By
Attorney Rees Lloyd
November 2, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
Do you know how your Congressional Representative, and all of the Members of Congress in every State, voted on the major legislative initiatives of President Obama, Senate Leader Harry Reid, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in the 111th Congress, by which America is being transformed, including most dramatically but without limitation the bureaucratization and national socialization of American health care by what is popularly known as "Obamacare"? If not, I respectfully refer you to the very useful data provided by the Voters Guide of the League of American Voters.
I refer you to this information on how your Representative, and all other Members of Congress voted because I believe the elections on November 2, 2010, may be the most important midterm elections in our lifetime. While there are many issues to contemplate in deciding for whom to vote, and while the relative merits of candidates will necessarily be weighed, a simple fact appears to be undeniable: This midterm election of 2010, is an election dominated by the question of what kind of America this nation is to be. It is in essence a referendum on the agenda and policies of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi, and acceptance or rejection by the American people of the transformation of America by that agenda and those policies. In short, the American people's decision of November 2 determines not only what kind of America we will know in our lifetimes, but what kind of America we will bequeath to our children, grandchildren, and posterity.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon us, I believe, if we are not to fail iin our duties as citizens, that we educate ourselves, at minimum, as to how those who represent us in Congress, especially all those seeking re-election, have voted on the very policies of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, by which the nation is being transformed. Whatever those seeking re-election may say now in campaigning, the evidence of who and what they are is writ in concrete by their votes.
The record of votes by members of all members of the House on four major issues is provided by American League Voters: Obamacare; Cap-And-Trade, the Obama-Pelosi Stimulus; and the non-legislative but extremely important issue of how they voted on establishing Nancy Pelosi in the powerful position of Speaker of the House, third in line for the presidency upon succession. Therefore, I respectfully refer that information to you as you consider as to your vote on November 2, and what you will do thereafter.
Further, I respectfully suggest that Obamacare is at the heart of the transformation of America by Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. Therefore, I would respectfully invite you to consider, among the vast amount of information on Obamacre, two very readable writing by two very informed writers: "The Truth About Obamacare," by Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, who provides a very readable as well as thorough explication of that 2,700-page bill; and the equally readable and informative columns and other writings of health care expert Betsy McCauhghey, Ph.D, particularly her Encounter Books Broadside: "Obama Health Law: What It Says And How To Overturn It."
Why these two books? Because they are written to actually be read by the American people, not to show off for elitist academics, bureaucrats, or preening liberal "progressives" who hold most Americans in contempt as intellectually inferior if they do not share their ultra-liberal "progressive views." Pipes and McCaughey respect their fellow Americans who actually work for a living in wealth-producing instead of wealth-consuming occupations. This respect is shown in their non-condescending, detailed but eminently readable examination of Obamacare and its implications, which needs to be understood by citizens fulfilling the duties of citizenship a voters. Not for nothing did the Wall Street Journal describe the 2,700-page Obamacare Law "the worst legislation in history."
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I believe that the present crisis in governance in which the essential nature of America is being transformed is the result of a failure and betrayal of trust of those who have been elected to public office, in representative capacities. I believe these politicians who sought to be elected as "representatives" of the American people, have upon assumption of office forgotten they are to represent, not to rule over, the people who elected them, in our constitutional republic based on limited, constitutional, representative government. They, and the bureaucrats who inhabit the vast bureaucracies, have transformed themselves from public servants into the publics' masters. They are now about transforming the nation in its very essence in a kind of fatal hubris arising from their intoxicating assumption of power in the 2008 presidential election. They, definitely, have created this crisis in governance, this transformation of the nation, and they must be stopped by the American sovereign--the citizenry, the people.
But, I believe also that the present crisis in governance is also the result of a failure of citizenship. We Americans are free citizens under a limited government, and have never been dependent serfs serving feudal lords, or commissars, or czars. We Americans sucked in freedom with our first breath, and never have been for a moment "subjects" of expansive governments on the European model, begging for respect and rights from rulers. Whether we will become subjects of an ever expanding government rather than free citizens under a limited government, depends, now and ultimately, upon us as citizens. It depends on whether we fulfill the duties of citizenship or acquiesce to politicians and bureaucrats of an ever-expanding national government. Politicians, after all, are natural-born predators who feed on power. We, the people, after all, who are naturally drawn to freedom, not to domination, should not be their prey no matter how benevolent their rhetoric. We should never fear them; they should always fear us.
I confess that I feel a sense of my own failure of citizenship in that I did know, I did not research to find out how all the members of the House of Representatives had voted on these transformative issues, before the League of American Voters guide was forwarded to me. I should have educated myself to all of the votes of all of the Representatives, because how they vote affects all Americans.
I confess also, by way of full disclosure, that I believe that Obamacare represents the greatest transformation of America since its founding by Founding Fathers who were much wiser, much more dedicated to God and Country, much more willing to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to establish and preserve individual American liberty through limited, constitutional national government, than our contemporary politicians ruling America today who seek to transform us from a nation of free, self-reliant, and fiscally-responsible citizens endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, into groveling dependents of the government. Our freedom has been bought with blood of Americans who came before us -- over 1,500,000 American veterans have been killed defending American freedom in all the wars from the War of Independence through the generations. We of this generation should not and cannot surrender that freedom now with a whimper.
Thus, I believe that it is an absolute abuse of office, an absolute betrayal of trust, a reprehensible and irremediable failure of duty, for any Member of the House or Senate to vote for the 2,700-page Obamacare bill which fundamentally transforms our nation -- without reading it! Nancy Pelosi's arrogant articulation that "we have to pass it [Obamacare], so that you will know what is in it," is a disgrace to her office, a disgrace to her as a person, and a disgrace to us as citizens if we allow her to continue to serve.
Thus, for me, I will follow on November 2, and thereafter, a simple policy based on what I believe is a legitimate litmus test: Any "representative" in Congress who voted to pass Obamacare without reading it, does not deserve to be re-elected. Any politican seeking election who does not pledge to repeal Obamacare, based on nothing more than the despicable way in which it was adopted by Pelosi's House and Reid's Senate and by Obama in signing it while knowing full well of the failure to read it and the despicable "deals" that were wrought in order to corruptly adopt it, does not deserve to be elected. Period.
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Therefore, while respecting every American's right to vote his or her conscience, I urge you to take that position and brake the transformation of our country from the land of the free into what it has never been and never should be, a land of trembling, hat-in-hand government dependents, subjects, if not serfs, to an all-powerful, all-invasive government of politicians and bureaucats, who believe themselves anointed to lead and rule, more wise, more just, more patriotic than the Founding Fathers who bequeathed to us the greatest gift: Freedom. Including freedom from government.
In short, on November 2, and thereafter, and as long as it takes, I will follow, and urge, the policy: "Repeal It. Repeal Them. Repeal Him."
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� 2010 Rees Lloyd - All Rights Reserved
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REES LLOYD is a longtime civil rights attorney and veterans activist whose work has been honored by, among others, the California Senate and Assembly, and numerous civil rights, workers rights, and veterans rights organizations. He has testified as a constitutional expert at hearings before the U.S. House and Senate representing The American Legion.
He has been profiled, and his work featured, by such varied print media as the Los Angeles Times and American Legion Magazine, and such broadcast media as ABC's Nightline and 20/20, Fox News In The Morning, and, among others, by Hannity. His writings have appeared in a variety of national, regional, and local newspaper, magazine, and other publications. He is a frequent radio commentator, and a sought after speaker.*
[*For identification only. The views expressed here are solely Rees Lloyd's and not necessarily any person, entity or organization he may otherwise represent. ]
E-Mail: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com
