An Open Letter to Congress

Dear Congress,

It is pretty much accepted that the majority of American citizens believe this country has been in decline in various areas for the last few decades. The exact opinions on what's in decline and what isn't vary, but many people beleive the biggest is the growing ideological rift that has prevented Congress, and thus the country from truly functioning well.

Each election, members of both parties stand before the public and make promises that they can fix it, if only we will support them and their chosen presidential candidate. This time, you all promise, this time we will fix it. And so we, the people, argue amongst our selves and vote. And then we keep our fingers crossed.

Despite all your promises, all our hopes that this time will be the time, things haven't gotten better. Things have gotten worse. And both parties point their fingers at the other party and say “it's their fault!” And if the president isn't of your party, you blame him, too. In the 90s, it was so bad that you argued over stains on an intern's dress. It has only gone down hill since then – now you can't even agree on a budget for a bloated federal government that has lots of room for cuts. You allow the administration to cut visible services when we all know darn well there is plenty to cut behind the scenes.

And still you insist on pointing fingers across the aisle, and you waste time dealing with ineffective feel good legislation that put excessive numbers of laws on the books, and further divides you and the country, while taking control from the states, and ceding more and more control to the executive branch “for our safety”, even though it's in violation of the spirit of the US Constitution (and often in direct violation of it.) A lot of fingers are being pointed as to who, specifically, is to blame.

But have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, the real problem is some of you? I'm not talking about one party or the other, nor the inability to get anything done, nor even the inter-party bickering. I'm talking about the fact that a large percentage of you have been there for too long.

A full quarter of the Senate and over 15% of the House of the 113^th Congress have been serving in Congress for over 20 years. Over thirty of you, those who are considered among the leadership, have been members of Congress for over 30 years. Prior to the 20^th century, it was rare for a Congressman to serve for over 30 years. In fact, out of the 102 Congressmen who have served for 36 years or more, 90 of them served in the latter half of the 20^th century.

Quite frankly, you've been doing the job so long, you've lost the ability to be flexible, and the outside perspective to accept the energy that new blood can bring to an organization.

You've lost perspective. 

To make matters worse, your parties have been indoctrinating your junior members to the beliefs of your senior members, making Congress even more inflexible. And some of you have even become so arrogant that the opinions of your constituents mean nothing, especially if they don't agree with you 100%.

You've become disconnected from those you are supposed to represent. You have forgotten that you are supposed to be citizens first, politicians second. Not the other way around.

While a lot of nasty things have been said about all of you as individuals, particularly during elections, I believe that, for the most part, most of you do have good intentions, even if I do feel they are often grossly misguided and/or driven by your egos. Which is why I am asking those of you who have served over 20 years this question:

Do you truly want to fix America?

Then step aside, and let someone else do it. You've had your chance. Despite your best efforts, you're failing. Every good mechanic, technician, engineer and programmer knows that you can only throw yourself at a stubborn problem for so long before you absolutely have to bring in a set of fresh eyes to fix the problem. They all know that if they don't bring in a fresh set of eyes, they'll continue to spend hours, days, weeks, months and even years banging their heads against the wall trying to fix something they've overlooked all that time. You're doing the same thing. Bring in a fresh set of eyes. Relinquish control.

Resign. Retire. Right now.

Yes, I'm serious. A large majority of you need to say “Hey, you know what? We can't fix this, we've been looking at the problems for so long from the same two perspectives that it's time for the next generation to have a crack at it.” That willingness to admit defeat, and step aside will do more to invigorate Congress and America right now than any amount of experience, bickering and talk of bipartisanship from what is essentially the same group of people who've been saying it for decades ever will.

You do want to fix America, right? Then let someone else have a crack at it. And don't just resign – go a step further and don't work for getting your protege's elected. Discourage them from running even. When your party asks you who you recommend to replace you say “Someone who's never held office before. Someone young. Someone you and I don't know. Let the voters decide.”

