Pesky Citizens Will Not Shut Up!
By Gary Aldrich (09/01/04)
Patrick Henry and George Mason knew what they were doing when they insisted that the Constitution must have citizens’ rights spelled out in black and white. They refused to ratify the Constitution without a Bill of Rights. For their stand, the other founders, who believed citizens should have only the barest participation in political affairs, vilified them. But Henry, Mason, and others knew the time would come when Big Government and all who enjoy the crumbs of power and money would try to shush those citizens who want to express opinions about the political process.
That would include the right to reveal important truths regarding those candidates desiring to lead us, and at a time and a place of the citizens’ choosing.
George W. Bush has said that the Swift Boat Veterans, brought together under the legal umbrella of a 527 non-profit foundation, shouldn’t use their free association to express a truth most important to them. The Bush campaign has suffered some pretty outrageous allegations made by 527’s, but the law allows it. So what if it’s “messy?”
Moreover, I have read the Constitution from front to back and cannot find language anywhere that says political parties and their process of finding candidates and sending out political messages are the only way to introduce voters to political candidates.
Frankly, the existing political process that the “establishment” prefers and protects does a lousy job of telling us the truth about who wants to run our lives and protect us from dangers, foreign and domestic. Part of the blame must go to the liberal, biased media.
While establishment politicians have been busy nurturing their political fortunes, the mainstream media has drifted drastically to the Left. Now the ability to get a conservative message out there has become most difficult. Even if you factor in the Internet, Fox News Channel, and powerful talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, these conservative outlets comprise only a small percentage of the whole.
While America takes its time catching up to those like Bernard Goldberg and Ann Coulter, who discovered and reported a leftist media bias, the establishment continues to behave as if there is an even playing field and insists only professional players are welcome.
Four years of a conservative agenda, passed into law by Congress then signed into law by a president, would be proof that a corner has been turned. But the last time we saw a dramatic turn in a conservative direction was in 1994 with Newt Gingrich’s 10-point Contract With America. Do government hacks and professional political operatives actually believe that ordinary citizens have nothing better to do than to perform a “neighborhood watch” on our political system?
The grassroots are active because they are convinced that the current party leadership cannot get the job done.
Neighborhoods have watchers for the same reason that the political process is alive with citizen activists. The police cannot do a proper job of preventing crime while the current political process cannot do a proper job of answering the citizens’ demands for a smarter, cheaper, more honest, and more effective government. That’s why citizens need to be involved and that’s why the Swift Boat Veterans’ truth is so sorely needed right now.
Kerry has held himself out as a war hero and suggests he should be elected on that basis alone. He has not talked about his brilliance in college, because there was no brilliance. He has not bragged about setting up and running a large business, because he has never paid a payroll. He has not spoken about his years in the U.S. Senate because there is nothing to talk about – name a single important piece of legislation that bears his name. Recall a single important matter that included Senator Kerry as a participant. Recall a single leadership position he has achieved in the U.S. Senate.
Can’t find any achievements and leadership qualities suggesting Senator Kerry is White House material? How about his anti-war, anti-American activities after he returned from Vietnam? That would satisfy his political base of pacifists and those who blame America first. Otherwise, all Kerry has to offer is his short tour in Vietnam which happened more than thirty years ago.
Having used the only experience of his lifetime that might remotely qualify him as president, other than he is not George W. Bush, Kerry now wants to shut the mouths of anybody who disagrees with his version of what happened in Vietnam. This is not France, where they confiscate books unfavorable to the political elite. So, regardless of the power of the political parties, the mainstream media, and the political establishment, there is no law that can silence the Swift Boat Veterans who despise Kerry’s dishonest opportunism and want to tell America what they know.
Establishment politicians on both sides of the aisle are annoyed that ordinary groups of citizens can impact their carefully crafted election scenarios. They have become spoiled, petulant, and powerful. They don’t like surprises, and, yes, there is a brotherhood of political operatives who hang together regardless of party. Finally, there isn’t a single political operative who, upon election defeat of their candidate, will admit they were wrong about anything. Recall that President George H.W. Bush remarked after his defeat, “I got good advice, and I got bad advice, and I took the bad advice.”
I believe it is the establishment that needs to adjust to the playing field, which still includes citizens’ rights to participate in the political process. The establishment would have it otherwise, but at least this time around citizens still possess some rights.
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