Looking At The 95 Theses

2009-9-13 13:10:00

Larry Woods replies:

"I gave several suggestions. I keep thinking of Newt Gingrich and his contract with America. Most points got heavy support from the majority but the selfish minded in Congress (the majority there) could not support it because it transferred power away from them and back toward the people. Newt proposed:

"+ require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;

"+ select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for + waste, fraud or abuse;

"+ cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;

"+ limit the terms of all committee chairs;

"+ ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;

"+ require committee meetings to be open to the public;

"+ require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;

"+ and implement a zero base-line budgeting process for the annual Federal Budget."

JJ:

Thanks Larry. It never occurred to me before that the Contract with America was so centered on items geared to majority approval. Rather than attacking the points of reform they attacked Newt personally on his book deal, his divorce and accusing him of tax fraud. The Tax accusation was overturned but it still served its purpose in making Newt look like just another corrupt politician.

The problems was there was not enough attention given to the contract itself, which the majority would have supported much more than it did if they had read it. I think a lot of Democrats would have supported it. Instead the media billed it as "Contract on America." Who wants to support, let alone read a contract "on" America?

What needs done differently at this time is the attention needs to be placed on the documents of change themselves and we need to make sure the majority read and/or hear and understand it.

I think there are several items from the contract that I can use in the 95 Theses and have notes from your other suggestions.

To see the original 95 Theses go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Keysters/message/42698

When we get the finished copy, it will be posted in The Archives.

  

"I was never dismayed when the so-called right attacked me and called me names for protesting Bush. However, something inside me gets a little sick when I hear people who claim to be peace activists supporting the Obama Administration's foreign policy, a policy that is not like Bush's in the fact that it's much worse. I have been called a 'racist' from the so-called left. In these people's opinion, I was totally justified in protesting Bush, but I am a racist for protesting the same policies under Obama."
  -- Cindy Sheehan