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Right Principles Response to Town Hall Memo
Smear -
video
My name is Bob
MacGuffie, and I
stand before you here today as an Unapologetic
American, representative of countless other unapologetic Americans.
With me here today are some solid Americans who lead grassroots citizens groups here in
Connecticut.
Our
current national leadership’s move to Socialism,
Corporate Bailouts and Government Takeovers of private industry is
against all the core beliefs that have been part of the very fabric of
our society for all of our 233 year history as a nation. As
many of you now know, two weeks ago my small group Right Principles, - and me in particular – were picked out of
thousands of similar such groups by very powerful people in both the
media and in the Democrat National Committee
to be slanderously portrayed as a tool in the pay of a vast corporate
conspiracy to manufacture Town Hall outrage at the President’s Health Care
Plan. Weekly
Standard writer Mary
Katharine
Ham has thoroughly debunked this
conspiracy theory in her recent article in the
August 5th online edition of that publication.
Most disturbing of all is the fact that
the most powerful political party on earth has taken this baseless lie
and used it as a political attack ad against those who are simply tired
of being taken for granted and being ignored.
What does
that say about such a party?
Could it be that they
actually believe this ridiculous conspiracy theory?
I
am calling on the DNC to put
up their evidence: If I
am in the pay of, or even connected with Freedom
Works or the pharmaceutical industry,
or any other lobby – prove it. If you can’t,
I
demand – in the name of fairness and in the name of all those who feel
endangered by this smear – that it be retracted immediately. I
want to personally thank those people of journalistic integrity who took
the time to actually investigate this fantasy and gave me a fair shake.
Unlike so many in the media who accepted it without proof,
without evidence and without the slightest bit of skepticism,
there were those who maintained their journalistic credibility.
I
want to thank ABC’s Jake Tapper and CNN’s Candy Crowley for their
unbiased reports. I want to thank the many talk show
hosts around the country who have stood with us and supported us,
including Jim Vicevich and Victoria Taft.
I want to thank Mark
Levin for his support and for his
always vigorous defense of the cause of liberty. Most
of all I want to thank Mary Katherine Ham of the Weekly Standard and FOX
News who demolished this calumny and completely exposed it for the
propagandistic lie it is.
And finally
I
want to thank the Rush Limbaugh for taking the time and telling the truth to
his large audience.
In the past couple weeks we have seen a
few of those pursuing their rights of free speech suffer some from acts
of violence. We absolutely and unequivocally strongly
condemn all such acts, no matter who commits them, at any time and in
any place.
We understand
the thrust, the passion and yes,
even the anger felt by this movement.
We understand the frustration that brought it together: We
the people are tired of trying to seek redress from members of our
government as is our constitutional right, and we are having our
complaints ignored. We the People
are tired of complaining to a
congressperson regarding their position on some issue and then receiving
a form letter from that congressperson
thanking us
for our support. We the People
are tired of calling our congressperson’s office and being directed to a
voice mailbox that is too full to be answered and that will be dumped
with the trash at the end of the day,
ignored and unheard. We the People
who go to Town Halls are not simply there to sit quietly with our
hands folded while politicians dodge responsibility by picking on
favorites in the audience and giving us their standard stump speech;
Town
Halls also exist for constituents to
let politicians know what kind of job the voters think they’re doing. We
have a message for the politicians that engage in such evasive and
dishonest tactics:
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You work for us.
WE ask the questions and you answer them.
I want to speak with other group organizers like the ones standing here
with me today and,
more importantly to the tens of millions of people in the Tea Party
movement and those who support their efforts.
Are
we frustrated, afraid and even angry?
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Yes - and with good reason.
Is
that frustration growing?
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Yes - and it will continue to grow as long as people feel their
representatives refuse to listen to them.
Politicians need to be responsive to those who elect them
rather than just those who finance them.
But – we will be heard!
We must continue to use our voices and our voices only. We
insist on straight answers and not double talk from
House members who want us to support massive spending
bills they haven’t even read.
We have never
advocated the use of coarse or abusive language, or the display of
offensive imagery, and we urge those who attend
Town
Halls to follow this policy. And,
above all, we must never respond with violence no matter how much the
other side tries to provoke it. But,
we will be heard, because too many brave men and women have paid too
high a price for our right to be heard for it to be squelched!
But
just as I
speak with our fellow
grassroots movement and Tea Party members,
I want to also speak
to certain government
officials whose use of reckless language and counter-productive actions
we feel could facilitate violence. It is not helpful when a
senior congressman disparages the Town Hall protestors by comparing us to one of the most
vile anti-civil rights groups in history.
It is not helpful when high government
officials openly tell supporters “If
you get hit, we will punch
back twice as hard,”
It is not helpful when the White
House posts a blog entry that asks
Americans to refer their neighbors’
e-mails to the
White House
server if their view varies with the Democrat
health care plan.
I ask you: who is pursuing
the tactics that threaten free speech?
In support of
our efforts to affirm and reclaim our individual liberties, we call on
our Connecticut
legislature to resist the encroachment of the
Federal
Government in our state’s affairs,
and to reclaim the rights of the states granted in the U.S.
Constitution. Our
movement robustly but peacefully
raises its voice,
in the best American tradition of participatory democracy, to seek
redress from its own elected officials. However,
when a government wants to force through policies that the people tell
their representatives they don’t want,
that government is not supporting liberty but flirting with tyranny. In
conclusion I
would suggest to our supporters in the grassroots and
Tea
Party movement to not only continue
to speak out peacefully and let your representatives know how you feel, but also to call,
fax, email and write your
elected representatives: And
demand from them a public affirmation of our constitutional rights to
voice our concerns without being disparaged as an angry mob.
Their
job is to represent us – not reprimand us.
And,
we will be heard!
Thank
you.
Robert W.
MacGuffie
August 19,
2009
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-memo-man0820.artaug20,0,1606400.story
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