by Wayne LaPierre
At Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln distilled the essence of American freedom as “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” In honoring those who gave their all for that unique principle, he pledged it would “not perish from the earth.”
But Lincoln could not have envisioned U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, or Reps. Alcee Hastings and Pete Stark as keepers of that torch.
Today, with the ruling class’s singular arrogance of power exercised from the White House to the halls of Congress, Americans could well see the end of President Lincoln’s vision.
I have never seen anything like the nightmare of “change” the Obama administration and its allies in Congress have brought, or the distortion and dishonesty and outright lies that mark their governing strategy.
Consent of the governed is built around rules and an honorable process beginning with the Constitution. It is built around openness, where ordinary Americans can examine and question both executive and legislative measures. In both houses of Congress that process has historically meant stability, where time is on the side of citizens to study and react to open consideration of legislative action. It is essential to successful grassroots activism.
In writing the original rules of the U.S. Senate, Thomas Jefferson penned a short first section, “The Importance Of Adhering To Rules,” in which he warned, “There should be a rule to go by … It is very material that order, decency and regularity, be preserved in a dignified public body.”
Continue reading . . .