Nothing hurts the guilty more than the light of truth. Few Congressmen and perhaps no Senator votes 100% of the time for Constitutional government. A vote for the Federal budget alone is a vote for uncounted thousands of ways to violate the Constitution. Planned Parenthood gets millions a year from the Federal government, and many supposedly pro-life legislators vote every year for the appropriations which include that funding and do not fight to remove such funding in the first place. Votes to confirm pro-abortion judges are often largely uncontested.
But do the citizens in your district or state know how your elected representatives really vote?
Research the voting records of your elected Federal, state and local elected officials and spread the word! Create a website or blog to not only list their votes, but to explain to the public in easy to understand terms what each vote means in terms of lost freedom, higher taxes, higher national debt, aborted babies, jobs lost to Red China, higher crime and taxes due to unlimited illegal immigration, weaker defense, etc. Encourage people to email voting records to their friends and to distribute printed copies to the public.
Congressmen and Senators face intense "party discipline"--harsh punishment against those who resist the leadership's orders to vote for the most important big-government bills, job-destroying treaties (like WTO, NAFTA & CATFA), freedom-robbing bills like the Patriot Act, and the 2013 Schumer/Rubio illegal immigration amnesty/citizenship bill. They are also lavished with promises of pork spending and leadership advancement if they succumb to the pressure. The leadership post of "Whip" is exactly that--one who "whips" his members into party-line voting. The White House, Congressional leadership and the parties can all exert severe punishment as well as rewards when they really need the votes. Threats can include losing party campaign funds; losing pork spending projects; losing campaign visits by the President, officials, celebrities; getting a primary challenger; and being stripped of committee or leadership posts. Rewards of course include billions in extra pork spending, more campaign funds from the party, better committee assignments, and increased party/White House campaign participation. "Smoke-filled room" politics survives even though the rooms are now "smoke-free".
Examples:
- Read Rep. Defazio's rebuff of threats from Obama and Pelosi
- Read ABC News' account of how Rep. Robin Hayes sold out his North Carolina textile-working constituents to vote for the CAFTA jobs-destruction treaty.
- Steven Yates describes more CAFTA vote arm-twisting.
- Ron Paul describes how CAFTA vote-buying cost taxpayers $50 billion.
- Read Rep. Don Young (R-AK) insisting your tax dollars are "my money, my money!" and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), admitting "We legally steal."
The 'Bridge To Nowhere', $315 million. Pork-barrel spending, billions more. Hearing a Member of Congress admit "We legally steal" ... Priceless!
Many elected officials also fear the front page of their liberal home-state newspaper even more than the voters--who may be un-informed or mis-informed by the media and schools on the true significance of the issue.
Those who successfully resist their party, the special interests, and the liberal media include those with strong backbones PLUS those who can point to great citizen support: "I have 20,000 petitions from my constituents demanding that I vote to save jobs in my district, so I must respectfully vote against the trade treaty." Your lobbying actions as described on this page, and your holding them to account for their votes as described in this section can help give them the support--the spine--to escape or survive punishment for opposing their party or the White House!
Imagine the positive effect of a conservative website or blog in each Congressional District exposing the unconstitutional votes of their Congressman, and praising their Constitutional votes! Build them and we'll link to them!
"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences." Susan B. Anthony
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