In response to both Senator Doug Berger’s and Franklin Co Democrat Party Chairman Larry Marciniak’s recent letters to the Franklin Times regarding our group, We the People-Franklin Co Patriots reading of the U.S. Constitution and its original 10 amendments on Constitution Day, I feel the need to set the record straight on their questions and comments.
I am sure they will both be greatly disappointed to learn that the reason we decided to read only those documents is we decided: A) We wanted to keep the amendments to the original 10 written by the founders. B) We decided we did not have the time to read either the later amendments, OR The Declaration of Independence, which is one of the greatest written documents ever put forth by man. The non-partisan reading was done in the evening and we were running out of daylight, and did not want to make people sit through a long dissertation. Sorry – no evil sub-plot here.
I mean really guys…as a female, yeah I really hate being allowed to vote, as the 19th amendment gives us the right to do. Surely you both have better things to do than demonize a simple act by local citizens of both parties who care about their state and country. It also occurs to me that both men’s letters are born out of either ignorance of facts and history, or they are being deliberately obtuse for political reasons. Either way, we all need a quick history lesson, because one of the trademarks of the Progressives in either party is to deliberately change our history to suit their goals.
Here are the facts about several of the key amendments we did not read: The 13th Amd., Abolished Slavery – had 100% Republican support, 23% Democrat. The 14th Amd., Gave Citizenship to Freed Slaves – 94% Republican support, 0% Democrat support. The 15th Amd., Gave the Right to Vote to all Men Regardless of Race – 100% Republican support, 0% Democrat support. On the 19th Amd., Giving Women the Right to Vote, it too passed due to the House and Senate being majority Republican and passing it, but there is more to the story. In 1896 the Republican party was the first major political party to support women’s suffrage. In 1919, it was the Rep. controlled House and Senate which voted to approve the amendment allowing women the right to vote. 26 of the 36 states that voted to ratify it were under Republican control. Also, the first woman elected to congress was a Republican.
As to Mr. Berger’s idea that this nation was founded as a Democracy – it was not. The founders researched all known forms of government and saw that again and again throughout history, democracy worked for a while, then ended very badly. They gave us a Constitutional Republic. If we were a true democracy, every citizen would have to vote on every bill. The founders knew this would never work, therefore we elect people to office to do the will of the people they represent and study and vote on bills for us. A great book for Mr. Berger to read would be The 5000 Year Leap by Cleon Skousen – this explains very well what we are and how the founders decided to set this country of a course to preserve freedom for the people. As to the founders feeling of a democracy versus republic, to quote Thomas Jefferson in 1790, ” The Republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind”. Or, ” A democratic republic…in which administrative centralization was accepted by custom and by law…would become more intolerable than any of the absolute monarchies of Europe” Alexis De Tocqueville (Not a founder). From George Washington’s 1st address in 1789: ” The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people”.
Mr. Berger’s comparison of the TEA party to Hitler defies all logic – Hitler’s party, the NAZI party, was called The National Socialist Party – about as far from TEA party/Constitutional principles as one can get. I will wrap up with a quote from a true conservative patriot, President John F. Kennedy:
” The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic”.
Words well worth reflecting on in these turbulent times in our country.
Dee Sams 217 N. Main St Franklinton NC 27525
The 4th paragraph should note that in the 19th century, the Republican party was the radical progressive party and stood for the administrative centralisation that Tocqueville warned against. These amendments were first steps in making the US what it is today. As such,the author makes a good case for the Republican Party’s “social justice” bonafides, not so much for their results.
The author of this ‘history lesson’ lost me when she described Kennedy as a “true conservative patriot.” I was a young man when Kennedy was president and personally witnessed what a fool and jerk he was. He was another elitist egocentric liberal this country could have done without.
“A republic, Ma’am, if you can keep it”. Benjamin Franklin. What’s more, is it was a constitutional republic, meaning that, not only did we have an (elected) ‘representative’ form of government, we also had a Constitution that specifically limited and defined the powers of the federal and state governments and, most importantly, embodied ‘the rule of law’ that all Americans, no matter their position, were subject to. I am using the past tense here because the American Constitution has been bastardized all but out of existence by the SCOTUS, and with it the ‘rule of law’ (now it’s ‘rule of majority”). And the level of representation we have (individually) in this ‘republic’ has been hijacked by special interests (money trust and communists) such that a democracy has resulted. Not to mention the tidal wave of unconstitutional, unaccountable bureaucracy and their ‘policies’ that are subject only to the oversight of… themselves (a social dictatorship). Add to that the ignorance and apathy of the American public, which is by design (communist design) and the continuing onslaught of disinformation perpetrated by people like Berger and Marciniak (ie: ‘America was founded as a democracy’) and you have a… socio-democratic dictatorship. Whatever. It all leads to totalitarian communism. And for those of us who have a brain and a Biblical world view and and refuse to accept that… without representation? Hmmmmmm.
John Kennedy also said: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your county”.
Although closely guarded by the Kennedy family to protect the ‘myth’ of JFK, most of what was said by him in his inaugural address and afterward can be largely attributed to his longtime counsel and legislative aide, Ted Sorensen. Kennedy did not write the majority, if any, of the famous words people so readily but incorrectly attribute to him. He was a groomed politician who knew well how to play the public the same as he did his women, and nothing more. No different than obama, clinton and various other self-serving US presidents with exception of his brief term in office.