New Rules for Representation
Sep 3rd, 2009 by Timothy Pancoast
New rules,
- You now have the right to have a representative represent you to your Senators and Representatives.
- A select few now have the privilege of direct representation with their Senators and Representatives.
- That select few have the additional right to assume the role of representing all other members within the organizations they are part of.
I seriously want to like our Senators and Representatives. I know they are just as human as I am and they make mistakes. They don’t always choose the best course of action. At the very least I can say that I don’t hate them, but I can’t bring myself to like them when I see things like what happened yesterday with Senator Carper.
I was given the privilege of direct representation with Senator Carper. At the same time they also tried to say that I had the right to represent other people. Inside the meeting I told them I was there as a member of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots, not a representative. The 9-12 Delaware Patriots are citizens of Delaware and it is a shame that more citizens of Delaware were not given the same opportunity of direct representation with their Senator that a small group of about 20 people were given. My statements to that end were probably overlooked because the focus of the meeting was health care reform, not the citizens of Delaware.
Here is a brief clip of video I took of Senator Carper after the meeting as he headed to his car. Sorry the audio is awful. I still need to learn how to use a camera. Hover over the film strip icon to watch it.
Senator Carper after a closed-door meeting in Dover
The people were asking why he wouldn’t meet with them. Many of the people, but not all, were members of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots. Senator Carper gives a nice well thought out answer that unfortunately misses the point that the citizens were trying to make. Some of them may be part of the 9-12 but all of them are citizens of Delaware and Tom Carper is a Senator for all of them. He was focused on groups, and if Delaware was just a bunch of special interest groups his answer would have been great. However, Delaware is a state of citizens, individual people that all, at least the last time I checked, have an equal right to representation.
I hope that Senator Carper gets it right next time and meets with the people of Delaware directly, and face to face. We will be sure to give him other opportunities to do so. He doesn’t have to come to a 9-12 Delaware Patriots meeting, but we would like him and all of our Senators and Representatives on a state and national level to meet with their constituents directly. Especially when issues come up that are of such great concern to the public as health care.
I will post my notes about the meeting later. I wanted to video the whole meeting but just like when I spoke to Senator Carper’s aid in Washington, recording was not aloud. Someday I will post the video clip of Senator DeMint talking to us on that same trip in Russell Park to show as contrast.
I will hold you to that posting my friend.
I think you have hit on something. Senator Carper treats everything like a special interest balancing act.
Carper is a typical politician! Hopefully the American people will vote the whole bunch out in 2010 and 2012!
Glad to hear 9-12 was there also because I heard the Delaware Tea Party on the radio yesterday and they didn’t mention you as being one of the groups in attendance at the table. Sounded like it was mostly liberal organizations.
There were separate meetings apparently. Ours was short because he had to run down to the one in Sussex County which I assume it the one the Tea Party was invited to. I think he may have tried to include a token grass roots group at each meeting. I just posted my notes from the meeting so feel free to look at them.