It's time to set aside your egos, time to admit a fresh set of eyes is needed. Time to recognize that the hundred or so of you in Congress with over 20 years are a small, insignificant portion of the 300 million people in America, and that a lot of other people are just as qualified as you to do the job. Time to recognize that those you've been grooming as your successors may also lack the needed change of perspective. Time to recognize that many of you from both sides of the aisle are carrying past prejudices from the culture of the 60s and 70s as well.

Again, I ask you, for the good of America, resign. This goes for you Senator Feinstein, Representative Pelosi, Senator McCain, Representative Young (both of you), Senator Reid, Senator Hatch and all of the rest of you with more than twenty years of service. You've all done your time in Congress, thank you for your service - now it's time to give someone else a shot.

Even though I've spent some time and effort writing this plea and choosing my wording carefully, I knew the entire time I was writing it that it was completely in vain. I know that not one of you will take this seriously, and be courageous enough to step down. You're all afraid of the tone it will give your legacy, that it will somehow stain your service to the country, or that it will mean nothing. You worry it will change the balance of power in Congress between your parties. And those are exactly the reasons you should step down – if you truly care about this country, those things won't bother you, because they aren't what is important now.

While I can't guarantee you that your sudden retirements and resignations it won't change the balance of power, I can promise you that if you do it right, it won't taint your reputations and legacies in the eyes of the American public. In fact, if a large majority of you coordinate your departures under the same umbrella announcement that you're doing it for the good of the country, it will cement your legacy as true patriots, show that you're willing to work for the success of this great country with great personal sacrifice. It will show America and history that you can and will put greater good ahead of your own egos.

If you don't have the guts to show you are humble enough to resign, at least have the guts to post a direct response to this letter on your Congressional web pages explaining to your constituents why I am wrong, and why you think you can serve them better by staying on, than stepping down. Or completely ignore me, and my fellow citizens who share this with you, and show us all how really arrogant you truly are and the contempt you have for us mere citizens.

I've put forth the challenge. Do you accept it?

Sincerely,

Chris Heismann

Citizen and Veteran

What the Constitution means to me.

Thirty years ago, I was a 17 year old high school senior trying to sort out the direction my life would take, when I made a fateful decision. After much research, I had decided to enlist in the United States Navy and get trained as an Electronics Technician. Armed with my decision, but still a couple of months from my 18^th birthday, I went to my parents and asked them to sign the waiver allowing me to join as a minor.

To my dismay, my parents said "No" and refused to sign. While I was upset with them at the time, it didn't take me too long to be glad they said "No". It gave me the opportunity to see that joining the Navy was more than an educational decision, but a commitment to the value of personal responsibility my parents struggled to instill into me my entire childhood. By the time I turned eighteen, I was more certain than ever that I wanted to enlist, and so on my 18th birthday, I spent the day at the Military Entrance Processing (MEPS) Center in Denver going through all the tests and signing a Delayed Entry Program agreement to enlist after I graduated high school. My future was set.

Eleven and a half months later, I stood back at that same MEPS Center, and took my oath of enlistment. I was a US Sailor. Many times throughout my six and a half year enlistment, I regretted my decision to join, for military life and I didn’t always agree, but for the most part, I was proud of my time as a member of the US Navy. To this day, I am thankful to my parents that they forced me to make this decision on my own - it remains one of the best decisions I've ever made, and everything about it still defines much of who I am today.

While I took my oath of enlistment seriously during my time in the Navy, sadly, I didn't really come to realize how important and serious it was until after my enlistment was over. It was during the Bush Sr administration, while attending college part time and taking my required business law and political science classes for my business degree that I became an informal student of history. And as a student of history, I began to realize the depth of meaning behind that oath of enlistment. I realized that though my obligated term of service to the United States Navy was well and truly over already, that much of the oath I took back then should and would carry through for the rest of my life.

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..."

When I took that oath I knew the text of the Constitution and its amendments. I knew the basic history of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War that all led to the Constitution. I knew what I was supporting and defending, and I honored it.

