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 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 a[t] 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 the
President
of the College Libertarians of Towson, 2004-2006; Membership Chair, 2006-2007;
and Vice President, 2007-Present.
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