Reply #22: Additional point [View All]

[pat_k]

A visit from a citizen lobbyist is something they rarely see.

It stands out as unique.

We are most effective when we "keep it simple" and boil things down to the most basic moral principles and simple truths. Truths that apply, not just to the current effort, but to the need to stand up and fulfill their oath whenever the institutions and principles we established in our constitutional are under attack.

They think they have the "answers" -- they think they know what we are going to say, and are surprised when we bring something new to the table and challenge them with just one or two simple truths and moral principles. On Alito, they expected "too conservative, won't protect right to choose. . . "

The ONLY thing we focused on was his treasonous promotion of a unitary authoritarian executive. For example, we used an event from the hearing to kick off discussion and questions. The core of "our side" of the dialog centered on this:

When Biden questioned Alito on the extent of executive power, the gist of his question was this:

If the men and women in Congress, as representatives of the people, had passed a resolution that the United States MUST NOT invade Country X, could the President lawfully and constitutionally order an attack on Country X?

For any sane person familiar with our Constitution the answer would be "Absolutely Not!"

Shockingly, Alito asserted that he did not know whether or not the President had such authority: that he would have to wait until he was presented with a specific case to figure it out.

Perhaps Alito actually knows better and is just bending over backwards not to contradict King Bush, but if we take him at his word, his insane assertion that our simplest and most absolute tenets are "open questions" makes him so dangerous that even the most reactionary members would reject him out of hand if his statements ever penetrated their thick skulls.

Today Alito proved himself to be a menace to the sole moral principle on which this country was founded – the principle of consent of the governed. Alito has literally said that he doesn’t know if we are a fascist dictatorship or not. Either that or he’s just lying about what he wants us to be.

It was puzzling that Biden failed to express shock or point out the insanity of Alito's response, but if we proclaim our horror with the force of numbers, we can do more to send this insane man packing than anything that could be said in the hearings.

Finally, it is ALWAYS helpful to make the point that people "out there" are mystified by their repeated failures. That the gap seems to be getting wider and wider. They fail to take action when those actions are obviously moral imperatives to the people "out there." That we need to talk so we can try to understand what they are thinking.

They know they are in a bubble -- describing the attitudes "out there" makes a dent (or at least, the staffer usually looks a little taken aback).