But until I began studying the history of the Constitution and the men who wrote it, I don’t think I truly understood the depth of the oath I'd given. And the more I read, the more fascinated I became. I read the writings of several of our founding fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, James Madison, etc, in the form of the Federalist Papers and the papers of the anti-Federalists. I read the early Supreme Court rulings that truly began defining our government. I read the various State Constitutions of the original 13 states, and of several states that came after. The changes the Civil War brought to our nation. The hundreds of years worth of legal and common law precedents from England and Europe that our nation’s laws are balanced upon. Twenty years later, and I’m still finding interesting things to read and re-read.

What I learned changed my political views. It made me more aware of that oath I took. Made me aware of the significance of the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Made me more aware of the probable intentions and mindsets of the framers of the Constitution. I went from being a republican on paper to being what I would call a Constitutionalist, but what mostly aligns with the libertarian viewpoint in modern terminology.

For the last eleven years, since that fateful September day in 2001, I have become more and more painfully aware that many of my fellow Americans don't understand the Constitution. Oh, sure, they know the text. But they conveniently interpret things to their own meaning, paying no attention to the history behind it. Paying no attention to the little erosions that don’t affect them personally, but that they should be alarmed by. Worse still are my fellow Americans who do understand and should pay attention, but don't care. Particularly those who are our elected representatives.

What's really troubling is that these elected Federal Officials are in the less than 20% of Americans who have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

The Congressional Oath of office is very similar to the oath I took:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter..."

The Presidential Oath of Office also confirms the duty to uphold the Constitution:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

So does that of the Supreme Court:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as [TITLE] under the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Every Federal Official has to take an oath, and every one of those oath's refer to their duties to the Constitution of the United States. And yet, the bulk of our career politicians don't seem to care.

Just as troubling is when you see the attitude that our Military, Representatives and Senators are there to serve the people. They are not. There is nothing in any of our oath's to serve the American people. Our oath is to the Constitution. The Constitution is what protects the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness of the American people. It is the Constitution that defines what rights are unalienable, that limits what government can and can't do for or to us in regards to those rights.

Congress is not there to serve us, to cater to our whims and needs. They are there to see that the government runs according to our Constitution, and to represent - represent, not serve - our interests when it comes to matters of government, like taxation. There may seem to be a subtle difference between the verbs represent and serve, but it is a big difference.

Represent (V) - Be entitled or appointed to act or speak for someone

Serve (V) - Perform duties or services for another person

Let me reiterate that, so you can absorb its importance. The oaths that our elected Congressmen take are not about what you, your neighbor, the American public or some corporation want, but are to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution. Not the people. Not lobbying groups, not corporations.

Yes, it’s that important. And yet it’s often being disregarded by the very elected officials who swear to uphold it. In the name of safety.

We are at a time in this country where people are clamoring for safety. Many appear to be willing to give up the very freedoms the Constitution attempts to guarantee them for that safety. And this is very disturbing. Inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty is something Ben Franklin once said:

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

It was true when Franklin said it in 1755. It was true when Lady Liberty took her place on Bledsoe Island in 1886 and it is true now.

With Freedom and Liberty come Risk and Responsibility. There are a great many quotes from our founding fathers that represent this, but my personal favorite is from a much more contemporary man – Robert Heinlein.

“You can have Peace. Or you can have Freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.”

You can have both at once, but it is a fragile balance. Sometimes the peace will have to be broken to maintain freedom. And all too often trying to guarantee peace leads to loss of freedom. And usually without accomplishing a long lasting peace.

And to voluntarily give up your freedoms only means that someone, somewhere down the line will probably use what you gave up voluntarily to take from you something you don’t want to give up. Is that something you really want? A risk you're willing to take?

You may think it is worth it, but as most parents know, sometimes what you think you want or a risk you're willing to take isn’t really in your best interests. What parent among us hasn’t denied our child something they've declared they “will just die without” knowing full well that something else is more important to their well being, no matter how much they don’t like it? And what child hasn’t at some point in their life thought they knew better than their parents, and done something anyway, only to have things go wrong – sometimes horribly wrong?

