William B. Roberts
P.O. Box 10, Rocky Comfort, MO 64861
On the Internet: www.OzarksVoter.info; www.ronpaul.meetup.com/56
Broadcast Dates: January 17th, February 1st and February 7th, 2008 (5 hours!)
Broadcast Time: 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.—Central Time
Broadcast: The Midnight Rider Show www.midnightridershow.com
Broadcast Host: Mike Chambers (573.437.6925) Call-in line: 800.313.9443
Broadcaster: Republic Broadcasting Network www.republicbroadcasting.org
With Special Guest: Jim Condit, Jr.
Rebuilding a constitutionally limited, republican form of representative government—one precinct, one county, and one state at a time
OVERVIEW:
Established Political Party v. Third Party
Party Structure:
Precinct Captain v. County Committeeman
County Committee
Congressional District Committee
State Committee
National Committee
Overview of County Government
INTRODUCTION:
This broadcast, intended solely for informational, educational and entertainment purposes, contrasts the role of established political parties within the context of the government functions wherein elective and appointive party members exercise their will to power.
The efforts of the political parties and related political groups are all pointed toward one objective—to bring to the polls on election day voters who will support their candidates. These voters, referred to collectively as the electorate, form the major part of our constitutionally limited republican form of representative government. The minority, at once electorate and object of elective action, that is the representatives so elected, is by oath bound to uphold our constitutions and laws while faithfully performing the responsibilities entrusted to them. This begs the question, “Whose interests do the political parties serve?” Once elected, does political party affiliation enhance the candidate’s qualification to faithfully discharge his duty? Why are the political parties so determined in achieving the electorate’s support of their candidates?
Can a Republican dogcatcher catch more dogs than a Democratic dogcatcher?
A real two-party division was induced by the existence of two major complexes of interest in our country. A long-standing opposition prevailed between independent farming and the mercantile and financial activity out of which industry grew. Originally and predominately land was the factor that gave the Democratic party its character and direction. Agriculture exercised hegemony through the instrumentality of the Democratic party. When the advance agents of industrialism talked of tariffs and of stimuli even more direct, it was natural that agricultural spokesmen should stress laissez faire-laissez passer (Let us alone. Let us go on as we will.) and state autonomy. Arguably, party division in the United States has been based on the conflict between wealth in land and wealth seeking outlets in industry.
Would it be fair to suggest that as America begins the twenty first century, it is the conflict between wealth and power that maintains party division? Would it be fair to suggest that party politics is little more than a facade? Are there yet political solutions to the problems America faces today?
I am confident political solutions do exist. As globalism completes its transition from global to local, we must become Vocal Local, blocking its programmes and agendas right where we are. I maintain, that preferable to standing outside of the system, waving signs, shouting slogans and hurling insults, restoration is achieved by entering the institutions and instrumentalities through their front door, working for change from within. One may choose to be ruled by a system, or to become the system. I prefer the latter.
To be successful in this experiment in local self-government, we must understand our existing political system a little better.
Established Political Party v. Third Party:
Declaring oneself a candidate aligned with other than an established political party, affords the opportunity to ascend the soapbox, raise issues, champion beliefs and support causes that otherwise might never be aired, albeit to an all too narrow, or limited audience.
Without the invitation, endorsement, nomination and support of the established political parties; and the concurrent support of the media monopoly, and their electronic voting systems, no candidate will bring to the polls on election day sufficient voters to succeed in his election to any but the most meager and menial post.
The system of separately elected state executives, capped by the presidency, historically disposed political groups toward a two-party alignment. The federal principle, extended in effect by the widespread election of local officers, decentralized party organization. Considered nationally political parties in the United States may be described as ostensibly loose alliances to win the stakes of power embodied in the presidency. The centripetalism (directed toward the center) generated by this office more than any other factor discourages the development of the multiplicity of parties anticipated by the founders of the constitution.
James Madison, writing in number ten of the Federalist, argued that safety would result from the process of cancellation and compromise among the numerous political groups sure to be engendered by the various kinds and degrees of property. As typified by the Ron Paul campaign, Madison’s expectation of diversity, balance and concession, have been provided at most periods in American history by factional divisions within each of the two country-wide established political combinations: Democratic and Republican.
Traditionally, the two-party rather than a multiparty system have been considered the best way to choose a president: it simplifies the choice for the voters. This assumed that the parties represent different interest groups, offer a genuine choice between divergent points of view, yet where there is no division there is unity—the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Political analysts question whether the two established political parties adequately address the needs of the electorate and whether they appealed to virtually all segments of American society, before distrust and cynicism increasingly came to characterize the attitudes of voters.
In all countries seeking to base popular institutions upon the majority principle the practical need for organization in order to gain and hold power contends with the interplay of numerous interests and issues. Combination is encouraged by two very different sets of circumstances: under conditions which approximate revolution, when the maturing of a transcendent controversy subordinates lesser questions; or when opinions are so lightly held that they do not interfere with the realistic arts of cooperation through barter. In view of nearly universal lip service to the constitution the rallying points of dynastic loyalty have been absent.
