Lawson for Congress

This past Tuesday I had a troubling experience in Raleigh. I joined a group of North Carolina citizens from across the political spectrum who share one concern: The “national ID card” mandated by the the REAL ID Act of 2005.

I strongly oppose REAL ID because it is an un-Constitutional federal usurpation of state responsibilities, and a massive corporate welfare scheme that does not protect us from people with evil intent. In fact, it makes each us of less safe by reducing our privacy and increasing the risks of identity theft or mis-identification when errors occur in this new, singularly-important system.

Our group of 15 met with Rep. Grier Martin, who chairs the Homeland Security committee of our state’s General Assembly. I have the utmost respect for Rep. Martin as a patriot and a serviceman, and he brings valuable active-duty military experience to the Homeland Security committee. Our interaction on this topic, however, left much to be desired.

Our goals meeting with Rep. Martin were to educate him on the dangers of REAL ID, assess his willingness to help us educate others in the General Assembly, and see if a principled objection to this dangerous unfunded mandate would inspire him to take a leadership role in helping North Carolina fight back along with 38 other states who are in the process of “opting out”.

After listening to our objections, he responded with a lesson in realpolitik: he didn’t share a personal opinion on REAL ID, and told us that the only chance we have of inspiring change is to launch a grassroots movement that would cause a majority of state legislators to fear for their re-election. To paraphrase, he said that his colleagues in the General Assembly care only for being re-elected, and that the only way we could advance this issue was to educate enough voters ourselves so that we could effectively threaten a majority of the General Assembly with losing their jobs unless they take action.

While I admit that I’ve entertained such a cynical view as the “worst case scenario” for our representative government, I was taken aback to hear such a stark characterization from Rep. Martin. In his defense, he said he was just being realistic, and asked us to “not shoot the messenger.”

While I would never shoot the messenger, the most concerning moment came in his answer to my final, more pointed, question. Since we need to speak with other representatives, I asked Rep. Martin if he knew of any colleagues in the General Assembly who view it as their role to be proactive about issues, and actually educate their constituents about dangers that our government needs to address. In a word, does he know of any leaders, as opposed to just crowd-followers?

He was unable to name any, and slipped into a repeat of the realpolitik lesson. Perhaps he just hasn’t met any leaders yet, but I sincerely pray that they’re out there.

I am running for Congress because I have much higher expectations for our government. As a business owner, when I hire somebody for a job, I expect them to keep an eye on things with respect to that job and proactively raise concern if there are issues that need attention. I expect my elected representatives to function the same way. As citizens, we need our representatives looking out for our best interests, and not just being motivated by a desire to win 50% plus one vote in the next election.

Think about it — would you really hire an employee who only ever gives you the answer you want to hear, exercises no judgment, and doesn’t do anything unless he or she is told to do so? Well, having spent some time in the corporate world, I suppose people do hire such employees — but usually with disastrous long-term results.

It’s time for all of us to demand more of our elected officials. We need principled leadership at the local, state, and federal level. We need leaders who view it as within their job description to look out for their constituents, and educate their constituents about important issues instead of waiting to drown in a tidal wave of incensed public opinion.

We’ve seen the disastrous economic consequences of pandering for re-election in Washington, with a $9.2 trillion national debt and an economy that’s exporting jobs and investment while it swims in a sea of red ink. I’m optimistic, though, because I believe in miracles. Come join the miracle, run for office yourself, and give unprincipled vote-pandering incumbents a real reason to be afraid. Good government doesn’t have a price.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 9:25 pm and is filed under restore liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.