My introduction to the “Twelve Visions Party” was in 2010. The man who sent me the literature is deceased now, but this was my reply to his letter:
What an interesting read! Of course, I've seen the "Platform for Reform" before, and I am generally in agreement with most of it. To explain:
I once visited Monticello for 3 days. Seeing and enjoying Thomas Jefferson's environment and hearing and reading his words and thoughts was one of the greatest "patriotic" experiences I've ever had. I believe to my core what the premise in the Platform says:
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
All the Founding Fathers were first and foremost citizens. All of them had careers. All of them were hard workers, and all of them were spiritual. None of them were paid for the various roles they played in the founding of this country. Why not?
Because: until there was a country, there was no source of money! Where did their income come from? It came from their careers. They were farmers, tradesmen (carpenters, stonemasons, blacksmiths), merchants, teachers...
Virtually all of them believed in a God, although all of them were not Christian per se. All of them were NOT rich. They all struggled. Most of them struggled to survive. Access to healthcare wasn't a "right". Disease was rampant. Medicine was rare. Doctors were tradesmen. Pharmacists were women (or men) who knew where the roots and flowers needed for treatment were growing.
Of course, the "times" were different back then. There was no radio, no television, no telephone, and certainly no computers. Even after the country was founded, the representatives (Congressmen) of the states were also farmers, storekeepers, miners etc who mostly used their own money to travel to Virginia or Washington, and then, when their term was over, went back home to their career. They survived through hard, hard work.
So, I think the "Congressional Reform" would be ideal, pretty much just as the founding fathers intended, although all of us know it will never happen. (It especially won't happen now that we know that the American people want a free ride... they ... we... really really want to sit in front of the tv and let someone peel us another grape.) We don't want to work for our prosperity. We want to have everything magically handed to us. If we get sick, we want to magically have
medicine that heals us handed to us by some entity that doesn't need our money to research the safety or effectiveness of said medicine.
WOW, did I ever get on a soapbox, didn't I?? Well, I'm taking the opportunity to speak freely while I still have the right to do so. That right is almost gone, you know. Anyway, back to the point I started out to make...
Which has to do with the Prime Law premise:
The Purpose of Life is to Prosper and Live Happily
While I certainly would like to magically "Prosper" and would certainly LOVE to just sit around and be happy, I'm afraid the Founding Fathers might disagree with that premise. Since all but one of them believed in God, and since most of them were Christian, and ALL of them believed in religious freedom (that meant that you are free to believe whatever you want, and that the government won't tell you what religion you HAVE to subscribe to or believe, NOT that you have the right to make me take down my Christmas lights because YOU don't celebrate Christmas, etc... but that's another treatise..
I believe most of the Founding Fathers would disagree with the "Purpose of Life" as stated in the Preamble.
I also believe that Christians universally would disagree with that statement. I believe that Christians would argue that the Purpose of Life is to love and honor God (or more precisely for Christians, to love and honor the whole Trinity), to follow the Ten Commandments, and to work for the "glory of God"... to do God's work, which is bring people to God... be a disciple in all you do.
But this wasn't meant to be a religious diatribe either... although all the world's great religions have some form of the Ten Commandments. Jews and Muslims have pretty much the same Old Testament rules/stories as Christians do. Well... Jews have the same. Muslims have a close version. (The Koran is amazingly like our Biblical Old Testament).
Anyway, back to the point... IF you've read this far LOL...
I'm not sure the function of government should be to give me money and then provide me with enough money to "prosper" and be "happy" without me having to work for what I get/have. That sounds like "Everyone is entitled to do whatever they want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, and government will make sure that happens." While that sounds utopian, it just ain't gonna happen for most of us.
First off, whatever government gives me, was taken from someone else. I do not have the "right" to prosper, unless I am willing to work for it. Work does NOT make me happy, so here we have a conflict in the premise.
I am not, however, a moron... I do understand ... well, I do sadly realize... that when we last voted in a Presidential election, we the people did vote that most of us DO believe in that premise. Most of Americans DO believe that the function of government is to provide everyone with prosperity and hence happiness. I just don't personally subscribe to that premise. To my core, I believe that the purpose of OUR government is to protect my right to "Life, Liberty, and the PURSUIT of Happiness."
Sadly for me, the majority of Americans apparently agree with this new premise. Most Americans think government's purpose is to provide everyone with "something for nothing"...
You didn't say if you subscribe to this or not. I'm thinking not, based on most of your previous emails. This email did scare me, as you've probably already guessed. It is a concentrated version of the Democrat vision. It lists the "something for nothing" belief in a nutshell, so to speak. I don't know anything about the Twelve Visions Party, but if this is what the Party is based on, then why don't those people just join the Democrat Party?
It's basically what the Democrats are trying to do! Well, it's what they're trying to bring about. That is to say, once government has given everyone everything for their happiness (present Democrat platform), then government's job is to be sure nobody interferes with that (Twelve Visions platform).
Looks like this new Party (I guess new.. it's new to me) is an elite branch of the Democrats. Is that right? Or do you know anything about them either? LOL... maybe I should try to find them. I'm looking for someone to make my house and utility payments so I can quit work (prosper) and play video games for my happiness .
Anyway, thank you for alerting me to this. I shall keep my eyes open for evidence of them.
Ginger
