JBS.org Freedom Campaign - May 2009
Restoring Our Freedom by Making Congress Constitutional
by Larry Greenley, Director of Marketing
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are ... endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men.... — Declaration of Independence, 1776
In light of these timeless words of the Declaration of Independence, our freedom is a valuable end that we seek to enjoy and preserve, whereas the Constitution is a valuable means that we employ to restore and preserve our freedom.
The JBS.org Freedom Campaign was created to restore and preserve our freedom by “making Congress constitutional.” The strategy for accomplishing this goal is to create enough grassroots pressure either to force the sitting Congress to vote according to the Constitution or to change the political atmosphere sufficiently to bring about the eventual election of a majority of constitutionalists in both houses of Congress.
Don’t be persuaded that we’ve already tried this approach and Congress just won’t listen. We’ve rarely ever seen just how much pressure is required to derail Congress from its unconstitutional ways. We did get a glimpse of what’s needed back in June 2007 when the Senate was forced to drop the Bush-Kennedy-McCain amnesty bill by a huge outcry from the public. We need grassroots pressure like that, but on an ongoing basis. The upcoming (as this is being written) Tax Day Tea Parties on April 15 might serve as a precursor of the grassroots pressure that’s needed, but it remains to be seen whether this movement will be co-opted by establishment partisans.
The legislative picture for this year and next is grim. Bad bills are already passing with comfortable margins. Even worse bills are being prepared on an aggressive schedule. In the coming weeks and months we’ll be seeing congressional votes on huge “cap and trade” taxes on energy, socialistic “comprehensive” healthcare reform, ratification of the UN’s Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), amnesty for illegal immigrants, and — well, let’s not depress ourselves more than necessary, but you get the point.
From time to time we get complaints that we haven’t created an online legislative alert for someone’s favorite bill. And, usually the bill does seem to warrant an alert by us. However, there is something that is even more important than issuing alerts on a multitude of bills, and that is we need to use the campaign projects and legislative alerts of the JBS.org Freedom Campaign as the means to build up our grassroots organization of JBS chapters, JBS Community online groups, JBS Letters From Congress, and JBS.org Freedom Campaign online groups.
We must greatly accelerate our rate of building our grassroots organization and networking with other organizations if we expect to preserve our freedom. Don’t get so caught up in the battles over individual legislative bills that you miss the opportunity to build sufficient forces to win the overall war for our freedom.
Become an active member of our JBS Community at http://www.JBS.org, then join some of the various JBS.org social networking groups in your state that have been created by JBS staff and members to provide some of the infrastructure for a massive grassroots networking movement sufficiently large and noisy to actually “make Congress constitutional.” Your creativity and networking effectiveness will be essential for our ultimate success in restoring our freedom.
Action Summary:
- Register as an online member at http://www.JBS.org, then get busy building a large and noisy grassroots movement by getting active within our JBS.org social networking groups in your area.
- Use the campaign projects and legislative alerts of the JBS.org Freedom Campaign at http://www.JBS.org/freedom for attracting new recruits into our grassroots movement as well as working directly to pass or block key legislation.
