Message to Congress
Following is an email I sent to my Senators Hutchison and Cornyn, and Representative Henry Bonilla. I would encourage all VOID supporters to take the small bit of time necessary to send a similar kind of message to your representatives by Sunday evening, putting them on notice. Feel free to borrow, cut and paste from my message below to craft your own unique message. It is only fair to let our representatives know why they are losing our votes to their challengers. (Be sure to include a subject: perhaps Corruption in Government, and your full name, and address and email address. Without that information, their staffers will likely trash the message.) The folks at Common Cause are also working to generate 10's of thousands of similar letters, as well.
Dear Senator or Representative.
I have watched our government being sold to the highest bidder for decades. I have seen incumbents from both parties work tirelessly to preserve the legal graft and purchase of votes by wealthy donors and lobbyists, shutting out the voice of average American voters on issue after issue.
The scandals currently rocking D.C., you and I both know, represent only the tip of the ice berg where money influences legislation is concerned. We voters in America have an agenda we agree on by a huge multi-partisan majority. That agenda includes fiscal responsibility which will preserve prosperity for our children, roads to peace, not war, which increase the prospects of peace for our children, and freedom to conduct our lives responsibly in America without government intrusion, spying, and secret activities overseeing our private lives.
But this agenda of the American people of peace, prosperity and liberty is not backed by 100's of millions of dollars in annaul graft, and so it is an agenda you incumbents in Washington lose sight of. Enough is enough.
I have joined with other voters, Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Libertarians and independents who are all committed to voting out incumbents for as many election cycles as it takes in order to restore responsible government. To restore government that takes its direction from the average working Americans, and not the wealthy corporations, campaign donors, and special interest lobbyists is our goal.
We finally get it. The incumbents are preserving this corrupt system for themselves, and we are committed to addressing the problem at its source. So, you have a choice, change your bribed ways of legislating or face a growing tide of anti-incumbent voters who care less about party than they do
about ending the legal and illegal influence of money over legislation.
We are not opposed to campaign contributions or lobbyists. We are opposed to the incumbents who permit those small numbers of wealthy contributors to trump the people's agenda for a prosperous, peaceful, and free future for our children. Our organization is called Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy and we are here to stay and grow throughout the country until you are gone from Congress or, change your ways of voting to work for our agenda instead of that of the special interests.
You have a difficult choice. Acknowledge the American people's agenda and fight for it in Congress, or we will continue in growing numbers to vote out incumbents until their replacements finally get it, and work exclusively for our children's future, all of America's people in bi-partisan fashion, and against corruption and bribery both legal and illegal.
Here are actions on your part we will look for in the coming months.
* Create an Independent Ethics Commission to investigate congressional ethics misconduct by all parties.
* Prohibit Members of Congress and their staffs from accepting gifts from registered lobbyists. Ban all privately financed Congressional travel. If the trip is important enough for a Member to make, it is important enough to be publicly financed and let the people determine if their money was well spent or not.
* End the campaign money chase that is at the core of the current scandal and robs the people of their representatives time spent on the American people's common agenda, peace, prosperity, and liberty in America for Americans. Publicly-funded, clean election reform for congressional campaigns is critical to restoring responsibility by Congress to the voting public.
* Stop members of Congress and senior staff from immediately taking jobs as lobbyists once they leave public service. Install a 5 year ban on this practice to end the motivation for running for Congress in order to become a wealthy lobbyist. The American people don't elect their representatives to promote their bank accounts and financial status upon leaving office for a lucrative lobbying position.
* Real transparency and real-time reporting of lobbying contacts and real enforcement of disclosure rules by incumbents is required to get our votes in the future.
You have a decision to make: work for us, we the people, or continue to work for the highest bidders and contributors to your financial wealth. We are watching, and we will respond accordingly in 2006, 2008, 2010, and beyond if necessary.
Comments
Short and sweet and to the point. I hope to continue to support VOID, too, until trust is restored between the citizens of this great country and their public servants. Only then, will government take on the critical issues facing our nation.
Posted by: David Weller | January 13, 2006 12:19 PM
Read this over on watchblog just a bit ago.
If the politicians up in Washington got just a few hundred it should get their attention. I remember reading one time that they figure for every one person that voices an opinion, there are atleast 10 more thinking the same thing.
It might not concern a Senator much but take a Representitive reciving 100 of these letters. 100 x 10 = 1,000. How many of these reprensentives won their elections by 1,000 votes? It would sure get my attention.
However, Georgia has 13 Representitives. If each one of them got 100 letters. And each person that wrote their Representitves wrote both Senators. They would be getting 1,300 letters a piece. 1,300 X 10 = 13,000. That just might get their attention.
Posted by: Ron Brown | January 13, 2006 12:24 PM
Ron, Common Cause has 10's of thousands of supporters, and they are launching a mail in campaign similar to this one with online emailing of CongressPersons.
Thousands of similar emails are going to be received by Congress over the next 48 hours.
Posted by: David R. Remer | January 13, 2006 12:55 PM
David, excellent letter. Succinct and effective. We should consider another blitz day to the news papers with an open letter to senators and congressmen sent to the large dailies in regional areas of the country. While we don't have the local chapters set up yet, if we could get the AP or someone to put this on their wire service, it might be seen by all the papers in their syndication.
Sunday editorial pages are generally the most read of the week for Op-Eds. We should consider targeting one Sunday this quarter to see if we can get the letter printed....
Posted by: Dennis Sherrard | January 14, 2006 8:48 AM
Good letter.
I sent it too to Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Cornyn, and Michael C. Burgess (R) (for Texas and District 26).
