Here is the latest letter that I e-mailed to my Senators:
"The Greatest Threat to Democracy is Hypocrisy!
Seek
Truth! Speak Truth!" Tim McMullen
The tyranny of the majority is a real threat, especially in
this age when infotainment and partisan polemical "gotcha' gossip"
has replaced news reporting; when public service and "equal time" has
been eliminated from the "public airwaves"; when out of context
snippets and sound bites get deliberately distorted to become never-ending
falsehoods used to smear opponents. Clearly, the framers of the constitution
were very wise to create checks and balances to protect the helpless minority
from the ruthless majority.
In politics, however, an even greater threat has emerged,
the tyranny of the minority. In California, since Prop. 13, where a simple
majority vote imposed a supermajority threshold to pass budgets and raise
taxes, gridlock and petty political pandering has created crisis after crisis
in this once great and solvent state.
More importantly, in the Senate of the United States of
America, since the election of President Barack Obama, the Republican minority
has converted the quaint and sparingly used "filibuster" coupled with
the practice of "secret holds" to absolutely subvert the process of
governing.
As both a constituent and supporter, I am urging you, as
vehemently as I can, to help get Congress working again for the American
people. Reduce the hypocritical tyranny of the minority by bringing common
sense to the filibuster.
I know that some are calling for the complete elimination of
the filibuster, but I do not. I value the moral imperative romanticized in
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" or actualized in Senator Bernie
Sander's gallant filibuster against the ill-advised and unproductive "tax
deal" extracted from the President by Republican extortion.
Therefore, I call on you to vote to alter the implementation
of the filibuster when the new Congress convenes in January. Eliminate the
ability of the minority to prevent necessary legislation and nominations from
even being discussed in the Senate.
Governance and legislation should be the result of
principled debate and compromise not petty, partisan, procedural ploys.
We need to restore the concept of the "loyal
opposition" by reducing the ability of a politically motivated few to
thwart the needs of the many. Fix the filibuster NOW! Then, work to eliminate
the abuse of the secret hold.
As always, thank you for supporting people over profits,
integrity over iniquity, honesty over hypocrisy.
Respectfully,
Tim McMullen
P.S.: I did not send along the picture of "Bijou, the Dog of Democracy," but perhaps I should have.
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