-By Warner Todd Huston
If you can’t win the people over, lie cheat, hide behind arbitrary and arcane rules of government or use the courts to defeat the will of the people. That is the Democrat Party’s call to arms. Democrats love the people, fight for the little guy… unless those fools don’t agree with Democrats. Then, suddenly, “the people” have no say, are ignored and will find that their votes are meaningless. In short Democrats aren’t much on democracy and as the Blue Collar Muse reports, this same Democrat Party method holds true in Tennessee.
In Tennessee Senate bill SJR127 serves as the latest example of Democrats hiding from the people, thwarting their will, and using arcane rules of the Tenn. House of Representatives to doom legislation that most Tennesseans want passed. Even worse, the whole thing begins with activist judges knocking down the voice of the people.
In 2000, The Tenn. Supreme Court ruled that common sense abortion legislation passed by the state’s legislative branch was “unconstitutional.” As Ken Marrero of the BCM notes, “things like a 48 hour waiting period and full disclosure of the impact of having an abortion to any woman seeking one were thrown out. It is vital to note that none of this legislation prevented, in any way, a woman’s access to abortion. Just the opposite.”
“Once again,” Marrero says, “a small group of appointed individuals, set aside the will of the people as expressed through their duly elected representatives.”
Several times since 2004, the Tenn. Senate has revisited the subject of abortion that the Supreme Court of the state knocked down and has crafted a resolution to address the issue. Each time it has been introduced since 2004 it has passed through the State Senate handily and each time it has been sent to the House it suffered the fate of Democrat obstructionism. Oh, the bill would certainly have passed if put to a vote in the House and would then be able to be placed on a state wide ballot, but Democrats have each time kept the bill bottled up in a House committee until it runs out of time to be considered.
“On a party line vote, the Subcommittee refused to allow SJR 127 to come out of committee to the full House where it would pass and then be put on the ballot in 2010 for all Tennesseans to vote on. Six committee members, all Democrats, are preventing six million Tennesseans from having their say. Talk about disenfranchising voters,” Marerro says.
What could be so egregious to the “right” to abortion for Tennessee’s women, so much so that these few Democrats are willing to thwart the will of the majority of Tennessee’s citizens and their representatives?
Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother.
This is simple language for a simple truth. Yet, a few Democrats are keeping the will of the people, disenfranchizing voters. The next time this can go on the ballot will be 2010, unless these few Democrats continue to thwart the will of the people by keeping this bottled up in the Public Health and Family Assistance Subcommittee of Health and Human Resources Committee.
So, once again, we have Democrats against democracy.
If you are a citizen of Tennessee go on over to the Blue Collar Muse and find out the names and addresses of the Tennessee politicians you need to contact to voice your opinion. Maybe they’ll be shamed into listening to the voice of the people and allow the democratic process to prevail… for a change.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston