Courage Makes A Majority

This is that idea that led me to blogging.  It is the reason I feel the need to speak out.  The middle of the political spectrum is usually the tipping point of an election, especially in polarized times when the bases of both parties are pouring on the rhetoric and engaged in the election.  I have to admit, I did not vote for President Bush in either election.  I was undecided up until the week before the 2000 election.

I wasn’t terribly upset when he won the first election.  I was even a little impressed at some of the early successes of the administration (No Child Left Behind, Tax Cuts), but that was long ago and all those good feelings are but a distant memory.  Since 2001, we have changed from a nation united to a nation divided.  For a President that once claimed “I’m a uniter, not a divider,” this development is a direct consequence of his leadership.  So, for your consideration, here are the things that concern me about this administration:

• The expansion of executive authority, including the use of signing statements as a way to ignore balances of legislative branch.

• The lack of respect of the judicial branch, branding the courts as “activist” for insisting the equal protection clause be enforced in all legislation and failing to recognize the branch as an equal to the executive branch.

• The use of Constitution and the amendment process as a political tool to rally the base.

• The uncompromising use of the “majority of the majority” policy for moving legislation through Congress.

• The threat of the Nuclear Option to arbitrarily change the rules of the Senate and remove a protection for the minority.

• The constant use of fear to influence people’s votes.  I would not be surprised to hear a change in our terror alert status in the coming months, even though the last change in status was almost two years ago (during election time).

• The intolerance of the majority party as seen by their never ending focus and priority for their social agenda.

The current government is not a government for the people, by the people. It is the party of the winners, the 52% of the country that voted for the President in 2004.  Somewhere, President James Madison is rolling over in his grave, because the current leadership has forgotten what he penned in Federalist Paper No. 10.

He saw that pure democracy threatens individuals rights.  That if unchecked, majority rule becomes the tyranny of the majority.  It is time to change the leadership of this country to restore the republic envisioned by Madison and the rest of our Founding Fathers.

So, to any moderates (Republicans included) and especially independents, whether its state or federal, house or senate, it is time to Vote for the Democrats and restore some balance in our country again.