Alan Keyes
To save the Constitution, follow it
Why elections are the gatherings that really matter
By Alan Keyes
Last Saturday morning (Oct. 16), I read a WND piece by Larry Klayman promoting the "Independence Day: Nov.19, 2013, rally." After pondering its content, I made the decision not to attend the rally. In explaining my decision, I shared with Larry the following thoughts, which he graciously promised to read to those in attendance. It was a magnanimous gesture that only increases my already great affection and admiration for his good character and work.
Larry contacted me some weeks ago about participating in this event. I was inclined to do so because of the great respect I have for him and for his work, over many years, at Judicial Watch and elsewhere. He has shown courage and a deep concern for principle in his efforts to expose and oppose various aspects of the assault against America's constitutional republic.
On account of this friendship and respect for Larry's long and passionate commitment to liberty, I agreed to participate. I did so despite my sense that the strategy of "Arab Spring"-style "mass action" may simply divert grassroots energy from the focus on grassroots election-oriented mobilization that is the constitutional key to building a political will – and gaining a political result – consistent with America's founding principles and the Constitution derived from them.
For several years I have articulated, on my blog, in my weekly WND columns, and in speeches and media appearances of all sorts, a strategic approach to victory over the anti-American forces warring against the U.S. Constitution. I accepted Larry Klayman's invitation to participate in the Nov. 19 rally because I thought that, despite our differences, it offered an opportunity to share with the committed patriots attending the event my strategic understanding of how to restore a conscientiously representative electoral process.
However, in the days just prior to the rally, the tenor of Mr. Klayman's promotion of the gathering seemed to me more and more incompatible with my conviction that the present crisis calls for grassroots action, devised with strict regard for the responsibilities of citizenship the Constitution imposes on Americans. This constitutional self-discipline distinguishes the constitutional mobilization of the American people (as voters) from the eruptive "mass action" undertaken in Egypt and elsewhere by subject peoples who have never, in fact, successfully implemented constitutional self-government – and who therefore have no real heritage or experience of it.
Americans know (or ought to know) better than to think that they can effectively "demand" a constitutional change in government by simply taking to the streets. They should also know that they have no need to beg from wannabe "princes" and elitist "oligarchs" what they can procure by constitutional means if they have the courage and intelligently organize themselves, to do so. This is especially true in the full dawn of the 21st century, when individuals have access to the technological means to build networks of responsible action that can gather and keep track of the votes needed to win the most crucial constitutional elections, and thus know that they have done so, well before Election Day.
This election-focused mentality must characterize the spirit and activities of American patriots willing to do their utmost to revitalize America's constitutional republic by constitutional means. The United States of America is not Egypt. To restore their self-government to the wise foundations envisaged by our founders, we must act like Americans, not Egyptians.
At great personal sacrifice, I have tried consistently to speak the truth about the fatal threat Barack Obama and his elitist faction masters and collaborators pose to America's liberty. I deeply share and have consistently promoted the view that Obama faction officials of the U.S. government must be impeached and removed from office. I encourage, by word and deed, the work of building the political networks needed to achieve the majorities in Congress that are constitutionally required to achieve this aim.
But such constitutional results are not to be won by passionate "masses" momentarily venting their righteous anger in the streets. The needed results can be achieved only by disciplined grassroots individuals mobilizing their personal networks to achieve specific electoral goals. Right now, the imperative goal must be to reject and replace the elitist faction's treacherous, sham, so-called two-party system. Achieving that goal depends on getting individual Americans at the grassroots throughout the nation to focus on exercising the sovereignty of the people as voters, in their election districts. Focusing on the impeachment/removal objective, they can do so in the 2014 congressional elections:
Even if they were massive, no episodic gatherings that passionately "demand" this or that result from Congress would achieve an electoral result. It can only be achieved by gathering to vote, at the polling places, on Election Day. Voters who are truly loyal to constitutional liberty must mobilize an electoral vehicle to assure that enough constitutional loyalists are on the ballot to dominate the composition of Congress. Without this mobilization, Constitution-minded voters will have no one to vote for who truly represents them. Without this transformation of electoral politics, mass actions may simply distract from what needs to be done, allowing the corrupt, sham party system to triumph by default. Even inadvertently, I want to be no part of such a distraction.
Americans are not supposed to be moldable "masses," uprising now and then at the command of their "leaders." They are, each of them, supposed in their own way to be leaders, under God's command, commissioned by their own righteously deliberate choice to raise up faithful representatives of the conscientious goodwill with which He endowed their nature, and which He may still have in store for a nation willingly returned to His good graces.
Click here to watch Larry Klayman read the above piece by Alan Keyes at the Nov. 19 "Reclaim America Now" rally in Washington, DC. – and present his own response.
November 25, 2013
Last Saturday morning (Oct. 16), I read a WND piece by Larry Klayman promoting the "Independence Day: Nov.19, 2013, rally." After pondering its content, I made the decision not to attend the rally. In explaining my decision, I shared with Larry the following thoughts, which he graciously promised to read to those in attendance. It was a magnanimous gesture that only increases my already great affection and admiration for his good character and work.