_________________________
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizens Against Government Waste
(CAGW) today named Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Mary Landrieu
(D-La.) it's September Porkers of the Month for their amendment to S. 1585,
the fiscal 2004 Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Appropriations
Act, that would give away an estimated $100 million in spectrum rights to
Northpoint Technology. With a $480 billion deficit and the President ready to
send an $87 billion supplemental spending bill to Congress, the last thing
this country needs are two senators pandering to a special interest, violating
established precedent for auctioning spectrum rights and squandering taxpayer
dollars.
Senator Hutchison and Senator Landrieu, members of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, inserted the Northpoint handout language into S.
1585. The provision would simply give the spectrum rights in question to
Northpoint Technology for free. The company, which has a presence in Texas
and New Hampshire, wants to provide wireless and satellite services, including
Internet applications, multi-channel video and high speed data. To cover all
the bases in the Senate, Senators Landrieu and John Sununu (R-N.H.) inserted
the Northpoint giveaway in H.R 1320, the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act
of 2003 during a recent markup in the Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee.
___________________________
John Cornyn also used his influence to adversely affect a business in Texas in a way that I think is an abuse of power. I won't go into the details, but the case was later thrown out by a higher court. He tried to twist a law to create a controversy. Still, he failed.
_________________________
Posted by: d.a.n | January 14, 2006 8:43 PM
There's going to be some CYA in Texas this month. Apparently someone from Texas Students Against the Death Penalty picked this letter up at WatchBlog and sent it out to 6000+ people on their mailing list.
Posted by: David R. Remer | January 16, 2006 11:12 PM
This is certainly the time to start acting. Our "representatives" need to be put on notice.
I'm in! I'm going to mail it out, as that has always gotten a better response from my representatives.
Posted by: Stephanie | January 17, 2006 3:54 AM
To all of you who took the time and care to contact your representatives on these issues, thank you, and thank yourselves. The difficult thing about this business is that good folks keep taking action, but, don't get to see the results of their effort for quite some time. Keep the faith, VOID's logic and rationale are inescapably sound and offer the only real solution to the problems VOID addresses.
If we can keep our focus on the 2008 and 2010 elections while working on the 2006 elections, we few will become we many. I don't have a crystal ball, and I am no fortune teller, but, I have an abiding faith in the good common sense of the American people.
In times of trouble, common sense solutions like ours have always prevailed as long as some folks with faith in America kept the common sense before the public to grasp when they are ready. That is our task. The hardest task before us is keeping the faith alive in ourselves: that the VOID solution will one day be accepted by millions of good Americans who in turn will vote to restore democracy to our politics and government.
Posterity and our children will thank us for not giving up on America, or giving in to the status quo who would rather we just went away.
Posted by: David R. Remer | January 17, 2006 10:02 AM
Well said, David.
Our goal is to provide a simple, common-sense, logical, peaceful, non-partisan, safe, inexpensive, responsible solution to restore a balance of power (not merely shift it or strip all power to accomplish anything) between government and the people, and peacefully force the government to be responsible and accountable too.
And that goal can be accomplished with nothing more than the one thing we were supposed to be using wisely all along to create responsible and accountable government: our vote
Education is important, and that task too is part of our goal. Voters also need to understand a few basics about:
(1) human nature: humans seek security and prosperity with the least pain and effort; sometimes unethically or illegally;
(2) government: without sufficient transparency and law enforcement, governments (due to (1) above) are always growing more corrupt;
(3) and history: which shows us that (1) and (2) above are true, and those that don't learn from history, are doomed to repeat it;
There is also, fortunately, a history of anti-incumbent voting after voters get fed up. However, another task is to help educate the voters to follow through, and continue to vote out (or recall) irresponsible incumbents, until some basic reforms are addressed (for example). That is, voters must provide an agenda composed of the most common-sense, no-brainer, much needed reforms to make government transparent, accountable, and responsible. The example, why should the voters not demand:
(1) ONE PURPOSE PER BILL
(2) CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
(3) BALANCED BUDGET Amendment
(4) TAX REFORM
And then voters should watch and observe to see who votes for or against these reforms, and then vote out (or recall) those incumbents.
The United States is a great nation. We are not like North Korea, Iran, or other similar nations.
But we are on a dangerous path of fiscal and moral bankruptcy.
We can do better, and we should, because the longer we wait, the worse it will get, and the harder and more painful reforms will later be.
Instead of repeating history, what if the United States makes history by learning to maintain a balance of power between government and the people ?
We can do that with our vote. That's what we are supposed to do. That's what we were supposed to be doing all along. That is what will make our government the best in the world. The voters can make it happen if they remove their partisan blinders, reject the distracting, petty partisan warfare, eliminate influence peddling and bought-and-paid-for-incumbents that create government FOR SALE, ignore the clever tactics to seduce voters into a circular pattern that distracts voters from the fact that incumbents are risking the future and security of the nation, and simply vote responsibly to vote out irresponsible incumbents and make government responsible and accountable too.
Posted by: d.a.n | January 17, 2006 11:31 AM
Great letter!
But, what about monetary reform? You can't possibly achieve fiscal responsibility without instituting monetary reform.
BTW, Stephanie stopped by my site and told me about your work. Great stuff!
Posted by: qrswave | January 21, 2006 8:00 PM
qrswave, thanks for the comments. Just what kind of monetary reform are you looking for?
IMO, the fiscal side of our future is in far worse and more threatening shape than monetary policy and the Federal Reserve system, which afterall, has been a huge success overall since the mid-1930's, with a few bumps in the road.
Posted by: David R. Remer | January 21, 2006 9:37 PM