February 12, 2009 - “Motivation” is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior.  Humans can be motivated to some behavior or a particular action for external reasons, or internal emotions caused by external events.  Many of us are motivated to action by anger, wherein the anger is caused by the actions or behavior of another individual or group.  Individuals can be motivated to action by incentives and rewards, such as receiving a sum of money to perform a specific act, legal or illegal.  Some can be motivated to action or inaction by threats, or intimidation, or fear for our life, or another’s life to which we are emotionally connected.  Some are motivated by dire predictions of doom and gloom, real or imagined, from persons in authority, as our current President is doing now.   It is the same for every human being that lives on this planet and it is especially true for politicians.

Politicians make laws that affect people’s lives.  Politicians are being motivated to pass such laws by individuals and national and international special-interest lobby groups.  But politicians are also motivated to pass or not pass laws because of a massive outpouring of support or opposition from the American people, to a particular law or set of laws.  On controversial pieces of legislation, we are called upon to write, call, fax and e-mail our legislators to express our support or opposition.  Most times our efforts prove futile.

Although politicians may bend to this pressure one way or another, they may also bend to the pressure exerted upon them by internal forces within the mechanisms of politics.  In spite of overwhelming opposition from all sectors of American society, the Carter Administration and the Congress passed legislation to turn over the Panama Canal to Panama.   In spite of massive opposition to the TARP bailout legislation in October of 2008, the Congress passed it anyway.  In spite of a majority of Americans that were and are against President Obama’s and the Pelosi/Reid Stimulus Package that isn’t stimulus at all, the U. S. House and now the U. S. Senate have passed the package, with three turncoat Republicans making it possible in the Senate.  The examples of this errant, irresponsible behavior by politicians, since the ink started drying on the Constitution, would take up volumes.

It appears that no matter how hard we lobby the politicians, federal, state and local, no matter how large the outpouring of support or opposition is, they do whatever they damn well please.  Weren’t we taught that in a representative form of government, the power lies with the Consent of the Governed and yet the Governed, the ones who are asked to pay the freight or endure the consequences for everything the lawmakers do, are ignored?   Weren’t we taught that the U. S. Constitution was the Supreme Law of the Land and that all politicians had a solemn duty to abide by it?  So what is wrong with this picture?

What is wrong is, the politicians do not have to pay a “personal” price for their skull duggery, other than not being re-elected, should we be so lucky.  Thus, the saying that “….. all bad deeds do not go unpunished”, has become an oxymoron.   Way too many bad, mis-deeds and criminal acts by politicians, have gone and are going unpunished.  Perhaps we are putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable.   Is there another way to motivate politicians?

Since “Motivation” is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior, perhaps we aren’t using the right reasons, or the appropriate motivation.  If the normal process of representative government isn’t working, perhaps a paradigm shift is required in dealing with politicians, at every level, who don’t appear to be bound by any set of principles, other than their own power, personal enrichment and self-aggrandizement, or being motivated by monetary incentives in return for favors granted to special interest groups.  Perhaps we are being too civilized in our approach to motivating politicians to stay on the straight and narrow ….. the straight and narrow required by their strict adherence to the U. S. Constitution, or the Constitution of the state in which they reside ….. to which they all swear on oath to preserve, protect and defend.  Could another, more personal method, be more effective?  We think so.

Under our U. S. Constitution, that the politicians have chosen to willfully ignore on a wholesale basis, lies an individual right under the 1st Amendment that allows the people to peaceably assemble.  This right is absolute and Congress cannot abridge it in anyway. (not that that would stop them)  However, no where in the 1st Amendment is their a limitation on where the people CAN assemble.

In order to provide sufficient motivation to politicians to act constitutionally, wherein they pay a personal price for not doing so, we encourage groups of Americans get together and peaceably assemble outside the home of every politician in America who has violated his or her oath of office to preserve, protect and defend our federal and state constitutions.  We further encourage those people to let the local print and electronic news media know the date and time of these protests.  Politicians hate negative publicity that shows them in a bad light.  It is also not good for their re-election chances.

No, we don’t encourage or condone violence, or breaking the law, or bringing personal harm to the politician or his family, or their property, or anyone else for that matter.   We just believe that it is way past time that the growing displeasure with politicians in general, by most of the American people, be brought home to those politicians and their families, in a very personal way.  Just imagine what a message of freedom it would send, if all across America, tens of thousands of groups of angry Americans descended upon politician’s homes at the same time.  Would they listen?  You bet!

So get your group together and plan a visit to your favorite politician’s home.   Make up some appropriate signs for the event, like “It’s the Constitution Stupid”, or “Restore Our Republic”, or “Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death”, or “Don’t Tread on Me”, or “Humans are an Endangered Species”, or maybe even “Feed an Environmentalist to the Polar Bears”.  Well, you get the idea.  Visit your politician’s home today and do it often.  You’ll feel a personal sense of satisfaction for having done so.  You may even feel like a proud American again.   Remember.  Our Republic was born out of protests against government, like the Boston Tea Party.  So let’s take the “Tea Party” to the politician’s home.

Peacefully protesting is an American institution.  Don’t be afraid to use it!  It is another effective way to personally motivate a politician to comply with the Supreme Law of the Land, or at least get them to think twice before they violate it.

© Copyright February 11, 2009 – All Rights Reserved

~ The Author ~
Ron Ewart is the President of The National Association of Rural Landowners and may reached for comment via email at r.ewart@comcast.net.