Heed the people's voice or suffer the consequences

Editor's note: The following letter was written to U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, and is reprinted here at the author's request.

I just received and finished reviewing the poll results that were sent to me by your office, and noted particularly your comment regarding the results that you state show, "More than 90 percent of you indicated that you do not believe the Democrat Majority in the House and the Senate is listening to you."

Actually, the question as stated in the original poll was, "Do you think your government is listening to you?" Because "my government" includes both Republicans and Democrats, if you believe that 90 percent of us concurred that the "Democrat Majority" is not listening to us, you were missing the point many of us were trying to make: The vast majority of us believe that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats in Congress are listening to us.

We did not want Congress to approve the $787 billion bailouts in early 2009, but Congress approved it over our protests. We did not want our tax dollars to be used to pay for a minority of Americans to buy a new car in the "Cash For Clunkers" fiasco, but Congress approved it anyhow.

Overwhelmingly, we want our borders protected from stealth entry by illegal immigrants of any type, but Congress refuses to take any action to do so. We have overwhelmingly demanded an overhaul or dismantling of the IRS and income taxes, but Congress has taken little action.

We have demanded that the Federal government stay out of public education and health care, but the Republican-controlled Congress passed "No Child Left Behind" and other education-related legislation that unconstitutionally took over control of public education from the states and the people, and gave it to the federal government. I hardly need to point out that the state of public education has eroded significantly since that power was removed from local control.

These unmet demands by the American people did not just start in 2006 when the Democrats took over the majority in Congress, these demands have been ongoing for many years, but neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have taken our demands seriously. Washington politicians of both parties act as though only they know what is best for us and that they will assume control over us in every form "for our own good," regardless of how we feel about it.

I needn't remind you that in September of 2009, more than a million of my fellow Americans met in Washington, D.C., to try to get the attention of the federal government to heed our demands for a change in the disconnect between the political elite in Washington and the people of the states, but even this huge but peaceful demonstration failed to get the government's attention.

I can assure you that if our elected representatives in Washington continue to ignore the will of the people and pursue their own partisan agendas, there will be a demonstration in November of 2010 at the ballot box that will be impossible for incumbents - Republican and Democrat - to ignore.

As James Madison once made very clear: The powers delegated to the federal government are few and specific, while those retained by the states and the people are numerous and indefinite.

If Congress does not start heeding the restrictions placed upon it by our Constitution, and heed the will of the people, many among our political elite will be joining the ranks of the other millions of unemployed Americans

David A. Anthony

Brooksville