Two major, “established” parties have dominated American politics; “third” or minor parties have also played an important role in the party system. They flourish whenever the electorate is deeply divided over issues, producing a vociferous minority. In the past, for example, conflicts over how to achieve integration have been catalysts for the reemergence of third parties, with candidates who pound away at issues, like busing, on which the major parties take positions too “soft” to suit the dissidents.
The Republican party was once a third party; the Populist party scarred the major parties in the 1890’s; Theodore Roosevelt formed the “Bull Moose” party in the 1912 election; and in 1924 the Progressives, led by Robert M. La Follette, Sr., of Wisconsin, got 17 percent of the popular vote by addressing the issue of corporate domination. In 1974 an independent, James Longley, was elected governor of Maine. In 1970, in New York, the Conservative party candidate, James L Buckley, won the U.S. Senate race.
Among the many “third party” combinations that sought to gain and hold power in America some remembered by historians are:
Federalist, Thomas Jefferson’s Anti-Federalist first called Republican and later Democratic, Whigs, Liberty, Abolition, Free Soil, 1854 (Radical Red) Republican, American (Know-Nothing), 1861 National Republican-Lincoln, Independent National (Greenback), People’s (Populist), 1912 Muckraking and Progressive movements, 1920 Farmer-Labor party.
In 1976 former Minnesota senator Eugene J. McCarthy announced he was running for president as an independent, but he lacked the funds, the national constituency, the campaign organization and the press coverage to pose a real threat.
The American Independent party, led by Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama, managed to qualify as a “significant” third party in presidential electoral politics. It won 13.5% of the total popular vote in 1968 and as its candidate Wallace secured more electoral votes than any third-party nominee in more than a century. Following the assassination attempt in 1972 that put him in a wheelchair, Wallace altered his campaign tactics and techniques. In 1976 he changed his basic strategy and ran as a Democrat in the preliminaries.
Political socialism, which entered the presidential campaigns in 1892, has been disturbed from the outset and sometimes divided by the question of its policy toward a labor movement so oriented.
Notwithstanding the desirability or efficacy of opposite points of view interjected into the American experiment in self-government by third parties, the now thoroughly entrenched two-party system retains its hegemony, through among others, control of the pivotal machinery centered in the nominating process.
The choice of candidates for elective office and of interim committees was vested in representative conventions, rising pyramid like from an original base in neighborhood meetings of party supporters (caucuses) or elections held for the choice of delegates (primaries). The system was universal from the fourth decade until the close of the nineteenth century. From the outset its operation under party rules was attended by irregularities; corrective state legislation began in 1866. A more inherent characteristic was indirection, accompanied by slight participation of the rank and file in the caucuses and primaries. Despite these serious elements of misrepresentation, however, it is doubtful that the convention system would have been supplanted by a system of preliminary elections (direct primaries) for the choice of party nominees if it had not been for the concurrence of several circumstances. The underlying cause was the prevalence in the north as well as in the south of areas in which the strength of the major parties was so disproportionate that nomination was equivalent to election.
In the space of a dozen years after 1903 laws were passed in all but a handful of states making it obligatory upon political parties (defined for the purpose as groups receiving more than a stated minimum of votes in a preceding election) to nominate candidates directly in primary elections conducted under official auspices at public expense.
The pageantry of the national conventions in which presidential candidates are chosen has survived as a symbol of the conservatism of professional politicians in the United States. The fact that they are quadrennial, that they resolve party problems largely in terms of a personal synthesis and that no formal conclaves take place between times illustrates the caution with which party managers have minimized the discussion of policy.
Congress and the state lawmaking bodies have been organized on a rigorous partisan basis, but the voting on measures has seldom followed strict party lines. The making of opinion has passed from the parties to numerous specialized and continuously active forms of association. Periodically of course there has been a prodigious show of partisan propaganda, and long and expensive campaigns. The multiple candidacies characteristic of elections in the United States have made it difficult to establish responsibility.
In the dynamic play of special groups the great parties have sometimes been intermediaries, garnering popular demands in platforms, which have been like highest common multiples. On occasion the interests composing them have dictated intervention to censor proposals. Most often the parties have been neutrals. The effect has been to fray the threads of controversy and to dissipate coherence. A national zest for concerted movement belies both the individualistic tradition of the United States and also the professed theory of party balance.
Emergent groups, which might otherwise have given rise to additional established parties, have seldom been able to resist the temptation, have aligned themselves with either of the two established parties, thus aid by choosing the lesser evil.
Though it may be possible, from time to time, in one place or another, for this office or that, to win an election as a third, or alternate party candidate, it remains the rarity, and not the rule. Lasting change, the restoration of our constitutionally limited republican form of representative government, will not be effected from without; it must be accomplished from within the dominant two-party structure.
“In a Republic, the constitution is the government.”
