America's Independence —
The need for giants, then and now
by Rense Johnson, Chairman, Citizens for Term Limits

As we celebrate the 225th anniversary of our nation's founding it is useful to reflect on the role played by the founding giants.

I believe it would be a worthwhile goal if we could return to the kind of government our country had in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Yes, I know we have advanced technologically beyond the wildest imagination of our ancestors of the time period of the founding of our country.

But in terms of godliness, family life, morality, ethics, responsibility, integrity and sound learning — in all the ingredients that comprise the soul of America, we have gone downhill in the last 200 plus years. And our decline in those respects has been accelerating in recent decades.

People more astute than I have speculated upon how this came about, but it seems to me that while we were improving our standard of living we were losing our national soul (and many of us perhaps losing our individual souls).

We have suffered a decline in the quality of our national leadership. Quality of leadership is essential to any society. We remember that the Jews prospered when they had good leaders and were obedient to God, but suffered when they had bad leadership and were disobedient.

An example of the crucial importance of leadership is that of Moses. He was away from the Jews less than six weeks while he was up on the mountain receiving the law from God, yet when he returned he found that in his absence his followers had taken to worshiping a golden calf. Quality of leadership is also important in more modern times. This country has done better under presidents who were good leaders than those who were bad leaders. Britain has done better under Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher, than under some of their not-so-greats. Leadership is important, not only in setting the political agenda, but also in setting the religious, moral and ethical direction for a nation.

When this nation was founded under God two and a quarter centuries ago it was blessed with great leaders. It would be fair to call them giants. The fifty-six who signed the Declaration certainly were giants — giants of unflinching honor. And those who wrote the Constitution were, as well. All were godly men of intellect, courage, vision and dedication. They were men who for all their differences had one thing in common — a desire to serve what each perceived to be the best interests of their new country, in every dimension.

This great attitude of service has disappeared in the intervening years. Yet if we but had it today it would put us light years ahead of where we are now. (Forgive the hyperbole.)

Giants are hard to find in public life these days. Yet in a nation of 280 million people I believe we have giants aplenty. We tend to forget that we have giants among us today. The problem is that for the most part today's giants are unwilling to offer themselves up for political leadership in the circus atmosphere that prevails in our seats of government in these times.

There is a Gresham's Law in operation among a nation's politicians, as well as in its currency. Gresham's currency law tells us that bad money drives good money out of circulation. The most recent example of this is the replacement of silver coinage by the base metal coinage we have in circulation today. In politics Gresham's Law tells us that bad politicians drive good politicians out of circulation. Thus the pool of talent available for congressional service is severely restricted by the nature of the system as it exists. Gresham's political law has driven the giants of today away from the area where we need them most — public service to their country. It is imperative that we create an atmosphere conducive to the breeding, nurture and harvesting of giants — for the future of our country.

Yet there are indeed giants among us. We lost two in the past year, for example: Tom Landry and Cardinal O'Connor. I mention Landry and O'Connor because they were well known and of heroic dimensions, possessing the same kind of honor we respect so dearly among the Signers — but there are others of equal stature who are not so well known. There are plenty out there, but what is needed is a way of enticing the giants to come forward. This is imperative.

Americans wonder, how should the Republic deal with rogue presidents and out-of-control judges? If the Framers of the Constitution were here so we could ask them, I'm sure they would tell us that Congress has that responsibility. Yet Congress sits in its own cozy, comfortable, self-constructed cocoon, sliding downhill a little farther and a little faster as each year goes by. Congress shirks its great responsibilities because it lacks the collective will — and leadership with the will — to live up to those responsibilities. Congress lacks the will to reform itself—yet reform is precisely what it needs in the worst way.

Because Congress lacks that will to reform itself it must be restructured, so that we may elect people who do have the will to make those vital reforms—people who will go to Congress to serve, instead of serving themselves. This is where the giants come in. This is what the Framers intended. The Framers thought of public service as an honor and a duty — to be performed likely at personal sacrifice.

To attract the kind of public servants the Framers intended will require a constitutional amendment to limit congressional terms. We call it a Citizen Congress Amendment. Let Congress be restructured so it can reform itself and assume its awesome responsibilities, which it now lacks the courage to do. Let Congress be restructured so that today's giants may be enticed to serve. There is not a problem we have in government today which could not be either cured, or the cure put in place, if we had a Congress full of giants. Term limitation will entice the giants.

The American people are way ahead of the press, the pundits and the conservative establishment on this. They favor term limits for career politicians by overwhelming margins. And it is by mobilizing the people — the voters — to insist that these same careerists produce a term limit constitutional amendment that we will get to a Citizen Congress.

What we are talking about here is not a wild-eyed dream. Our group has a track record. With lots of help from many sources, Citizens for Term Limits persuaded members of the Louisiana Legislature to vote to limit their own terms—which they did with astounding majorities: 90% of the House of Representatives, 80% of the Senate, making Louisiana the only non-initiative state in the country to have done this. Legislative term limits are now part of the Louisiana Constitution. This is the first break for the Louisiana citizen since before Huey Long.

Louisiana. The only non-initiative state. Did we have a secret weapon? Yes, but we didn't realize its potency at the time. The secret was the voter, the man in the street, the citizen. The secret was grass roots pressure. Grass roots pressure coupled with the imminence of an election carried the day.

Was this the result of some grand strategy? Only in retrospect can we see what worked and why it worked. But now we know how to apply what we learned to future campaigns.

There is one other factor that is hard to quantify but very important, and that comes down to the difference between apathy and despair. Low voter turnout is conventionally attributed to apathy, but much is likely due to despair as well. In Louisiana, probably an extreme case, a poll by the respected Werthlin Group had revealed that 38% of residents would leave the state immediately, given a place to go and the means to get there. The same poll indicated that things were so bad in state government that a very substantial percentage of voters believed nothing they could do would alter the downward political course of the state.

But despair can be immediately reversible, while apathy is not. The press coverage of the term limits campaign in the legislature gave despair-stricken voters hope. When a certain state senator polled constituents on the various issues of the day, he neglected to ask those polled about term limitation. Seventy percent of respondents took the time to write in "What about term limits?" or something similar. This caused the good Senator to change his position on term limits. Someone has said "Politicians have to feel the heat before they see the light."

What has been done in Louisiana can be done in Washington, DC. Term limitation has no natural enemies, except:

1. The career politicians.

2. Those who live off those politicians, including:

A Lobbyists.
B Bureaucrats,
C The compliant and lazy media.

Voters are on our side. Term limitation has a huge following among ordinary citizens.

Our problem is to enable the man in the street to communicate with members of Congress in sufficient numbers to get their attention.

We have a plan for this. It requires leaders. It requires giants.

But it can be accomplished. All it takes is work.

And Dedication.

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