A Peculiar Exchange
Alexander S. Peak
5 March 2006
I had a most peculiar exchange over the Internet in January. I gentleman identifying himself as James Lawrence Herren contacted me via email to share his opinions regarding liberal attacks on President Bush. I’d had no contact with Mr. Herren previous to these emails, and none since.
Given that he has not emailed me back in over a month, I feel it’s safe to assume that this exchange has ended, and that he will have none more to add. And given that this was originally emailed to my Towson@md.lp.org account, I’ve reason to believe that he found me either through this site or through the Libertarian Party of Maryland website.
Contained immediately below is Mr. Herren’s first email to me. I made absolutely no change to the spelling, punctuation, or grammar of his email. The only change that I’ve made to it is its font, which was originally written in large French Script MT; I’ve changed his email to Times New Roman for easier reading.
The Extreme Liberals that is slandering our President ,is only expressing the Wishfully Thinking of these Liberals , that there might be a very small chance that President Bush may have, broke some Law. The Liberal Politician.s greed for power is so great Wishfully Thinking is the only Thinking that Liiberal's are cable of. This Liberal Wishful Thinking has become,to be the Daily News. Voters are wise to what was once the Freedom of The Press is now a Free Dumb Press Thank You = James Lawrence Herren [Address removed for Mr. Herren’s privacy]
Seeing as how the gentleman was kind enough to share his views with me, I felt it only appropriate to reply.
I should make a note now, before sharing my reply with you, about my use herein of the term “liberal.” Some of you may wish to point out to me that liberalism, in its classical sense, was very much in favour of small government and free trade, ideals held today by libertarians. I’m quite aware of this, and the ideological roots of libertarianism found in classical liberalism, so this needs not be pointed out to me. I chose to employ the modern, American use of the term “liberal,” the one implying an inclination to Big Government, as it seemed to me from Mr. Herren’s response that he would understand the term better in this sense.
Thus, I refer to President Bush as an extreme liberal, not in the classical sense (a la Locke, Smith, Jefferson, Thoreau, Nozick), but rather in the contemporary sense, as most Americans use the term (a la F.D.R., Sen. Clinton, Sen. Kennedy).
My response to Mr. Herren was as follows:
Sir,
The Constitution is the supreme Law of the Land. Our Extreme Liberal President has signed into law a number of unconstitutional bills, including but not limited to the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, the USASOCIALIST Act of 2001, the REAL ID Act of 2005 (which was attached to another, unrelated bill), etc.
This Extreme Liberal President has failed to cut spending, and has in fact increased spending. The last budget our Extreme Liberal President signed into law was seven percent larger than the previous one, and 41% larger than Clinton’s biggest budget. Our National Debt is now so exorbitant, it is above eight trillion, and still rising.
Most of this money is spent on things that are, you guessed it: unconstitutional.
I truly believe the Extreme Liberal President should be impeached. Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Alex Peak
Granted, I take a position in my concluding paragraph that may at first appear extreme, but for objectivity, I should qualify that it’s my humble opinion that the vast majority of our federal politicians deserve impeachment. I recognize that this will not happen, and so I don’t give much focus in my political life to fighting for it. It’s just my personal belief that most of our politicians are poor protectors of our Constitution.
Our exchange did not end there. Again, I’ve made no change to Mr. Harren’s email other than his font. His spelling, punctuation, and grammar are seen below exactly as I received it.
ALEX PEAK YOU HAVE SENT ME EVIDENCE THAT, YOU HAVE NEVER READ THE CONSTITUTION , THAT IS AS CLOSE AS YOUR COMPUTER.. THE CONSTRUCTION WAS SETUP FOR LAWS TO HAVE BENEFIT OF DEBATE AND VOTED IN TO LAW IF NOT VETOED AND AGREED TO BY THE PRESIDENT. Honorable SENATORS CONGRESSMAN CONCERNED Citizens . Talk Show Host Your Honor It is , the sore loser Democrats and ACLU behaving as if Above the Law , not the President. The ACLU, and Liberal Congressman has interfered With FBI Investigations ( At least on web sites and speeches that Could only give Comfort to those that fight us . (INTERNET NEWS IS WORLD WIDE ) Some Of these politicians are experts at giving Miss-information and Wild Statements that could only Encourage those that fight us to stay the course. If a Congressional Hearing would not Shame these people in to Behaving at least People would know who to vote out of Office From = James Lawrence Herren =phone [Phone number removed for Mr. Herren’s privacy] [Address removed for Mr. Herren’s privacy] Special Notice = Is it fair to put those ,that defend our Nation in added Danger, Than ,Already In,. All of us Should Speak up With the same courage it takes to go in to battle . .
I AM IN DEPENDANT , AND NOT A REPUBLIC IAN , THANKFUL THAT GORE THE BORE IS NOT PRESIDENT ,
I was glad to hear once again from Mr. Herren. It showed me that he cares about the topic at hand. Not to be outdone in giving the appearance of holding an extreme view, I gave the following reply.
Sir,
First, let it be noted that I am having massive difficulty figuring our what you are trying to convey. Please pay closer attention to your syntax and grammar, as that would be quite helpful.
About this Constitution I supposedly haven’t read (which, oddly enough, you can find on both sites I manage), what part(s) specifically have I not read? Perhaps Article I, Section 8—the section I happen to bring up most often in conversation—which enumerates the powers held by the federal government? (Granted, additional powers have hence been granted through the amendment process.) Or is it that I haven’t read, say, the tenth amendment, which clearly indicates that all powers not granted to the federal government (refer back to Article I, Section 8) belong to the states (or the people)? Or how about Article I, Section 9, or the Bill of Rights, which subsequently place even further limits on government power?
The Constitution was set up with the explicit goal of limiting and dividing government power. The last thing the Founders wanted was a giant Leviathan, and the second to last thing they wanted was a democracy. (By the way, the word “democracy” appears nowhere in the Constitution.) You claim not to be a Republican. Fine, but that doesn’t change the fact that America is meant to be a Constitutional republic. The Constitution establishes for us a system of federalism. You may like that the socialists (e.g. Bush, Clinton) are increasing their base of power at the sake of those wonderful constitutional limitations the founders gave us, but I, sir, do not.
Lastly, you state “Some Of these politicians are experts at giving Miss-information [sic] and Wild Statements that could only Encourage those that fight us to stay the course.” Very true. But this doesn’t just extend to politicians, but also to talking-heads like Ms. Coulter.
Have a nice day.
Yours truly,
Alex Peak
This was, unfortunately, the conclusion of our dialogue with one another. I received no further emails from Mr. Herren after this.
Alex Peak served as President of the College Libertarians of Towson, 2004–2006; Membership Chair, 2006–2007; and Vice President, 2007–2008.
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