—Politics, Aristotle
Neither counties nor precincts are mentioned in the Constitution for the united States of America. They are political subdivisions of the several states, defined and governed by them. Political parties are extra-constitutional. However, the structure of established political party organizations span state and national constitutions, ten federal geographic regions, territories and possessions.
Though disproportionately distributed for the analogy, this structure may be compared with a pyramid. The local voting precinct (variously called: townships, districts or wards) makes up the bottom tier; they are the fundamental building blocks of our constitutionally limited republican form of representative government. At the apex of this figuratively truncated pyramid, the capstone is the chief executive, commander in chief, the president of the United States and his chosen political party corollary, the chairman of his political party’s national committee.
The titular heads of the parties are the president and the defeated nominee of the other party. Their positions are of varying importance in party organization. Some presidential candidates have had little influence during the four years following their defeat at the polls.
Each tier of the party’s organization is dependent on the layer below it. Each tier, from precinct to national committee, has its special responsibility within its geographical area in the elections. A common cause, expressed as a platform, a body of standing rules and bylaws, not a chain of command, elicits the necessary cooperation.
Each party, in each state, in each city has varying organizations at each level; in some areas no full organization exists for either established party. However, each of the political layers plays a vital role in choosing the nominees for, and in electing, the president and the vice-president.
From the League of Women Voters (and other sources), we gain insight regarding each of the pyramidal tiers of party organization:
The precinct, a specified area containing hundreds of voters, is the basic unit in the political structure and the first theater of operation for party workers. Precinct captains or committeemen head the approximately 175,000 such units. They may be chosen at caucuses, at direct primary elections or in the general election; or higher party officials may appoint them. This precinct executive is the only direct link between voters in the precinct and the professional political group. This is the party organization person who, through block workers and other aides, knows a great deal about the individual voters in the precinct and has substantial direct influence on them. Through this leader the working members of the party at the precinct level, if they work hard and are articulate at the right time and place, may make their voices heard in the selection of delegates.
The county committee, the parties tier just above the precinct (in larger cities, just above the ward or district, which is composed of several precincts), is a unit of major significance in the party machinery. It consists of precinct executives or of alternates chosen by them. The nation’s 3200 (plus or minus) counties have greater reality as functioning political entities than do the congressional districts. Major decisions in the selection of congressional district delegates to the national conventions are often made at the county level. County Committees are tied into the state organization through the county chairmen, who direct the precinct chairmen in getting out the vote.
Apart from its internal structure, each party also has a Senate Committee Campaign Committee and a Congressional Campaign Committee, selected in each new Congress at conference of party members. The work of these committees is to raise funds and help in the campaigns of candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives. Differences in the constituencies and in the election timetables frequently create enmity between these committees and national committees.
The state committee or state central committee forms the tier above the county committee. The state committeeman is an important party figure. The authority and composition of state committees are usually spelled out in state law. They range in size from a handful of people to hundreds of members. Methods of selection differ widely from state to state. The chief function of state committees is to conduct campaigns through their officers and agents and to help in governing the party. They may also influence the choice of delegates to the national conventions, whatever the selection process may be. In some cases the state committee still actually selects some delegates. Where states have conventions to select delegates, the state committee wields great influence. Even in states that select delegates via the primary method control of the state committee may be extremely important.
The national committee is the top layer of party organization. This has representatives, at least one man and one woman, from each state and is of prime importance in the choosing of a president. Its chairman is a top-ranking professional politician. Its powers and duties are dictated by the national convention.
“Kingpin of the national organization,” the national committee theoretically elects the national committee chairman. In practice, the party’s presidential candidate designates him, immediately after the national convention.
National committee members may be described as top politicians in their states. Although the national conventions must formally approve, they are in effect selected by the states, by a variety of methods. Two of the most common ways are election by the state convention, and election by the state’s delegates to the national convention. In a number of states, the voters in the primary elect committee members, and some states appoint the national members. They are usually wealthy, because membership on the national committee is costly in both time and money. Many combine experience in law, business and politics.
The national committee members may be the unquestioned statewide party leaders or their power may emanate from a densely populated area in the state. They may be close aides of the party leader or they may be getting their reward for generous contributions of money or years of party service or distinction.
In addition to the regular party organization in the United States there are a large number of auxiliary political groups outside the formal party structure, which supplement the work of the regular party.
At campaign time specialized volunteer groups arise, to work for a particular presidential candidate. Open to all comers, they attract into active membership many people not interested in purely party work. These auxiliary groups make important contributions to party work; at the same time they illustrate the fragmented nature of American party organizations.
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The county committeeman, precinct captain or precinct executive as the position is variously titled is in the mind of some, the most powerful office in the land. Often a county committeeman and committeewoman are husband and wife. These elective positions are coveted and protected. These positions provide a springboard from which higher offices are attained, or serve as comfortable resting places for those retired from active political affairs.
