Thread: What's The Point? Mobilizing for Collective Self-Interest

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration-PAC, a key partner in the grass-roots campaign to defeat the Senate immigration plan, said:

"We're going to put pressure on Congress, not to stop a bill, but to demand that Congress launch an immediate investigation into the White House to determine what criminal prosecutions may be warranted relating to not enforcing our existing laws. It's not for the president to decide what laws to obey or enforce." he said.

That's what it's all about. A paradigm shift.

It's our country. Not the legislators' or the president's. We elect (hire) legislators (employees) to run things for us so we can get on with our daily lives. They work for us. Public servents.

If they do a bad job, they’re held accountable.

Gheen’s organization, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is what it says it is; a PAC – a Political Action Committee – Organized lobbyists working on behalf of a special interest group to exert influence over legislation in Congress. Except this time, the special interest group is us – the citizens and legal residents of the US. ‘We, The People’ -- like in Our Constitution.

If 1/2 the US households paid $10. a month to exert The People’s influence over congress, to curb legislative mismanagement and misconduct, it’s likely to save us a lot more than $10.

Our $10 would also buy us a better quality-of-life, because of better and more efficient infrastructure and public services.

So, figure about 30,000,000 households X $10 = $300,000,000 a month.

That’ll orchestrate a lot of political influence. More than the oil companies spend on lobbying legislators to allow them to fleece us.

How would this work? Through mass media and the Internet. Along with all the other TV, Radio, Internet and print media we ingest every day, we’d have our own paid-for watch-dog reports. They would follow all decisions and activities of legislators and present the issues simply with our best interests in mind. Not that hard to make it interesting and entertaining. And since we're paying 10 bucks a month, we care.

If We have the will to do this, We certainly have the money.

The apathetic, American public just needs to be made aware of their position and we'll get back to what the founding fathers intended for us. Government by The People, for The People.

Mobilizing for Collective Self-Interest.

And illegal immigration is only the beginning. Any legislator allowing themselves to be influenced by special interests and/ or influence peddlers to pass laws and/ or influence situations which are not in the best interests of the majority of Americans will be exposed and held accountable.

Revising the 14th Amendment, Health care, war on terrorism, education are next.

One of the first simple requirements of every legislator that should be instituted:

A 15-minute, mandatory weekly web-video report to the People of what that legislator has done that week. Agenda is set by legislative activity in Congress. She/He would be required to reveal how they voted and why. Posted on their web-site and publicly, i.e., You-tube or the equivalent.

Now that's public service!

jacqo711 wrote

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration-PAC, a key partner in the grass-roots campaign to defeat the Senate immigration plan, said:

"We're going to put pressure on Congress, not to stop a bill, but to demand that Congress launch an immediate investigation into the White House to determine what criminal prosecutions may be warranted relating to not enforcing our existing laws. It's not for the president to decide what laws to obey or enforce." he said.

jacqo711, Welcome to ALIPAC. I like your point of view. I think it would go a long way correcting the District of Corruption.

In the future, when ever you are quoting someone, you need to provide a link to the source where the quote is located. This will help confirm that what is being said is genuine. Even though William probably said this, if any one of us wanted to be sure about it, the link will give us proof.

I look forward to your posts, keep up the good work!

R.

For pretty much my entire life, I have heard citizens being admonished to stay informed, get involved, and be active citizens. When things went awry, we were blamed for not voting, not being aware, not speaking up, etc. Often there was some truth to that, but there was another factor we needed to wake up to. That was the rise of the lobbyist. They simply had more access to our elected officials and more credibility with them than we did. That, plus the deep pockets behind the lobbyists, pretty much shut us out once our candidate got elected. Then, they'd get to our guy, and he'd forget us.

Well, that just changed. Angry citizens recently shut down the Senate phone system. I'm reading angry ruminations about talk radio and the internet activists, how government listened to us 'too much' and that wise heads should be free to legislate without 'the mob' in their face. (Of course they didn't mean the mob of lobbyists who have become such a fixture in any government building)

For now, we have the technology to communicate and the know-how. We made ourselves heard, and 'they' are trying to figure out how to reverse this trend. Rumors of legal and legislative threats to talk radio and activist groups are buzzing.

All that talk about staying informed, speaking out, and influencing our government to do the will of the citizens is now technologically possible for us. We need to keep up and build this historic momentum.

Sorry 'bout that. Will post links in the future.

No problem, jacqo711!

BetsyRoss wrote

All that talk about staying informed, speaking out, and influencing our government to do the will of the citizens is now technologically possible for us. We need to keep up and build this historic momentum.

You're right, BetsyRoss, we now have the tools to ensure Congress isn't pulled astray by the lobbyists. I think what jacqo711 was saying above aligns with the analogy of a company meeting where the employees (elected officials) are responsible to report to their supervisors (we the people). Any contribution to this made by the people, for the people would have to be voluntary and not auto deducted like FICA and SS.

I'm glad people are starting to discuss what we need to do next - I don't know what form that will take, but we clearly have a momentum to harness and use here. Certainly, we en masse have more going for us than all the corporations put together, and it will take us a while to get our bearings. That we need to do more is certain, or we will either fade or be pushed aside. Just as we can learn and grow, so can our enemies.

And, yes it would have to be voluntary. But we would also need to get people motivated. For all my life I've heard, 'my vote doesn't matter,' 'what's the use,' and 'you can't fight City Hall.'

But, we just did.

Man that was a great post...I needed that post ...Thank you Jacqo711...and Welcome

Great post, Jacqo711...I like your ideas.

Great post Jacqo711, a game plan I like. Also think that Betsy Ross was not only a great seamstress, but wise!

jacqo711 welcome to our group.

I really liked your post. It was well thought out and would stand a good chance if implemented.