"The Letter" - Challenging the views of a Brash Conservative masquerading as Simple American

I have recently received an email from a family member that I though I should address. Unbeknownst to her or undoubtedly the many others that have passed this letter around, it originates from the Glenn Beck radio show. He supposedly received this letter from a supporter which outlines several principles that she argues that our government should uphold. After having read this letter, I feel it necessary to review what it says and show why this is not the type of political discourse that this country needs. I understand that many of the concerns in this letter come from a level of ignorance about how politics work, and how we should use politics. This ignorance is then gleefully exploited by polemical commentators for their popular benefit. I do not pretend to know everything or have the answers to all our questions, but creating this façade of the common person to stir such people into a revolutionizing frenzy is not legitimate political discourse. You'll see what I mean. The following is taken from Glenn Beck's site:

GLENN: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona. She writes an open letter to our nation's leadership: I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

I sincerely hope that no one actually sent this letter to anyone. It is ludicrous. You don't bring on political change by threatening your leaders as if you yourself hold the key to their elections. This isn't the mafia, where you threaten them with an offer that they can't refuse. All you can do is not vote for them. You can convince others to not vote for them, though unfortunately, eventually you'll hit a wall, and you will no longer be able to convince anyone else, because, let's face it, some people will never be totally converted to your own ways. Then, you'll look around, and find that you only have 15% of the popular vote in your district, and, based on what you want, can get no further.
See, what this person wants is their own way. That's it. There is little room for compromise in this letter, and therefore, no real hope for change. Now maybe, just maybe, 5% of the country also wants the exact change you want (that's not likely, but whatever), but that still doesn't get you anywhere. Unless you all move to Waco, TX and start a church together, you'll never go anywhere. Even if you do start a community in Texas, your group may be able to vote perhaps one or two Representatives into Congress out of 435. Then you will still have as much political weight as Ron Paul, which, practically, is zero. Now, I am being momentarily extreme for example's sake to make a point: this is not the way to change America. Change comes from compromise to the point where enough people are on your side to get the ball rolling. It does not come by throwing a political tantrum as this lady does.
So, assuming that this letter is real and that it truly represents the views of a real person (and not some invented polemic), I am going to outline some concerns I have with this type of thinking and rhetoric. There is a lot to go over here, so I will be dealing with this fairly aggressive letter in a multi-part series.

First off, I will start with this:

Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone.

Let me begin with a brief explanation of why we have political parties. Actually , you can blame it on our founding fathers. I know, not cool, but its true. The election system that they set up for us is what is known as a single member district plurality, or first-past-the-post. That means that no matter how many candidates you have running for any particular federal position, only one of them gets to win. Fairly straight forward, not too complex. The result, however, is that in order for any one person to win, they need to get as many people as possible to vote for them, ideally, more than the others that want the job too. Naturally, then, he will try to appeal to as many different positions as possible so as to attract the greatest number of potential voters to his cause. Of course, so do his opponents, and as some realize that they have less supporters than the major players, they get their group to take sides in order to get in on the action (i.e. my group's supporters will vote for you if you do X).
As a natural result of this dynamic, two major parties are formed. In essence, you can either vote Republican or Democrat, have a decent shot of winning and subsequently have half of your agenda represented, or you can vote libertarian or green party, almost certainly lose, and have zero of your agenda represented. Its really your choice. Traditionally, in the US, we tend to want to have some say than none at all, hence we will go along with one of two parties. The alternative is proportional representation, where each district gets three or so representatives based on the proportional voting outcomes there are, but that would require changing the Constitution, so that is right out. Of course there is more to it than this, but you get the point. If you want only your specific views represented by someone in office, run yourself. If not, then you are out of luck, and have been since 1787.

Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

I hate to be a jerk, but yes you are kind of a nut. So far, as we have just seen, you already don't like the Constitution as it was originally written, and, unless you are a wealthy landowner and you want to bring back slavery, you really don't want that, and you and everyone else needs to stop saying that. I have heard from libertarians and conspiracy theorists and moderate conservatives alike that they want to go back to the original meaning of the Constitution, as if it will save us all. Please, people, understand, that the Constitution has been modified because it had to be to survive.
The original ideas that the Founding Fathers had about federalism and the separation of powers in the Constitution effectively failed when Abraham Lincoln sent federal troops into the seceded states in 1860. Now, states have little power and they bow to the sovereignty of the federal government, and that is that. The Constitution is irrevocably changed, but we are still a country, right? Is that okay? Another example: our capitalist-based society and government was about to collapse in the mid 1930's, but, led by FDR, we changed things, and it didn't. Is that bad? Well, if you support the collapse of our country into socialism or other economic experiments, then criticize all you want. For most people, we like capitalism, because it rather suits us, and because we can get rich, and almost everyone likes that.
Of course both of these examples are probably oversimplified, but the point is the same. Things change, and that is not necessarily bad. Just because your job as conservatives is to "conserve" the way things have been, doesn't mean that you can turn back the clock. The originally written Constitution had flaws and short comings, many of which we have sought to rectify, and on the whole one could say that we as a nation have done well so far. I mean, look at how many times the French tried it (five), or the Germans (three).
So instead of holding on to this mythical past where God came down from yonder heavens and gave us tablets of stone with the US Constitution written on them, let's figure out how we can make the best legacy we can from what those men really gave us. It was their best guess at how a free market based government could successfully operate and protect all their freedoms and their riches. Now, we should work on this different system that we have today, to continue to make it fair and free for all.