Time: Sat Nov 09 05:06:00 1996
To: Bill Utterback <butterb@connecti.com>
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: Letters to LeRoy #2
Cc:
Bcc:
Yes, I have a court authority from
California which says that voting
and running for office are both
fundamental Rights.
/s/ Paul Mitchell
At 02:51 AM 11/9/96 -0600, you wrote:
> NOTA: None of the Above
>
>LeRoy:
>
>At 11:10 PM 11/8/96 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>You must consider that holding elective office is not
>>a right but a privilege. The constitution already limits
>>the holding of office by age, why not limit the duration. (L)
>
>
>No, sir. Running for office is the right of every citizen who
>meets the requirements of the state or federal constitutions and
>the election codes. It is NOT a privilege, subject to the
>capricious whims of government. Perhaps state election codes
>might be altered by state legislatures to require term limits if
>that is not contrary to the individual constitutions of the
>several states. As for term limitations on federal offices, that
>could only be accomplished by constitutional amendment. It is the
>right of the people to cause such an amendment to be enacted to
>the federal constitution by bringing pressure on their
>representatives. State constitutions can also be amended by
>lawful process. This makes term limits potentially lawful; it
>does not - in my opinion - make term limits advisable nor
>desirable. (BU)
>
>The basic problem is that often voters are given only a tweedeldum
>or tweedledee choice by the national political party and its two
>branches, the Republicans and the Democrats. Witness our recent
>Presidential election (thanks to the media blackout of Harry
>Browne and the predictable refusal of the Republicrat Debate
>Commission to allow him in the national Presidential Debates.)
>A far more elegant and workable proposition would be to add NOTA
>(none of the above) to each office on every ballot. When NOTA
>receives a plurality of votes, either different candidates must
>run in a new election or the office remains unfilled. In the 1996
>Libertarian Party of Texas District Convention for a U. S.
>Congressional District, NOTA won the election. For whatever
>reasons the voters chose not to elect any other candidate than
>NOTA. There was then no Libertarian candidate in the race for
>that congressional district on November fifth. (BU)
>
>Any way you look at it, term limits would limit both the Liberty
>of the individual to run for office and the Liberty of the voter
>to vote for the candidate of their choice. Solving problems by
>infringing on personal Liberty is the road to slavery. Today,
>we have a problem with criminals who have guns. Some people want
>to solve that problem by mandating that all honest citizens
>register their guns. (I know it doesn't make any sense, but that
>is what some people want.) Historically, gun registration has
>always led to gun confiscation and gun confiscation has always
>led to conditions of essential slavery for the citizens. In my
>opinion, enacting term limits would be a step along that same
>road. (BU)
>
>
>>You must also consider the current seniority system.
>>Just a few thousand people in Georgia control who and
>>how the entire House will be run and what bills will be
>>considered. (L)
>
>
>So elect Liberty candidates. If not offered such candidates, vote
>for NOTA until you are offered a Liberty candidate for whom to
>vote. I believe that you will find the incumbent career
>politicians a lot more eager to enact NOTA than to enact term
>limits, especially when they can adopt the cause of enacting NOTA
>instead of term limits. NOTA would at first seem less threatening
>to their careers. I doubt that they would recognize that NOTA is
>actually a greater immediate threat to them than would be term
>limits. Would the sight and sound of 100,000 citizens
>surrounding the state legislature chanting no-ta, no-ta be likely
>to get their attention? What about 500,000 chanting citizens
>surrounding the federal Congress? If we can not muster these
>numbers for a totally non-partisan patriot effort, then we may as
>well start getting our slave collars fitted. This is an effort
>where Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, pro-life, pro-choice,
>pro-gun, anti-gun, black, white, young, old, male, female,
>northern, southern, and all Americans can get together and be
>AMERICANS together again for a change. (BU)
>
>
>>Consider the Senate. Look how few people vote for
>>Byrd and Kennedy. But look at the power they
>>have wielded over such a long period of time. (L)
>>
>>Is it fair for these few people to have such power and
>>control for an unlimited period of time? (L)
>>
>>After all, the one who continue to vote for these
>>people are the ones getting the pie while the rest
>>of us are forced to pay for it. Is this really
>>representative government? (L)
>>
>>LeRoy
>
>No, of course not, but you are getting into a totally different
>problem here - the problem of federal politicians buying votes by
>passing out goodies. Term limits will not stop this problem.
>What will solve this problem will be to elect Liberty candidates
>who will restore limited, constitutional government. Then there
>will be only a tiny flow of money from state governments to the
>federal government and NO flow of money or goodies from the
>federal government going anywhere. First, with the help of NOTA,
>we need to elect patriots to state legislatures who will pass
>Tenth Amendment Acts and Fully Informed Jury Acts. We need to be
>working at the same time to elect Liberty candidates to federal
>office but electing them to state offices can be done sooner.
>This will require patriots to get off their asses and WORK for
>Liberty candidates. (BU)
>
>for Liberty,
>Bill
>
>* Bill Utterback butterb@connecti.com
>* "It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen
>* from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to
>* keep the Government from falling into error."
>* U.S. Supreme Court in American Communications Association v.
>* Douds, 339 U.S. 382,442
>
>
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