It is from the ranks of these precinct oriented committeemen and women that nominees for municipal and county boards, commissions, councils, panels, etc. are often selected. These are they that draw the list of nominees for county, state and national committees, legislative, senatorial, judicial, congressional offices and other bodies. These are they, then, who are often the most ardent and loyal party supporters with both the most to gain from the party’s successes, and the most to lose when it falls from grace.
Statutes, party rules and by-laws control the who, what, when, where and why as concerns the operation of the county committee and the local voting precinct, which is the fundamental building block of the federal system that governs our constitutionally limited republican form of representative government.
No movement (short of armed revolt), aiming at restoring our constitution can prevail, without first winning Operation Clean Sweep! This is over simplified when stated, “Throw the bums out!” or “Vote out the incumbents!” The social disease runs much deeper than that. Many hundreds of thousands of men and women and their immediate and extended families derive all or part of their livelihoods and their pleasure in direct proportion to their support of (socialist, perhaps properly positivist) American government. From afar, the task of curing this social ill appears impossible, however, when properly understood at the precinct level, Gulliver is less imposing to the Lilliputians. Ants can overpower, dismember and carry away even a pachyderm, one bite at a time.
With or without a Dr. Paul victory in the 2008 Presidential Preference Primary Election hence with or without sufficient delegates gained, individuals across Missouri and elsewhere may choose between posing as “Precinct Leaders” building Ron Paul support at the precinct level, or officially (conducting perhaps a dual campaign) running for Republican Party County Committeeman or Committeewoman in their precinct.
As described, the effort would advance the restoration of a constitutional republican system of representative government and may be likened to the opening battle of Operation Cleansweep. The existence of the Ron Paul presidential campaign awakened the political giant dormant in American towns, cities and counties. Clothed in tee shirts, caps, and buttons, while making signs and banners, slim-jims, flyers and all manner of political paraphernalia, the supporters of Ron Paul became independent, volunteer, campaign experts, collectively an emergent political machine.
Overview of County Government:
Count is a title of honor going back to the days of the Roman Empire. The Latin word comes means a companion or follower, and was used to indicate the companions of the Roman proconsuls. From this came the Spanish title, conde, and the French comte. Count came into the English language as a translation of foreign titles equal to the English earl.
Others say, the word county comes from the French comte, which was derived from the Latin comitatus, which means body of companions. The French county was the domain of a count. The English began to call their shires counties about 1400. The English colonists brought the county with them to the New World.
The county is the most common area, or division, of local government in the United States. Each of the fifty states is divided into counties except Louisiana, where such districts are known as parishes. With the exception of Indian and other government reservations and some cities every part of the United States is in a county. The form of county organization and the number and powers of county officers are set by the state, usually in its own constitution and laws. County administration remains decentralized, and the regime of county officials often disorganized. The state legislatures set the boundaries of the various counties.
There are 3070 organized counties in the United States, larger states having from 60 to 100 or more. Texas, with 254, has the largest number of counties. Nearly two thirds of all counties have an area of from 300 to 900 square miles, the most usual area being from 400 to 650 square miles. Bristol county Rhode Island has only 24 square miles, while San Bernardino County, California has 20,000 square miles. Most counties have from 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants; but counties exist with fewer and more people. About two thirds of the counties are distinctly rural areas, in which the largest village or city has less than 5000 population and often less than 2500. About a fourth of the counties include both a substantial rural population and some villages or a city of 5,000 to 25,000 populations. In about a twelfth of the counties the urban population distinctly preponderates. The above statistics were compiled during the first half of the twentieth century; some figures given will likely differ from those now in use.
Many American counties are too small in both area and population for efficient administration. This also reduces the importance of the public business to be carried on.
Like most other local governments the county occupies a dual position. On the one hand, it is a subdivision of the state for administration of state laws and, on the other hand, it is a district for local administration. Counties are often referred to as bodies corporate and politic and are recognized as public corporations. In most states they are considered quasi-corporations but in some they are included in the class of municipal corporations. As corporations they may within the scope of their powers acquire, hold and dispose of property, make contracts, incur debts, sue, and be sued in the courts. But their property is more subject to legislative control than is the property of cities, while the county is ordinarily not liable for damages in cases of torts committed by county officials and employees.
Counties differ further from municipal corporations in that they are created by the state and not established voluntarily by the local inhabitants. Their functions as agents of the state government are so important that it has been held in judicial opinion that counties “exist only for the purpose of the general political government of the state. They are the agents and instrumentalities the state uses to perform its functions. All the powers with which they are entrusted are the powers of the state, and the duties imposed upon them are the duties of the state” (Madden v. Lancaster Co., 65 Fed. Rep. 188, 191; 12 C.C.A. 566). A more conservative statement by another court holds that “a county organization is created almost exclusively with a view to the policy of the state at large” (State v. Downs, 60 Kans. 788).
Primarily the county is a district for the administration of justice, the enforcement of law and the maintenance of peace and order. In connection with these and other functions courthouses and jails are maintained. In most states finance administration is an important function of county government. The assessment of property for state and local taxes and the collection of such taxes are carried on by county officers.
