By E. Dee Monnen
On Election Day we dutifully vote for the “best” candidate on the ballot, and then we naively believe he/she will obey the congressional oath. Before taking office, all U.S Senators and Representatives pledge to bear true faith and allegiance to our Constitution, and most, while reciting this solemn oath, seem to believe their own lying lips.
If there weren’t so many oath breakers on Capitol Hill, the term “cobweb” — Congressional oath breakers without ethical behavior — would not be necessary, but the number of miscreant members is overwhelming. These elected officials are either incompetent, or have a great misunderstanding of our U.S. Constitution, or they aren’t bothered by the fact that they swore the oath to Almighty God, which is understood to mean non-compliance will carry a more serious consequence than losing the next election.
There’s an unflattering term for an unprincipled Republican. It’s RINO — Republican in Name Only. During the primary elections, Republican voters can find the moniker useful when deciding which candidates are loyal to our country and Constitution, and which ones aren’t.
What I don’t like about the term RINO is that it excludes Democrats, who are generally worse on Constitutional matters. As citizens, shouldn’t our goal be to vote out all members who are eroding our liberties?
If you look at the Congressional voting records of those in the 114th Congress provided at OurLibertyElections.com, you’ll find a damaging pattern. This Congress has allowed the separation of powers to be blurred so badly, that recovery is not even on the horizon. Furthermore, their votes tend to curry favor with their party’s leadership and/or their largest contributors, rather than the people whom they actually represent.
Nearly all Republicans have violated the Congressional oath at least once, and 100 percent of the Democrats consistently violate it, which leads me to assume that all oath violators sought elected office for two selfish reasons: money and power.
Believe it or not, these elected officials are given the title, “The Honorable Senator or Representative,” which, over the centuries, has been turned into a political oxymoron.
Today, a typical Congressperson is unprincipled. They ignore their oath of office, and they lie to get elected. So, what do we do?
We identify them, the “Congressional Oath Breakers: Without Ethical Behavior” (cobwebs) — and then we sweep them out of office.
With only a few exceptions (very few) there needs to be a thorough cleaning of both the House and Senate floors. As citizens, we have an ongoing duty to prod, shame, and insist that our representatives and senators follow the Constitution, and if they don’t, we have the opportunity and the obligation in 2016 to vote them out of office.
Dee Monnen is a contributing writer to the Liberty Features Syndicate and the webmaster of http://ourlibertyelections.com.
