13
Apr
Red Tom: “Contract on America = Magna Carta”
Yes, it’s true: Tom DeLay has the cojones to equate the Contract on America with the Magna Carta, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
When the The Contract with America was issued in September of 1994, it presented clearly defined positions on issues of concern to the American people. It was a written commitment that presented to the people an agenda for the House of Representatives. In exercising their freedom to govern themselves, the people could read The Contract with America and embrace the agenda presented in the document. The resulting vote re-established the people’s control of Congress and granted to the new majority elected the responsibility to proceed with The Contract, and, by open debate and consensus, bring to the House Floor several bills which are listed in The Contract.
Stirs the blood, don’t it? Just like the Magna Carta, the Contract brought several pieces of legislation to the floor, triggering a fundamental alteration of the balance of power between the King and his subjects, or at least the rich ones. And the soaring rhetoric! Here’s the preamble to the Declaration of Independence:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
And here’s the preamble to the Contract on America:
As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives. That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.
Yes, almost indistinguishable. Both proclaim the right of citizens to rebel against their government in order to establish a new nation. Both were written at enormous personal risk to the authors. And both were written by towering figures in the history of our nation.
Oh, wait …
(Courtesy the Associated Press)
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Jhn 16:2
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God’s service.
Jhn 16:3
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
It is absolutely amazing to wittness the amount of hate that poors out of some “so called” Christians, re: Shivo…Judges… Let me ask you this. Did Jesus get involved in trying to change the government when He walked the Earth? Did the apostles? No, infact, He told the apostles to simply tell people the Gospel and if they accepted it, fabulous. If they did not, He didn’t say, “then band together and take over their government and take away their free choice to disobey.” HE told them to shake off the dust of their sandels and move on. Jesus NEVER FORCED HIMSELF ON ANYONE. HUMANS CANNOT SAVE AMERICA BY PASSING LAWS! JESUS IS OUR SAVIOR! Don’t you think He could have come here and done that Himself if that is what He wanted? Do you think by making a human law and forcing people to follow it, they will be saved from the sin? God looks on the heart! He wants us to follow Him because we choose to, not because man makes laws forcing us to do so. Remember Lot and how he was vexed in his soul every day because of the evil all around him. Did he go out and try to force people to follow God? Didn’t God consisder him to be a rightous man? Did either He or the angels yell at him or punish him for not becoming politically active and imposing Christianity by force? Be careful. Pray for guidance and for what He would have you to do.
April 13th, 2005 at 7:26 amIt could happen, you know, except that Newt Gingrich refuses to free his slaves and the entire House Republican contingent thinks Lafayette’s a wuss.
April 13th, 2005 at 10:00 pmI think you are being unfair to the Contract with America. Although not a political document of the stature of the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta, the Contract was a very effective political statement by republicans in their masterful plan to return to majority status after nearly 30 years as a minority party in Congress. When I re-read the proposals, I recall how politically compelling some of them appeared at the time. If only democrats would take a page or two out of the political notebook of Newt Gingrich, perhaps the country could return to more progressive policies instead of dwelling in the past (i.e., the 1890s).
April 14th, 2005 at 5:06 amIf it leads to a GOP-run theocratic republic, I’ll give it some credit, but as a transformational document it ranks way down on the list because 1) it was explicitly partisan, while the other documents were, by the standards of their times, universal, and 2) while it may have contributed to the Republican majority, it has gone largely unfulfilled and the party it put into power has become the antithesis of the principles it espouses.
The other three documents all worked, and I expect one could find dozens of manifestos throughout our history that resulted in the enactment of whatever principles were detailed within them. So it was a flop on implementation and it appears to have had little impact on the behavior even of its authors. I’d say it was more along the lines of a corporate mission statement that someone spent a year or so devising and that everyone ignored as soon as it was published.
April 14th, 2005 at 8:20 amI feel the same way. But the Contract With America served its useful purpose of focusing the republican message to achieve majority status. It was truly a brilliant P.R. piece. Not to worry, however, the pendulum is already starting to swing back the other way. President Bush is leading with his chin on social security. The hubris of power had deluded him to believe he could gradually break the social security system by turning it into a defined contribution plan, instead of a defined benefit plan and a social insurance program. People can be fooled only for so long; and unlike weapons of mass destruction verifiable only by “classified” documents, the hard numbers on social security, the deficit, and the economy cannot be avoided under the guise of national security. Soon inflation will give way to recession, and the republican’s grip on power will be loosened by the electorate. It may take another presidential election cycle to flush these rascals from office, but it’s as inevitable as the sunrise. Quite frankly, I’m surprised they lasted this long, what with their economic policies targeted to the wealthiest of us. “Some call you the elite; I call you my base.” George W. Bush. (If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he was performing for a Hasty Puddings reunion party.)
April 14th, 2005 at 10:16 am