The county is also an important district for election purposes. Not only county officers but in most states members of the state legislature are elected by counties, and the county is the district for conducting the elections and canvassing the returns for county, state and national officials.
The position of the county as an election district is reflected in the importance of the county committee in party organizations.
The county ordinarily has important functions in the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges and sometimes of drainage and other public works, including in some states water supply, sewers, and lighting plants. It is the usual district for the administration of poor relief, in earlier times, maintaining a poor farm or almshouse. Generally there is a county school officer, and in many southern and western states the county is the primary unit for local school administration. There has been a distinct tendency toward progressive federal and state activity and control over county government.
The scope of local county functions has increased through the development of county hospitals, county libraries, county parks and airports and new activities in matters of public health and social welfare. County revenues and expenditures per capita have doubled in each decade since 1900 and during recent years they have increased at a faster rate than city finances.
In the machinery of county government the most significant feature is the lack of any definite system of organization. About two thirds of the state constitutions have provisions for the election of a list of county officers, and in nearly all the states there are a number of elective county officials, largely independent of each other, with no concentrated executive control and no adequate representative council with substantial powers of local legislation. The doctrine of separation of powers is largely ignored.
In most states there is in each county an elective county board, which usually levies county taxes, chiefly taxes on personal property and real estate. State governments remit certain allocations of state-collected taxes to counties. Most county boards are small bodies of from three to ten members exercising control over matters of local administration and have a limited supervision over other elective officials. These small boards are generally elected at large and are called county commissioners, but boards of more than three members in some cases are elected by districts and called boards of supervisors. In some states county boards of supervisors are larger bodies (usually from fifteen to fifty members) elected by townships. In several southern states the county boards are also large bodies, elected by districts, such as the parish police juries in Louisiana and the county courts of justices of the peace in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. County boards have sometimes been referred to as the legislative branch of county government.
The number, titles and functions of other county officers vary a good deal in the different states. Every county has a sheriff and also a court clerk or county clerk, the latter being also the secretary of the county board. Most of the states have a local prosecuting officer elected in each county under varying titles, such as prosecuting attorney, district attorney, state’s attorney, county attorney and solicitor. Generally there is a county judge or probate judge, sometimes both. Additionally, most states have county treasurers, county recorders or registers of deeds and coroners. In western and southern states particularly there are county assessors and collectors of revenue. Often there are elective county surveyors, engineers, and county or district school commissioners and county road, and county health officers.
Terms of county officers vary from two to eight years. The terms of different officers often overlap. In southern states a four-year term is common and in states west of the Mississippi a two-year term prevails. Compensation for services provided varies widely. The subordinate staff of county officers often reflects the demographics of the county served. Such positions are in the most cases filled and held at the pleasure of their superior officers and are often subject to political and personal influence. This practice, often called patronage, leads to extravagance, waste, and inefficiency. Increasingly the merit system of civil service has been applied.
Serious attention has been given to the problems of county government. The principal defects of the prevailing methods may be summarized as follows: the detailed enumeration of uniform requirements in state constitutions and laws without regard to varying conditions; the lack of any definite principles of governmental organization; the long list of elective officials in most states; the failure to concentrate administrative responsibility; and the absence of satisfactory business and financial methods in the conduct of county affairs.
Some have suggested that through the development of state institutions and activity, counties could be abolished. Others advocate county home rule diminishing state control over counties. The complexities and difficulties of county government could also be reduced by the consolidation of small counties into larger units. Several states, including Missouri, have laws providing for this. Finally, consolidation of city and county government in the larger metropolitan areas and strengthening regional government are other measures in this direction.
Summary and Conclusion:
Trite, but nonetheless true, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Whether by diet, injunction or injection, the generations of twentieth century America have resultantly made continuous overdrafts from their Bank of Civic Duty, leaving themselves at the dawn of the twenty first century morally, mentally, economically and politically bankrupt. It will require more than one simple deposit, to get the radical red out of the American republics.
Whipsawed between liberal and conservative dialectics, the deliberately dumbed down “sheeple,” bemused by a continual onslaught of conflicting ideals and entertainments, are led by their Judas goat representatives of the established political parties beyond the theological stage, through the metaphysical stage, and now, beyond the point of no retreat, entering the positive stage of the new order of the ages. As the equinoxes proceed, so do the programmes and agendas of those who seek only power, the power to establish their dominion over the planet earth. The synthesis of wealth in land and wealth seeking opportunity in industry is universal control of earth’s resources, whether animate or inanimate, active or inert.
As of this writing, the Ron Paul Revolution obviates the maturation of the transcendent controversy between legal positivism and natural law, man’s quest for mastery of nature, the creature ruling creation, and the created seeking dominion above the Creator. My will v. Thy will be done. Freedom is not only popular; it is the basis of natural law. Freedom subordinates all lesser questions.
The shifting sand of lightly held public opinion is largely the contrived result of the dualism fostered, maintained and advanced by our two established political party system ensuring that neither emotionally charged nationalism nor individualism interfere with the positivistic arts of interdependent transnational cooperation through entangling foreign alliances and managed trade relations.
