The fine art of American protest

There have been many mass marches on Washington, D.C., so the locals know how to make plans to anticipate the congestion and the police are polite and skillful in the science of crowd control. They can afford to be polite because the crowds, no matter how large, are too.

Oh, sure, they shout a lot, but that's what a protest march is all about. Back in April 1894 unemployed workers known as "Coxey's Army" showed up to demand that Congress do something. It was the second year of an economic depression that would last another two years, but it was the worst that had hit the nation barely three decades since the end of the Civil War.

Americans know where to head when they are at odds with their government and most know or suspect that the source of their problems can be found in Washington, D.C. and they are always right.

What is significant about the Saturday, September 12, 2009 march was the totally grassroots nature of the event. It was billed as a "Tea Party," a name taken from the rather spontaneous tea party events that occurred shortly after Congress went insane and started spending billions of taxpayer dollars on bailouts, the takeover of General Motors, ownership of an insurance company, and a huge so-called "Stimulus" bill.

With the economy heading south, Americans quickly and correctly concluded that the Democrat controlled Congress and the new President were taking the nation over the cliff with their spending, borrowing, and printing of dollars.

I LOVE Beck but for GOD’S sake — and your grandkids’ — FORGET THE MARCHES ON WASHINGTON! Unless you can put a few MILLION irate citizens on the Mall, the political hacks up there ignore them and the only folks who profit are the airlines, restaurants and motel owners.

“ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL” (Tip O’Neill!)

LET’S KEEP IT THAT WAY!!

Back around 1980, Georgia Congressman and doctor Larry McDonald was working late in his Capitol Hill office when an old college friend knocked on his door. Larry rose and greeted his guest and, after exchanging the usual pleasantries, looking weary and a bit dejected, his friend slumped into a chair. (YES, Larry wore the Democrat label only because it was the only way he could get elected at the time in that part of the south. Recall that this was when some Democrats still loved America, the IDEA! When he started voting the Constitution up there, the “powers that be” moved his desk into the cloakroom!)!

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 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, “Most of them don’t listen” then added, “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 House candidates who shares your values and get behind them 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 Constitution gave the the taxing and spending power to the House. If the 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 Time, Time, ABC, CBS, NBC and the rest of the leftist so-called main stream media. And THAT’S an advantage if you’re trying to get a REAL conservative elected to this place.” (And 218 honest, decent America-loving representatives could – on Day 1 – pull all that power previous congresses have shipped down to 1600 back up Capitol Hill where the Founders intended it to repose.)

“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. (NOTE: Check at http://www.gradegov.com/ to see how YOUR GUY is REALLY DOING!)

“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 print up 10,000 flyers listing how HIS representative was voting 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 one of the flyers, 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 working to educate those around them – and within a year, had a new and improved representative.

****************
A personal story about how that process works:

Around 6 am on a dark morning in the early 80s, 4 of us piled into a car in Atlanta with a few hundred 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.

And here’s ANOTHER flash:

Friends, THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES: DOGGED PERSISTENT EFFORT OVER TIME. It’s the only acceptable, non-violent way a system such as ours can be made to operate in any meaningful way.

Dick Bachert

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