By Gary Emineth
In just two weeks, on November 2nd , what I believe could be the most significant election in my lifetime-maybe even in the history of this country- will be in the record books. Some people would say I am over stating this fact. I don’t think so. If things continue the way they are we are on our way to destroying this country.
However, if we regain a voice in Congress, we have a huge task ahead of us. I think most of us here would agree that the government has to be turned back or we are on a collision course with disaster.
Which is why our country is up in arms! Which is why we are here today. Why else would so many people be out here giving up part of their Saturday afternoon?
So what hangs in the balance as the days go by leading to November 2nd is really quite simple.
What hangs in the balance is the future of the America and the destiny of individual freedom and representative democracy on this planet. Sound exaggerated? Maybe.
That is until you look around, read the news, and talk to your neighbors, relatives and friends. Even the lukewarm citizen and the apolitical “I don’t want to talk about it” co-worker are out looking for voter’s guides. Why?
Let me break the Why? Into two parts: the What? and the Who?. The What? and Who? are behind the greatest surge of active interest in the ranks of the American electorate in a non-presidential election year in a long time — maybe ever.
My answer to the What? is the rest of this address; and I firmly believe I am standing right in front of the Who?.
The Who? is you. In a recent Washington Post Poll — only 43 percent of Democrats are “very enthusiastic” about the upcoming election, while 57 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of tea party supporters and 82 percent active tea party members are enthusiastic. That is the Who? — it’s you.
Now to the What?.
The Founding Fathers laid it out 234 years ago in the Declaration of Independence and later forged those principles into the blueprint for living in a free society: the U.S. Constitution. And you and others like you have passionately stepped forward to preserve what was laid out as the foundation of the government.
You picked it up, you opened it, and you read it — and you kept reading it. As you got very familiar with it, you began comparing notes with the practices and policies coming out of Washington, and you realized something: These two records, the blueprint (the Constitution) and the actual policies do not match!
You can see this and, like me, you’re not even a lawyer. (No, you don’t have to be a lawyer to serve in Congress.)
Something is going on in this country and anyone with any common sense at all can see it.
Of course others have made these observations and done nothing more with them than write an obnoxious monologue for late night television and made fun of politicians and potential candidates for public office. Guess those people have never met you.
While they are talking, you have decided to start walking! You’re out here on a Saturday afternoon at a political rally, many of you have yard signs for local candidates in the upcoming election. Others of you have volunteered to go door to door, to make phone calls for get out the vote efforts, donated money, hosted a coffee party for neighbors to help them understand the issues, and written letters to the editor.
Some of you, like me, grew up in the anti-establishment mood of the sixties and seventies. Who’d have thought that we’d be the political activists?
Recently I was in Washington, D.C. at a Faith & Freedom Coalition conference. Two of the founders of the Tea Party Patriots spoke, and being the Reagan Republican that I am, I listened and as I listened I looked around and saw a room full of Republicans — many high profile types — listening with me and nodding in agreement to what they were hearing.
These tea party patriots were talking about a tea party organization boasting some 2,800 groups around the country.
They were talking about energy and engagement in a way that those of us in a traditional partisan context hadn’t been able to muster in years. Some of you may know what I mean.
Let’s face it. We have a problem here if we’re actually going to change the future landscape of this country. We need to do a better job if we’re going to pass this on to the next generation.
I have a challenge to you which I’ll expand on later, a challenge for any of you who believe in the things I’m saying, to go a step beyond gatherings like this — and make your voice heard in other venues.
On a more encouraging note, at the same venue in D.C. where the conference hosting the Tea party group was held, I came across a meeting room with a sign, “The Sharon Statement: Celebrating 50 Years.” This is the group started by William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1960 and really the precursor to the modern conservative movement in this country.
As I stood there and read “The Sharon Statement”, I realized it sounded a lot like what I had just heard from the tea party leaders in the room down the hall!
