Congress and the Executive branch who have taken over the reins of government today.

She seems to be upset that, despite the Far Left's decades-long effort to "dumb down" the citizenry by failing to teach them of the founding ideas, that there are older citizens and some more enlightened younger ones who actually understand the difference between authentic ideas of liberty and the counterfeit ideas she and her Far Left ideologues promote.

The following essay, reprinted with permission, appears in "Our Ageless Constituion," and gives hope for today's new citizen awareness. See

An Enlightened, Committed People Who Understand The Principles Of Our Constitution

- The Most Effective Means Of Preserving Liberty

"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant - they have been cheated; asleep - they have been surprised; divided - the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." James Madison
America's Constitution is the means by which knowledgeable and free people, capable of self-government, can bind and control their elected representatives in government. In order to remain free, the Founders said, the people themselves must clearly understand the ideas and principles upon which their Constitutional government is based. Through such understanding, they will be able to prevent those in power from eroding their Constitutional protections.

The Founders established schools and seminaries for the distinct purpose of instilling in youth the lessons of history and the ideas of liberty. And, in their day, they were successful. Tocqueville, eminent French jurist, traveled America and in his 1830's work, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, wrote:

".every citizen ... is taught . the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution ... it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon."

On the frontier, he noted that "...no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling that shelters him.... He wears the dress and speaks the language of the cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready for argument about the present.... I do not think that so much intellectual activity exists in the most enlightened and populous districts of France' " He continued, "It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic; and such must always be the case...where the instruction which enlightens the understanding is not separated from the moral education.."

Possessing a clear understanding of the failure of previous civilizations to achieve and sustain freedom for individuals, our forefathers discovered some timeless truths about human nature, the struggle for individual liberty, the human tendency toward abuse of power, and the means for curbing that tendency through Constitutional self-government. Jefferson's Bill For The More General Diffusion Of Knowledge For Virginia declared:

"...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government), those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate...the minds of the people...to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable them to judge of the future...it will qualify them judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.."

Education was not perceived by the Founders to be a mere process for teaching basic skills. It was much, much more. Education included the very process by which the people of America would understand and be able to preserve their liberty and secure their Creator-endowed rights. Understanding the nature and origin of their rights and the means of preserving them, the people would be capable of self government, for they would recognize any threats to liberty and "nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud." (Adams)

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