The Ron Paul Revolution has forced the embarrassing and in the opinion of George W. Bush, “god damned piece of paper” revered the world around as the Constitution for the united States of America, out of its brass and glass display case in Washington, D.C., thrusting it rightfully into the midst of the Presidential Preference Primary Election debate. The haters of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness posing as contenders for the office of president, CEO, of that same Government created by that Constitution, profess with their lips adherence to our sacred documents while denying them in their actions. The multigenerational dynastic loyalty of We the People to our Constitution, and the constitutionally limited republican form of representative government that it guarantees is awakening from its prosperity induced slumber of the past century.
“Well begun is half done,” wrote Aristotle, and so well begun is the rapidly expanding Internet based political activism phenomena of Paul supporters via Meetup Groups, Precinct Leaders, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Justin.tv, StumbleUpon, twitter, Linkedln, iPhone Network, websites, blog spots, Internet radio, satellite and low-power FM radio, public access TV, campaign material production and distribution system, all of which have facilitated the transformation of “Ron Paul Revolution” from mere jingoism into a formidable Freedom bloc, that “half done” is within reason.
The best, the fastest, and the most certain method by which YOU can hold your local elected official accountable is to BECOME that local elected official! Become Vocal Local!
As the local voting precinct is the fundamental building block of the county system, it also is the foundation upon which restoration must rise. Precinct by precinct, county by county, state by sovereign state, united against all enemies foreign or domestic, seeking truth, harmony and friendship with all.
Appendix:
Words have meaning, and both their meaning and usage are important. The following defined terms and Missouri statutes apply to our topic:
PRECINCT, n. [L. prćcinctus, prćcingo, to encompass; prć and cingo, to surround or gird.]
1. The limit, bound or exterior line encompassing a place; as the precincts of light.
-Milton.
2. Bounds or jurisdiction, or the whole territory comprehended within the limits of authority.
Take the body of A B, if to be found within your precincts. -Technical Law.
3. A territorial district or division.
It is to be observed that this word is generally used in the plural, except in the third sense.
In case of non-acceptance [of the collector] the parish or precinct shall proceed to a new choice. -Law of Massachusetts.
CAPTAIN, n. [Fr. capitaine; Sp. capitan; Port. capitam; It. capitano; from L. caput, the head. In the feudal laws of Europe, the term was applied to tenants in capite, who were bound to attend their prince in his wars, at the head of soldiers, and from this practice the name had its origin, or from their command.]
1. Literally, a head or chief officer; appropriately, the military officer who commands a company, whether of infantry, cavalry, artillery or matrosses.
2. The commander of a ship of war, or of a merchantman. But the latter is often called a master.
3. The commander of a military band, a sense that occurs in scriptures; as a captain of fifty.
4. A man skilled in war or military affairs; as. Lord Wellington is a great captain.
5. A chief commander. Shak. But in this sense rarely used, but in composition.
Source: American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster 1828, Rosalie J. Slater, 1997, unpaginated.
precinct. A geographical unit of government, such as an election district, a police district, or a judicial district.
magisterial precinct. A county subdivision that defines the territorial jurisdiction of a magistrate, constable, or justice of the peace. –Also termed magisterial district.
Source: Black’s Law Dictionary, Eighth Ed., Thomson-West, 2004, pg. 1215.
township. 1. In a government survey, a square tract of land six miles on each side, containing thirty-six square miles of land. 2. In some states, a civil and political subdivision of a county.
Source: Black’s Law Dictionary, Eighth Ed., Thomson-West, 2004, pg. 1529.
ward. 2. A territorial division in a city, usu. defined for purposes of city government. 3. The act of guarding or protecting something or someone. 4. Archaic. One who guards. 5. CASTLE-GUARD. – Formerly also termed warda.
Source: Black’s Law Dictionary, Eighth Ed., Thomson-West, 2004, pg. 1614.
district. 1. A territorial area into which a country, state, county, municipality, or other political subdivision is divided for judicial, political, electoral, or administrative purposes. [Many subheads follow, of which some follow here.]
congressional district. A geographical unit of a state from which one member of the U.S. House of Representatives is elected.
election district. A subdivision of a state, county, or city that is established to facilitate an election or to elect governmental representatives for that subdivision.
legislative district. A geographical subdivision of a state for the purpose of electing legislative representatives.
Source: Black’s Law Dictionary, Eighth Ed., Thomson-West, 2004, pg. 510.
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Consider that the following statutes were written by the “two-party system” for the “two-party system”, controlled opposition designed to keep third parties at bay! Editorial comments will be enclosed in brackets [ ].
From the Missouri Revised Statutes (RSMo), Chapter 115, Section 115.001, we read, “Sections 115.001 to 115.641 and sections 51.450 and 51.460, RSMo, shall be known as the “Comprehensive Election Act of 1977”. These sections are available online at:
http://www.moga.mo.gov/STATUTES/STATUTES.HTM#T02
Section 115.121. (2) States, “The primary election day shall be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August of even-numbered years.” [Emphasis added.]