Larry contacted me some weeks ago about participating in this event. I was inclined to do so because of the great respect I have for him and for his work, over many years, at Judicial Watch and elsewhere. He has shown courage and a deep concern for principle in his efforts to expose and oppose various aspects of the assault against America's constitutional republic.
On account of this friendship and respect for Larry's long and passionate commitment to liberty, I agreed to participate. I did so despite my sense that the strategy of "Arab Spring"-style "mass action" may simply divert grassroots energy from the focus on grassroots election-oriented mobilization that is the constitutional key to building a political will – and gaining a political result – consistent with America's founding principles and the Constitution derived from them.
For several years I have articulated, on my blog, in my weekly WND columns, and in speeches and media appearances of all sorts, a strategic approach to victory over the anti-American forces warring against the U.S. Constitution. I accepted Larry Klayman's invitation to participate in the Nov. 19 rally because I thought that, despite our differences, it offered an opportunity to share with the committed patriots attending the event my strategic understanding of how to restore a conscientiously representative electoral process.
However, in the days just prior to the rally, the tenor of Mr. Klayman's promotion of the gathering seemed to me more and more incompatible with my conviction that the present crisis calls for grassroots action, devised with strict regard for the responsibilities of citizenship the Constitution imposes on Americans. This constitutional self-discipline distinguishes the constitutional mobilization of the American people (as voters) from the eruptive "mass action" undertaken in Egypt and elsewhere by subject peoples who have never, in fact, successfully implemented constitutional self-government – and who therefore have no real heritage or experience of it.
Americans know (or ought to know) better than to think that they can effectively "demand" a constitutional change in government by simply taking to the streets. They should also know that they have no need to beg from wannabe "princes" and elitist "oligarchs" what they can procure by constitutional means if they have the courage and intelligently organize themselves, to do so. This is especially true in the full dawn of the 21st century, when individuals have access to the technological means to build networks of responsible action that can gather and keep track of the votes needed to win the most crucial constitutional elections, and thus know that they have done so, well before Election Day.
This election-focused mentality must characterize the spirit and activities of American patriots willing to do their utmost to revitalize America's constitutional republic by constitutional means. The United States of America is not Egypt. To restore their self-government to the wise foundations envisaged by our founders, we must act like Americans, not Egyptians.
At great personal sacrifice, I have tried consistently to speak the truth about the fatal threat Barack Obama and his elitist faction masters and collaborators pose to America's liberty. I deeply share and have consistently promoted the view that Obama faction officials of the U.S. government must be impeached and removed from office. I encourage, by word and deed, the work of building the political networks needed to achieve the majorities in Congress that are constitutionally required to achieve this aim.
But such constitutional results are not to be won by passionate "masses" momentarily venting their righteous anger in the streets. The needed results can be achieved only by disciplined grassroots individuals mobilizing their personal networks to achieve specific electoral goals. Right now, the imperative goal must be to reject and replace the elitist faction's treacherous, sham, so-called two-party system. Achieving that goal depends on getting individual Americans at the grassroots throughout the nation to focus on exercising the sovereignty of the people as voters, in their election districts. Focusing on the impeachment/removal objective, they can do so in the 2014 congressional elections:
- By demanding that every candidate for national office sign a pledge to make it their first priority to impeach and remove Obama and his collaborators from office, as the Constitution provides;
- By backing that demand with an organized commitment from millions of patriotic voters to give their support exclusively to candidates who sign the impeachment pledge.
- And by acting with determination to place pledged candidates on the ballot everywhere the presently established parties fail to do so.
Even if they were massive, no episodic gatherings that passionately "demand" this or that result from Congress would achieve an electoral result. It can only be achieved by gathering to vote, at the polling places, on Election Day. Voters who are truly loyal to constitutional liberty must mobilize an electoral vehicle to assure that enough constitutional loyalists are on the ballot to dominate the composition of Congress. Without this mobilization, Constitution-minded voters will have no one to vote for who truly represents them. Without this transformation of electoral politics, mass actions may simply distract from what needs to be done, allowing the corrupt, sham party system to triumph by default. Even inadvertently, I want to be no part of such a distraction.
Americans are not supposed to be moldable "masses," uprising now and then at the command of their "leaders." They are, each of them, supposed in their own way to be leaders, under God's command, commissioned by their own righteously deliberate choice to raise up faithful representatives of the conscientious goodwill with which He endowed their nature, and which He may still have in store for a nation willingly returned to His good graces.
Click here to watch Larry Klayman read the above piece by Alan Keyes at the Nov. 19 "Reclaim America Now" rally in Washington, DC. – and present his own response.To see more articles by Dr. Keyes, visit his blog at LoyalToLiberty.com and his commentary at WND.com and BarbWire.com.
© Alan KeyesThe views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
