Tag: GOP

Attention Fox News viewers: From YOUR Founding Fathers – Lose Your Freedoms, Lose Your Liberty

Posted on by lauraanneayres

Everything quoted in this post has been cross-checked and one of those citations is EITHER in parenthesis OR the entire quote is a multi-cited search result.

We all know the genesis of our Constitution. We know what brought our Founding Fathers over the pond, and we know they wanted to make certain the colonies had a different political, economic, and social framework and a different version of liberty.

The Bill of Rights they crafted is a rather crucial part of that goal. Oddly enough, it is even more important in 2017 than it was then. They were protecting us. From whom? From what? Well, listen to them.

For example, when we do not have the Freedoms of Speech AND the Press, we face a fear of dear Patrick…

(Patrick Henry) The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. The most iniquitous plots may be carried on against their liberty and happiness. (http://www.constitution.org/rc/rat_va_07.htm)

Losing those freedoms might allow one group to destroy our liberty and happiness. Scary. But, hey…Patty was an anti-federalist. Those guys were always paranoid. Or…?

(James Madison) The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. (http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch10s14.html)

Nope. JimMadDog would have had FEDERALIST4EVER tattooed on his bicep, if possible. He was neither an anti-federalist nor was he paranoid. Neither was Patty. None of them were.

Without enumerating the freedoms we should enjoy, they would have left us susceptible to losing…

(Benjamin Franklin) Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. (http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/ifissues/issuesrelatedlinks/quotations)

Liberty. That is right. Without those freedoms, we would lose liberty. So, that is what they were protecting us from, my fellow Americans. They did not want us to lose our very liberty. Liberty – freedom from the control of a despot, tyrant, madman, etc. Imagine for one moment what they were trying to do. Now, read this: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/320485-spicer-trump-has-healthy-respect-for-free-press and this: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/politics/jake-tapper-white-house-trump-unamerican-cnntv/

I tried to find coverage on Fox News. There was very little. This is the coverage: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/24/media-outlets-accuse-white-house-blocking-certain-press-from-covering-event.html Notice certain words like “claiming.” It’s sort of like being pregnant – you are or you aren’t. They were barred. I suppose there are arguments regarding “why,” but is that the point?

This is our national warning sign. These articles are our “rising sea level.” We still have time.

But, not much. Because, in short, here is what happens in the immortal words of our Founding Fathers when we don’t keep our eye on the liberty ball:

Patrick Henry – Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. (http://www.westillholdthesetruths.org/quotes/47/guard-with-jealous-attention-the-public)

James Wilson – Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness. (https://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/founders-quotes/)

John Madison – But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. When the People once surrender their share in the Legislature, and their Right of defending the Limitations upon the Government, and of resisting every Encroachment upon them, they can never regain it. (http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17750707ja&numrecs=104&archive=letter&hi=on&mode=&query=Liberty%252C%2520once%2520lost%252C%2520is%2520lost%2520forever.&queryid=&rec=15&start=11&tag=text

Don’t lose focus.

The GOP just lost my respect

Posted on by lauraanneayres

I mean that sincerely. Until recently, I was open to voting for a GOP candidate. I consider(ed) patriotism and patriotic intent one of the crowning jewels of the Grand Old Party and patriotism is something upon which I place a high value. I voted, primarily, as a liberal (thinker), which allowed me the luxury of choosing candidates based on personal ideology and not party affiliation. Patriotism has always influenced my voting pattern.

Which is why I will no longer consider a GOP candidate at any level. Too bad, because I was one of those “good gets” for a GOP candidate – socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

But, the Republican partisan politics have reached a new low. We now have sitting members in Congress, elected by their constituents to focus on the best interests of the American people, writing to the leader of a foreign nation in open and direct defiance of the President of the United States. Just weeks before, these same “team players, we are all Americans” invited a foreign leader to take the Congressional podium, again in direct defiance of the expressed orders of the President.

This is more than (notice I said “more than” clearly implying that these acts could be constituted as…) insubordination, dereliction of duty, abuse of power, or treason. This is highly problematic for the United States on two levels.

First, this is a profound display of weakness to foreign nations. By essentially overriding the will of the executive branch publicly, the legislative branch makes our Commander-in-Chief appear compromised and unable to demand the support of his own countrymen, all of whom, by the way, swore an oath of allegiance.

Second, more reaching in its harmful scope in my opinion, this public dissension and breach of protocol by the GOP represents a fundamental break in the governmental structure of checks and balances (separation of powers). Each branch fundamentally has its own responsibilities in regard to this country’s well being. When one branch (read here: Legislative) works in direct, public, global defiance of another branch (read here: Executive), Americans suffer. Partisan politics and manipulations born by a few dozen men and women creep in like a silent killer and slowly eat at the fabric of our republic.

Guess who should know all of this better than a 6th generation, opera-singing, blond Texan? The self-described “patriots,” defending our Constitution, Lady Liberty, and God-blessed United States.

All of you lost my vote and my respect. For those GOP leaders who stayed silent, I can only say what Jed Bartlett would probably say in this moment, “Qui tacet consentire videtur.”