Section 115.755. States, “A statewide presidential preference primary shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in February of each presidential election year.” [Emphasis added. For our purposes: Tuesday, February 5, 2008. Note that in 2008 there is both the February 5th Presidential Preference Primary, AND the August 5th Primary Election.]
Section 115.113. (1) States, “The basic election district shall be the precinct.”
Section 115.013. (21) States, “Precincts”, the geographical areas into which the election authority divides its jurisdiction for the purpose of conducting elections.”
Section 115.013. (8) States, “District”, an area within the state or within a political subdivision of the state from which a person is elected to represent the area on a policy-making body with representatives of other areas in the state or political subdivision,”
Section 115.013. (28) States, “Voting district”, the one or more precincts within which all voters vote at a single polling place for any election.”
Section 115.163. (1) States, “Each election authority shall use the Missouri voter registration system established by section 115.158 to prepare a list of legally registered voters for each precinct. The list shall be arranged alphabetically or by street address as the election authority determines an shall be known as the “precinct register.”
Section 115.342. (1) States: “Any person who files as a candidate for election to a public office shall be disqualified from participation in the election for which the candidate has filed if such person is delinquent in the payment of any state income taxes, personal property taxes, real property taxes on the place of residence, as stated on the declaration of candidacy, or if the person is a past or present corporate officer of any fee office that owes any taxes to the state.”
Section 115.617. States, “Whenever a member of any county committee dies, becomes disabled, resigns, or ceases to be a registered voter of or resident of the county or committee district from which he is elected, a vacancy shall exist on the committee. A majority of the committee shall elect another person to fill the vacancy who, for one year next before his election, shall have been both a registered voter of and a resident of the county and the committee district. The person selected to fill the vacancy shall serve the remainder of the vacated term.”
Section 115.603. States, “Each established political party shall have a state committee, a congressional district committee for each congressional district in the state, a judicial district committee for each circuit judge district in the state not subject to the provisions of article V, section 25 of the state constitution, a senatorial district committee for each senatorial district in the state, a legislative district committee for each legislative district in the state and a county committee for each county in the state.” [Emphasis added.]
Section 115.013. (10) States, “Established political party” for the state, a political party which, at either of the last two general elections, polled for its candidate for any statewide office, more than two percent of the entire vote cast for the office. “Established political party” for any district or political subdivision shall mean a political party which polled more than two percent of the entire vote cast at either of the last two elections in which the district or political subdivision voted as a unit for the election of officers or representatives to serve its area;”
Section 115.607. (1) States, “No person shall be elected or shall serve as a member of a county committee who is not, for one year next before the person’s election, both a registered voter of and a resident of the county and the committee district from which the person is elected if such district shall have been so long established . . . the membership of a county committee of each established political party shall consist of a man and a woman elected from each township or ward.”
Section 115.609. Titled: County committee members, when elected (St. Louis City and County). States, “In each city not situated in a county and in each county which has over nine hundred thousand inhabitants, all members of the county committee shall be elected at the primary election immediately preceding gubernatorial election and shall hold office until their successors are elected and qualified. In each other county, all members of the county committee shall be elected at each primary election and shall hold office until their successors are elected and qualified.”
Section 115.611. Titled: County committee members, filing fees. At subsection (1) states, “Except as provided in subsection 4 of section 115.613, any registered voter of the county may have such voter’s name printed on the primary ballot of such voter’s party as a candidate for county committeeman or committeewoman by filing a declaration of candidacy in the office of the county election authority and by paying any filing fee required by subsection 2 of this section.” [Emphasis added.]
Section 115.611. (4) States, “No person’s name shall be printed on any official primary ballot as a candidate for county committeeman or committeewoman unless the person has filed a declaration of candidacy with the proper election authority not later than 5:00 p.m. on the last Tuesday in March immediately preceding the primary election.” [Therefore, the deadline for filing is 5:00 p.m. March 25, 2008 to be on the ballot for the August 5, 2008 primary election.]
Section 115.613. (1) States, “Except as provided in subsection 4 of this section, the qualified man and woman receiving the highest number of votes from each committee district for committeeman and committeewoman of a party shall be members of the county committee of the party.” And in (4) states, “if no qualified candidate files for committeeman or committeewoman in a committee district for a party, no election shall be held and a vacancy shall exist on the county committee which shall be filled by a majority of the committee in the manner provide in section 115.617.”
Section 115.615. States, “In years when a primary election is held pursuant to subsection 2 of section 115.121, each county committee shall meet at the county seat on the third Tuesday of August. . . . At the meeting, each committee shall organize by electing one of its members as chair and one of its members vice chair, a man and a woman, and a secretary and a treasurer, a man and a woman, who may or may not be members of the committee. The county chair and vice chair so elected shall by virtue thereof become members of the party congressional, senatorial and judicial committees of the district of which their county is a part.”