Our Constitution is like that for us as a people, a culture and a society. Our politicians and two major political parties appear to have forgotten that.

I understand quite well that there have been numerous tragedies and horrible things happen out there in recent years. They are regrettable, and often horrific and terrible to contemplate. But as horrible as they may be, making decisions and enacting laws to protect us while we are emotionally fragile from those events is exactly the wrong response. Especially if those laws are not in the spirit of, or even in direct contradiction to our Constitution.

The framers of our Constitution deliberately made it hard to change. They wanted careful consideration of every change we make to it. They wanted it to protect us against the tyranny of our own government. And history has shown time and time again that they were right to do so, because even after careful consideration, what’s supposed to protect us doesn’t always do so.

Take a look, if you will, at the 18^th Amendment, which was intended to deliver our society from the evils of Alcohol. It was well intentioned, and after decades of effort by the temperance movements, this “progressive amendment” was finally enacted in 1920. Shortly after the enactment of the 18^th Amendment and the Volstead Act, liquor consumption dropped, arrests for drunkenness fell and the price for illegal alcohol rose higher than the average worker could afford.

A success, right?

Not so fast. See that last part, where it’s noted that the price of illegal alcohol rose? Since there was still a demand for alcohol, even though it was illegal, it became attractive to many people, including criminals, as a way to make easy money. And the result was criminals evolving into sophisticated and often violent syndicates to control the illicit trade of alcohol. The birth of the modern Mob. Along with bootlegging, other criminal enterprises took root, too – prostitution and gambling were often found hand and hand with alcohol in speakeasies and other venues where alcohol could be found. Violent crimes rose, as criminals vied for control and profit. Alcohol consumption began to actually rise to higher than pre-Prohibition levels.

After thirteen years of Prohibition, and some of the most violent times in US history, America came to our senses, and the 21^st Amendment repealed, in its entirety, the 18^th Amendment. The first and only time in our history that we have repealed an Amendment in its entirety.

This is not just my opinion of what happened during Prohibition. The rise in violence and crime during the 1920s is well documented by a variety of sources both inside and outside of government. History shows us quite clearly that this well intentioned law designed to protect us from ourselves and the evils of an inanimate object had exactly the opposite effect.

Almost all of the emotional issues facing our country today have historical parallels we can look at. And as the philosopher George Santayana once said, and has been often repeated and paraphrased - “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And yet way too often in my adult lifetime, we as a nation do fail to consider the past when contemplating the future.

There is a good reason that the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights stand as some of the most important documents the world has ever seen, alongside writings like the Bible, Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, the Koran and the Magna Carta. It has served us well as a nation, and no effort to override it should be taken lightly, and especially not during times of duress or emotion.

Our country currently faces crisis. Emotions are high, and the people demand action. That is fine, and there is nothing in our Constitution that says we cannot act. But what it does do is require us to not think lightly about the actions we do take. Every right the first ten amendments, or Bill of Rights guarantees us are rights that we must take seriously and not overrule lightly.

The oaths of service for US Military and Federal officials are clear. To defend the Constitution against all enemies, be they foreign OR DOMESTIC. Any citizen or federal official who knowingly proposes to overrule the Constitution and Bill of Rights without doing so through the Constitutional amendment process is, in a sense, declaring themselves a domestic enemy. And as a veteran, it is my obligation to stand up against that person, and defend our Constitution. It is the duty of every soldier, sailor, and Federal official to do so. It should be the obligation of every American citizen to do so, whether or not you’ve taken the oath.

I have never had to defend the Constitution with more than words. I hope I never to have to do so with any more than words. But I will never forget that it is because of the First Amendment I am not afraid to speak my words, and because of the Second Amendment that I feel my words have power.

You shouldn’t either.

(I originally wrote this essay around Christmas 2012.  It was the feedback I received from posting this essay on Facebook that inspired me to start this blog, and therefore it is only fitting that the first post is this essay.  For those of you who read it when I first posted it, yes, it has been slightly edited - consider that original the rough draft, and this the published version.)