Our democratic republic only works if the elected official weighs the opinions of hard-working constituents in their district more heavily than (1) the opinions of huge special interest donors, or (2) the 0.001 percent of Americans with time to camp out in the halls of the Senate.
The chants of “This is what Democracy looks like” by such protestors is wrong if they intimidate elected officials into siding with them against constituents back home.
There are 325 million people in America so even if 3,250 were arrested for protesting and blocking the halls of the Senate that would comprise only 0.001 percent of all Americans. Democracy is an alternative to brute force, or big money, controlling the government.
Every poll in a battleground state showed most constituents wanted Kavanaugh confirmed. This does not mean that voters in every state supported him. I have no doubt that Senators Kamala Harris and Diane Feinstein in California, as well as Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in New York, voted with overwhelming majorities of their constituents who opposed Kavanaugh, so as messy as it was the correct Democratic result was reached.
In addition, we live in a Republic, not a pure Democracy, where the founders believed that people should be elected to make the decisions their constituents likely would have made if they had all the same information. Admittedly constituents have much more of the same information today than they did at the founding, but in our Republic Heidi Heitkamp was still free to vote against Kavanaugh despite her constituents supporting his nomination by 56 percent to 28 percent in a poll. A democratic republic assumes only that elected officials weigh their constituents' opinions as well as their judgment.
Likewise, if Joe Manchin chooses to vote with the majority of West Virginia residents, the fact that a group of people in the hallway screaming over him when he explains his vote does not mean his vote was “anti-democratic.”
Our vision at Take Back Our Republic is that Americans regain faith that their officials focus first on them as constituents.
Americans lose faith when elected officials instead vote for the preference of out-of-state mega-donors or special interests. It is likely coal miners, factory workers, farmers, stay at home parents, pastors, students, or any other of the tens of thousands who called their officials in support of Kavanaugh, lost faith when they saw one professional full-time political organizer with the access to a U.S. Senator simply because she was in position to keep an elevator door open while the majority of Arizona residents who supported Kavanaugh back home had no such access.
It might be time for Jay Cost’s virtual Congress, in which Members of Congress vote from district offices so activists and lobbyists need to fly from D.C. to the district instead of constituents needing to fly to D.C. to be heard over the paid professionals.
As a conservative, Judge Kavanaugh was not my first choice. I hoped for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, but assume her traditional Catholic background may have made her too conservative for Susan Collins. However, as the attacks escalated to the ridiculous level via the porn star’s lawyer I joined most conservatives in strongly supporting Kavanaugh.
Take Back Our Republic does not endorse political candidates or court nominees, but now that Justice Kavanaugh is confirmed we offer the following congratulations and regret that visuals on this confirmation turned into a spectacle of shouting over senators and others trying to discuss this nomination in a democratic process. We appeal to any groups who join us in working to create a healthy democracy via reform, not to advocate or even condone actions that actually destroy the ability to have a democratic process:
"We congratulate Brett Kavanaugh on being confirmed to the United States Supreme Court and President Trump on successfully placing two justices to the highest court in the land. Our hope is that Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and an increasingly right-leaning court will embody a jurisprudence that allows Congress and state legislators to innovate, reform, and strengthen our democracy. Conservatives rallied in force throughout this process because of extreme frustration with judges who impose their will on the nation. Therefore, it is our hope that Justice Kavanaugh will challenge the same judicial activism that has mistakenly led some conservatives to advocate throwing out all state and federal anti-corruption laws in the name of an UNLIMITED right to trade political contributions for taxpayer dollars. As the people and their elected representatives seek to Take Back Our Republic, it is our hope that Brett Kavanaugh will have a conservative, originalist perspective that fuels a resolve to not stand in their way."
John Pudner is Executive Director of Takeback.org, a non-profit home for Americans seeking true political reform. Our conservative solutions include: stopping illicit foreign money from impacting elections; ending pay-to-play in government contracting; and restoring the Reagan-era federal tax credit for small-dollar political contributions, which will encourage more citizens to become donors and help re-balance the campaign finance system. For more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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