2010: The Renegade Congress

History will not be kind to this congress. 

It will be marked as the body of legislators that killed American democracy. 

If we survive as a nation, it shall ever be known as the “Renegade Congress,” the congress that trashed the founding fathers’ principles, trampled on the people’s freedoms, governed against the will of the majority and shredded the Constitution. 

This congress vacated the law of the land and inserted itself as the law.

This congress rejected the pleas of the common citizen/taxpayer.

This congress bribed its members for votes, threatened others for opposing its wishes and manipulated those who could not be bribed or intimidated into irrelevance.

This congress, in any other context, would be considered criminal in its actions. 

This congress, under the shameless maneuverings of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supported by a conspiratorial cabal of liberal democrats, destroyed the trust and reverence that the American people had always given it.  

Until now, we believed that congress would do no harm to the nation.

Until now, we believed that our legislators were bound by oath to uphold the law, not destroy it.

Until now, we believed that the people’s representatives actually worked for the people.

Until now, we believed that our elected officials would subordinate their personal lives and opinions to the welfare of the nation.

Until now, our nation has never witnessed such a naked abuse of power.

We believed that congress would act in our best interest.

We actually believed that the Constitution made it impossible for a rogue bunch of politicians to throw of the restraints of law and go wild.

Was this issue—health care—the reason congress acted illegally?

Was it their compassion, their nobility, their altruism that forced them into unconscionable corruption?

Were they so good that they had to act badly in order to help people?

Don’t buy it.

Robin Hood’s goals did not justify Robin Hood’s actions.

Good intentions do not provide cover for criminal activity.

This issue doesn’t warrant the bold abrogation of 230 years of history.

Once principles are violated for one issue, it becomes a game-changer.

Once the law is broken—with impunity—it remains broken.

Today, the law is broken.  But it must not be sanctioned.  Otherwise, we are at the mercy of tyrants.

Disappointed is too weak of a word to describe the mood of the people.

Disillusioned does not express the depth of the impact.

You might say we have been shocked.  Or disgusted.  Or outraged.  Or infuriated. 

Perhaps.

It might be better to say that we have now been educated.

We now understand that laws mean nothing if they cannot or will not be enforced.

If the controlling branches of our government act outside the framework of law, then they cannot expect the citizens to redress their grievances within that same framework.

If the lawmakers don’t abide by the law, they are inviting the citizens to do the same.

If the leaders of this nation ever wondered how to start a revolution, they may now have stumbled across the strategy.

I do not know how it will all turn out.

I do know this. 

I will never again trust my congress.

I will never again trust elected officials to do the right thing.

As an American citizen, I would never have thought I would arrive at this position.

Here I am.

I will not be surprised at anything that happens.

Comments

[Tim Garcia]

What outraged me wasn't what the Congress did; I think if we're going to have a mess we call "health insurance" at all (and that's a can of worms!), the reforms Congress passed were for the most part good and will help most people.

What outraged me was the fake "grassroots" efforts against health care reform, funded by lobbyists who buy their pictures of "regular Americans" or "regular taxpayers" from iStockPhoto.com.

What outraged me were the uneducated neophyte politicians who can't even finish the job they were elected to, creating fictional "death panels" and scaring people with misinformation.

What outraged me were the politicians who railed against the American Recovery Act, complaining that it wouldn't create jobs, voted against it, then two weeks after it was enacted, asked for some of the money in that there pot and are now campaigning on the jobs they created from the stimulus package they still decry. :)

Irony. :)