Wednesday, February 11, 2009

An Open Letter to Our Leaders

American Public Opinion Matters

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Rally at the State Capitol 02/10/09

"When the day comes that anyone can bend our country’s laws and lawmakers to serve selfish, competitive ends, that day democratic government dies. And we’re just optimistic enough to believe that once the facts are on the table, American public opinion will walk in with a big stick." --Preston Tucker, From a Letter Published June 15, 1948 [click to read]

(Preston Tucker was an innovative pioneer in the automobile industry. US Attorney Otto Kerner was instrumental in destroying the Tucker Company before it could go into full-scale production. Kerner was later jailed for stock fraud and Tucker was eventually acquitted, but the company was no more.)

We are right to be suspicious of government overreach. There is plenty of evidence to tell us that public business must be conducted in the open. It was wrong to rush a big spending bill to passage without due diligence. Money for ACORN and new healthcare bureaucracy deserves the light of public scrutiny.

Mister President, Congressmen, Senators, County Supervisors:

Please listen to the people you serve. When you tell us that we must not listen to Rush Limbaugh in order to get along with you and he's laid the facts we need to know on the table, it is clear that you desire a chilling effect when it comes to public discourse. Likewise it is childish to shun the one County supervisor who dares to speak for the people of his district -- thank you Mr. Pyles!

History tells us that clumsy govenment intervention has actually prolonged economic distress and has Dulled Creative Renewal of the industries it purports to save.

President Obama, the majority of the people who elected you are not of the same mind as your leftist underwriters. Many of them see government as an agent that may provide relief for their situation but I don't think they want bureacrats deciding who gets medical treatment either. Most of them do not support unlimited abortion and would welcome 'choice' if it meant where they were able to send their children to school.

We want to see American ingenuity applied to our energy problems and do not want to see government policies such as ethanol credits force us into the weaker solution. We are an odd people, desiring the government to save us while legitimately suspicious of the agencies of government we already deal with. If government solutions had the track record to suggest we could blindly trust them we'd all be looking forward to a fine retirement drawing from the Social Security Trust Fund (where is it again)? and regulators would have let us have Preston Tucker's marvelous automobile in its day.

Regular elections are a necessary check on the abuse of power. That includes primary elections where fresh ideas may be tested. Sometimes it is necessary to challenge entrenched officials as was done in Gloucester recently. Citizens should not be punished for such challenges. Delegate Harvey Morgan is to be commended for introducing legislation to protect citizens in such cases from outrageous judgements such as the $80,000 fine ordered in the Gloucester case.

Please remember the principle "consent of the governed." Those who forget or ignore this basic principle need to remember that the alternative for them is rightly that of "early retirement."

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Rally at the State Capitol 02/10/09

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