Like many, I’m waiting for November when Congress will hopefully be in Republican control. However, I’m reminded of a question that Walter Williams’s economics professor asked him about some socialist economic policy: “What then?”
Say the Republicans actually take over Congress. What happens then? I haven’t heard anything about a Republican agenda. Where’s the Contract with America? Do they not have one, or do they fail to communicate?
Whatever happens in November, we cannot go back to business as usual, sleeping at the switch while Congress does what it wants. When the Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency, I don’t recall the deficit shrinking or the government operating within its constitutional limits. So how can we, the people at the grassroots, influence the men and women we choose to represent us to enact legislation that will reduce and eventually eliminate the deficit and the debt and eliminate the federal government’s unconstitutional involvement in areas such as education, health care, social welfare, and retirement?
Perhaps we could write the legislation.
Sound a little farfetched? Not at all. We’ve done it on the state level here in Virginia. Tea Party members helped write the Health Care Freedom Act which was passed and signed into law. We can do the same thing on the federal level.
Imagine that committees of Tea Partiers write short, clear, effective, constitutional legislation for Congress to eliminate the Department of Education. We contact Congressmen who enjoyed strong Tea Party support and request that they read the legislation and agree to sponsor it. Local Tea Parties across the nation which agree with the legislation could also request sponsorship from their Congressmen. Also, in the spirit of transparent government, we could post the legislation online and ask for public comment.
What then? We track the legislation, especially any changes made to it by congressional staffers. We stay in contact with Congressmen who are steering it through the House or Senate and with those who would attempt to stop it. We write letters to the editor about the bill and purchase advertising space in order to stir up public debate. Maybe I’m on the “and-I-want-a pony-for-Christmas” level, but we could even sponsor public debates on the legislation with people who oppose it. Why not expose the merits and flaws of the bill? Even with all that, the bill may get stuck in committee, lose in a House or Senate vote, or end up vetoed by the President.
What then? We get the bill reintroduced in the next session and go through the process again, and again, and again, and again, if need be. William Wilberforce introduced legislation banning the slave trade into the British Parliament for over 20 years before it passed. During the process, he and like-minded people educated the British people and Parliament on the evils of the slave trade partly through the legislative battles.
What then? Knowing the process, we get our congressmen to sponsor other bills we’ve written. Getting familiar with how Congress works, some of us get involved in our state Republican and Democrat parties and run for state and national office and actually abide by our oath to uphold and defend the Constitution by helping to enact laws to that effect.
At every stage of the process, instead of merely reacting to bad legislation, we’ll also be promoting good legislation to effect the changes our government and republic needs.
Might the answer be to NOT vote Republicans in to office? There qualified third party candidates in most races and supporting them is EXACTLY how you prevent the “business as usual” mentality. If we continue to blindly support Republicans, but simply hope they’ll change or trust them for no reason other than “it’s different this time, this Republican means it”, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. From deficit spending, to massive debt increases, to legislating morality and forcing religious beliefs on secular society, to illegal wiretaps, to… the list goes on and on, but Republicans have proven that they have no interest in individual liberty, personal responsibility nor fiscal responsibility.
Lets get excited about conservatism and embrace independent thinkers and throw our support behind people who aren’t beholden to a party that has proven it’s disregard for it’s constituents. If we don’t change the way we think, who we support, and who we vote for, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
I really enjoyed your post and I think change can only come from the grass roots.
I appreciate your appreciation.
I guess I look at a Republican takeover of Congress as a stopgap measure that would at least slow down, if not stop, the Obama agenda. I was extremely unimpressed with the Republicans after the first couple of years they had control of Congress. However, at this point they are the lesser of two evils. If third party candidates allow the Democrats to maintain control of Congress, I think that they do more harm than good.
That said, I don’t think it matters in the long run which party has control if the citizens are asleep. Power corrupts, regardless of party. Only if we are able to hold them accountable will our representatives abide by the Constitution and truly represent their constituents.
I will have to differ with you about the Republicans legislating morality. Every legislator legislates morality with every law passed. Every law is an expression of one morality or another. We ought to promote abortion. We ought not have abortion. We ought to have gay marriage. We ought not have gay marriage. The question is which morality are we going to legislate.
Also, I have a question? When were the Republicans forcing religion on a secular society?
Thanks again.
Craig Comess