Section 115.121. (2) States, “The primary election day shall be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August of even-numbered years.” [August 5, 2008 primary election.]
Section 115.623. States, “The members of the state committee elected as provided in section 115.621 shall meet at a time and place to be designated by the current state committee chairman.
The meeting shall occur no earlier than two weeks following the elections of members to the
state committee. At the meeting, the committee shall organize by electing a chairman and vice chairman, one of whom shall be a woman, and a secretary and treasurer, one of whom shall be a woman, and who may or may not be members of the committee. In the event a vacancy shall occur in the office of chairman, a vacancy shall also be declared in the office of vice chairman and a new election shall be held for filling the vacancies of both chairman and vice chairman, one of whom shall be a woman.”
Section 115.605. States, “Each party committee shall be selected as provided in this subchapter for the purpose of representing and acting for the party in the interim between party conventions.” [Emphasis added.]
Section 115.611. (1) States, “Except as provided in subsection 4 of section 115.613, any registered voter of the county may have such voter’s name printed on the primary ballot of such voter’s party as a candidate for county committeeman or committeewoman by filing a declaration of candidacy in the office of the county election authority and by paying any filing fee required by subsection 2 of this section.” [Emphasis added.]
115.121. (1) States, “The general election day shall be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years.” [November 4, 2008.]
115.121. (2) States, “The primary election day shall be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August of even-numbered years.” [August 5, 2008 primary election.]
115.121. (3) States, “The election day for the election of political subdivision and special district officers shall be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in April each year; and shall be known as the "general municipal election day".” [April 8, 2008.]
115.127. (1) States, “Except as provided in subsection 4 of this section, upon receipt of notice of a special election to fill a vacancy submitted pursuant to section 115.125, the election authority shall cause legal notice of the special election to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in its jurisdiction. The notice shall include the name of the officer or agency calling the election, the date and time of the election, the name of the office to be filled and the date by which candidates must be selected or filed for the office. . . . The legal notice shall include the date and time of the election, the name of the officer or agency calling the election and a sample ballot. If there is only one newspaper of general circulation in the jurisdiction, the notice shall be published in the newspaper within one week prior to the election. If there are two or more newspapers of general circulation in the jurisdiction, but no two of opposite political faith, the notice shall be published in any two of the newspapers within one week prior to the election.
115.127. (2) States, “Except as provided in subsections 1 and 4 of this section and in sections 115.521, 115.549 and 115.593, the election authority shall cause legal notice of each election held in its jurisdiction to be published. The notice shall be published in two newspapers of
different political faith and qualified pursuant to chapter 493, RSMo, which are published within the bounds of the area holding the election. If there is only one so qualified newspaper, then notice shall be published in only one newspaper. If there is no newspaper published within the bounds of the election area, then the notice shall be published in two qualified newspapers of different political faith serving the area. Notice shall be published twice, the first publication occurring in the second week prior to the election, and the second publication occurring within one week prior to the election. Each such legal notice shall include the date and time of the election, the name of the officer or agency calling the election and a sample ballot; and, unless notice has been given as provided by section 115.129, the second publication of notice of the election shall include the location of polling places. The election authority may provide any additional notice of the election it deems desirable.
115.127. (3) States, “The election authority shall print the official ballot as the same appears on the sample ballot, and no candidate's name or ballot issue which appears on the sample ballot or official printed ballot shall be stricken or removed from the ballot except on death of a candidate or by court order.
115.127. (4) States, “In lieu of causing legal notice to be published in accordance with any of the provisions of this chapter, the election authority in jurisdictions which have less than seven hundred fifty registered voters and in which no newspaper qualified pursuant to chapter 493, RSMo, is published, may cause legal notice to be mailed during the second week prior to the election, by first class mail, to each registered voter at the voter's voting address. All such legal notices shall include the date and time of the election, the location of the polling place, the name of the officer or agency calling the election and a sample ballot.
115.127. (5) States, “If the opening date for filing a declaration of candidacy for any office in a political subdivision or special district is not required by law or charter, the opening filing date shall be 8:00 a.m., the sixteenth Tuesday prior to the election, except that for any home rule city with more than four hundred thousand inhabitants and located in more than one county and any political subdivision or special district located in such city, the opening filing date shall be 8:00 a.m., the fifteenth Tuesday prior to the election. If the closing date for filing a declaration of candidacy for any office in a political subdivision or special district is not required by law or charter, the closing filing date shall be 5:00 p.m., the eleventh Tuesday prior to the election. The political subdivision or special district calling an election shall, before the sixteenth Tuesday, or the fifteenth Tuesday for any home rule city with more than four hundred thousand inhabitants and located in more than one county or any political subdivision or special district located in such city, prior to any election at which offices are to be filled, notify the general
public of the opening filing date, the office or offices to be filled, the proper place for filing and the closing filing date of the election. Such notification may be accomplished by legal notice published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the political subdivision or special district.” [Emphasis added.]