As a member of the platform committee for the Republican National Committee in 2008, these principles reminded me of what we had written for the Republican Party platform. Don’t worry I’m not here to get partisan on you, but I’d be remiss if I left this out.
We have got to get together on the things we agree on. Is it 80-20, 82-18, 90-10, or what? I don’t know the numbers, but what I do know is that when I compare these principles and precepts I just described with what the current administration in Washington and Congress is up to, the numbers are the other way around.
What does this mean? Well, to start with, in the days leading up to the American Revolution, there was another tea party — that one in Boston Harbor and it caused quite an uproar. The American colonists involved and watching, they didn’t agree on everything either! John Adams was skeptical, Sam Adams was ready to fight, John Hancock was resolved to protect his business interests, etc. But ultimately they knew one thing: They must unite or die!
What we share and agree on is far more basic, essential and critical than what we disagree on. History lessons can be so valuable at time like this. Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan both said something to the effect that, “If we forget our history, where we came from, we forget who we are.” Edith Stein, a Jewish woman who became a Catholic nun who was put to death at Auschwitz said it this way: “A nation doesn’t simply need what we have, it needs who we are.”
Who are we? Is it possible that this may be the most important question of the day?
I believe that it is. The most foundational, fundamental and significant document, our blueprint for living as Americans in a free society, the Constitution of the United States, begins with these words, words that answer this question, words unlike any other.
It begins like this: We the People. That’s you and me.
There’s a lot of talk out there today that this system of government we enjoy in America is not the best form of freedom. Could that have anything to do with who is running the show?
• They say America is on the way to becoming a third world country.
• They are also saying capitalism, free enterprise, and markets cannot be trusted to create jobs. Instead, they maintain government regulation is required to stabilize the economy.
• Equality must be established for true freedom to exist, and in the interim, individual freedom must be sacrificed.
• A benevolent dictatorship would be better than a corrupt Republic.
Have you heard any of this lately? I have. And I am sick to my stomach.
What I think they need to hear, and what most Americans believe is:
1. American Revolution: oppressive taxation without representation. Summer patriots and sunshine soldiers shrunk back, but tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. And the people said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
2. WWII: The United States hesitated to get into a global war. At stake was national security until Churchill faced Hitler with his resolve to “Never give up”. At the point when it looked like France would fall, he was asked what would happen if the Germans crossed the English Channel and he replied, “We’ll drown as many as possible and if any manage to make it up on the shore, we’ll beat them back with our fists.” When the world realized he wasn’t giving in, they joined the fight.
3. Now we are at a critical juncture when security is touted as more important than freedom, that wealth should be redistributed, and there is a clear disdain for individualism and personal liberties.
4. Virtue has gone the way of moral relativism.
John Adams said it this way: The constitution of the United States was written to govern a moral and religious people, and is unfit to govern any other.
You are the people of the hour.
You have the Script.
You read the Script and you believe it should be followed.
You are not sunshine Patriots.
You are the ones to remind people about the blueprint.
You will spark the new birth of freedom so that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people will not perish from the earth.
It is not what you have to offer, education, or special talents as much as the fact that you are Americans, born free and willing to do what it takes to live free that is important.
Ronald Reagan said: There is no arsenal on earth more powerful than the moral courage of free men and women.
What must we do?
1. Educate yourself and others. Informed consent is a requirement for a free society — otherwise it becomes a farce, a tragedy, or both.
2. Encourage your elected officials to listen to their constituents and to carry out what they promised they would do when they asked for your vote. We need to hold them accountable. It is not only what happens on November 2nd, but November 3rd, and January when the Legislature meets, or when Congress goes in session that will make the real difference.
3. Engage: Get involved in the political process at whatever level you choose, but choose something! It requires eternal vigilance to keep a Republic alive. We must keep the energy and stay involved.
Remember, if you are not willing to be involved in politics, you must be satisfied with being governed by your inferiors.
Haven’t you had enough of this?
If so, now is the time to step out and take this country back!
Gary Emineth is the former Chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party. He blogs at http://garyemineth.com.
