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During the Clinton and Nixon Impeachments, there was a sense of decorum in the House and Senate Committees. Agree or disagree, the Members of Congress did their jobs; Forceful protests were left to actual meetings between constituents and Members or protests on the East Front of the Capitol.
Now with advent of Moveon.org and Code Pink, the street theatre of Protests are now inside the walls of the Republic. Let me be clear, I support free speech. Protest on the Mall; in Lafayette Park (across from the White House); on First Street, North East,by the Supreme Court. All fine, all good.
However, if your work says you come in a suit, you don't wear a bathing suit and flip-flops. What the Code Pink and Moveon.org's have forgotten is: They have a right to be heard, but so do the rest of us. Protests inside working committees or in the audience at the State of the Union (or just at the audience level of the US House of Representatives or the US Senate) is the equivalent of taking the bathing suit and flip-flops to work.
The Members of Congress are people, just like us. In the Capitol and Committee rooms, they are trying to do their work. Shouting down witness', shouting down members, or making a scene in the Gallery should keep you and your organization out of Washington, DC for a full Presidential term -- and if it is continued, be fined $1,000,000 per outburst.
Why don't Republicans (save for the dead-enders like the Buchaninites/Ron Paul acolytes) get into trouble like Moveon.org or Code Pink? Simple. They believe in Institutions. During the Clinton Impeachment, most Republicans believed in a Gore ascendancy. They had differing opinions with the Executive Branch, but work still got done.
These new protesters don't care about Institutions, or civility. Until they do, pardon my French Code Pink and Moveon, but STFU.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
7 comments:
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Actually, the more that Congress is disrupted, the more I like it.
ReplyDeleteNearly 9 trillion in Debt, Republicans and Democrats spending the Tax Payers money like it grows on trees.
The Bush Administration destroying Habeas Corpus with the Military Commissions Act. Destroying our constitutional rights with the Patriot Act. Republicans that can't keep their willies in their pants in Indiana or Florida.
Republicans and Democrats making campaign promises they never intended to keep.
Yep, Congress is truly trying to get something done.....
Texas Little El checks his pockets for the recording device or to make sure his paycheck is still there, whatever is left of it.
JSF, I've got to agree with what Texas Little el said, and then some. And why make this a partisan issue? These are our employees and we the people are their bosses. If you were messing up on your job as badly as our congress has been messing up running our country, would you not expect your boss to chew you out at a meeting?
ReplyDeleteThose Proposition One people have had a 20 year encampment in LaFayette Square and has a single lawmaker heard a word they have to say? When you tell people that they have a right to free speech and to redress grievances but they can only do it in certain places, that's really just make-believe democracy.
I agree that we must respect the institutions but I do not agree that politicians are just like us. Politicians are inherently corrupt and do not survive if they are not morally bankrupt.
ReplyDeleteI know there are exceptions but they are the exceptions that confirm the rule not the norm.
What the Code Pink and Moveon.org's have forgotten is: They have a right to be heard, but so do the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteThe Left will never respect your right to be heard if you differ in opinion from them. Witness the behavior of every socialist government in history and the leaning towards totalitarianism and repression. They just can't help themselves. You wait and see what will happen to freedom of speech if Hitlery Clinton gets in. She's already targeted certain people through her Media Matters lackeys.
Aurora, you are a complete ignoramus, and it's time for me to prove it sentence by sentence.
ReplyDeleteThe Left will never respect your right to be heard if you differ in opinion from them.
Nice opening with a mass generalization about a wide and diverse bunch of people. No less ignorant than saying that Jews are cheap.
Witness the behavior of every socialist government in history and the leaning towards totalitarianism and repression.
You clearly don't seem to be able to tell the difference between economics and authoritarianism. Regardless, if you're going to use the most extreme examples of the left to compare to our mainstream, then it would be fair for us on the left to constantly paint you as a nazi, right?
They just can't help themselves.
This coming from an authoritarian social conservative is laughable to say the least.
You wait and see what will happen to freedom of speech if Hitlery Clinton gets in.
Hitlery? Why is it OK for you to use a term like that but whenever somebody on the left points out the 14 points of fascism and how they relate to the Bush administration, we are disrespecting the memory of the holocaust? Oh, I forgot, it's because you are a hypocrite.
She's already targeted certain people through her Media Matters lackeys.
Oh no, better run and hide. Hillary has friends with a blog saying things about people! Could that be the end of free speech as we know it?
OK, now everyone point their fingers and laugh at how ridiculous our little lunatic from down under is!
Jason, Aurora, David, et. al,
ReplyDeleteI wrote this post not because I hold Senators and Congressmen and women in high esteem (I interned for two good ones) , but because I recognize the Capitol (and White House and the Supreme Court) as places of work.
Free Speech is paramount, but do you want to be the person in the movie theatre shouting "Kevin Spacey is Keyzer Soze!" or just "Fire!" Yes, both statements are important, but there is context and there are other people involved.
When Code Pink interrupts someone on the Speaker's dias or on the floor of the Senate or House, aren't they involved in chilling speech too?
With Free Speech comes responsibility: On my Blog, I never say [Blank] should be [Blank]. My speech affects others, speech is a two way street.
All I'm asking here, is protest outside the Capitol, lobby your Congressman after the committee, after all points are heard.
And those guys outside the White House protesting Nuclear War? If they had a shirt and tie and wore a nice haircut, they could lobby Congress. If they had 500 people, they could have a protest. It is all in context.
I fear the Congress and the President as institutions have un large measure forgotten the importance of decorum, respect, fair play civility and honor.
ReplyDeleteI find the increasing trend towards winning every vote using whatever tactics and strategems necessary to achieve the win regardless of however questionable to be quite disturbing.
For twenty-seven years I have been following politics during those years I noticed that the only time the Congress and the President refrained from promoting their own self interests and subverted the concerns of their states placing national concerns before them for any length of time occurred during the periodic governmental shutdowns that characterized the 1980's and the early 1990's, during times of national tragedy or crisis.
At all other times it seems as though the mantra of Government has become anything goes.
The attitudes exhibited by the Congress and the Office of the President reminded me of an epigram given by Dr. Emanuel Lasker, the World Chess Champion from 1894 to 1920, Dr. Lasker once remarked: Chess is above all a fight.
It could be argued that politics like chess is a fight in the sense that both are contests in which opponents seek to obtain an advantage over each others often relying on combinations and other techniques to achieve their ends.
Further there are numerous examples in both politics and chess illustrate the tendencies of master class politicians and chess players to promote their own self interests at the expense of the public at large.