What’s In a Word of Phrase?

David L Lamon | October 17, 2009

10/17/2009

David L Lamon

There are many words or phrases that mean different things to different people but to avoid this letter becoming one of philosophical debate I want to deal with a specific phrase that is most misunderstood. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” in our day would suggest a criminal act must be created but in the day the constitution was written it was taken from English common law to mean essentially “bad behavior”. Former president Gerald Ford when asked about the definition said, “Whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” Through the use of the Thesaurus, misdemeanor means misbehavior, wrong, misconduct and transgression. How did this phrase come about? High crimes and misdemeanors’ entered the text of the Constitution due to George Mason and James Madison. Mason had argued that the reasons given for impeachment – treason and bribery – were not enough. He worried that other ‘great and dangerous offenses’ might not be covered… so Mason then proposed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ a phrase well-known in English common law. In 18th century language, a misdemeanor’ meant ‘mis-demeanor,’ or bad behavior.

Precedent Defines Correct Action
In other words, “high crimes and misdemeanors” does not refer to a criminal act as some today would lead you to believe…our Founding Fathers did not believe a criminal act was necessary. When it comes to removing a president from office and since there is not many examples of law to draw from this experience it is expedient that the precedent as set forth by the founding fathers be established. In addition, past leadership’s warning to we the people should be given consideration. In other words, it must begin with the original meaning and/or context and in this case the above written establishes this. The Founders fully intended to allow for the removal of the President for actions which were simply put… egregious… grossly incompetence… grossly negligence… outright distasteful… or, in the case of Barack Hussein Obama, actions which clearly show “malevolence toward this country, which is unabated.

Defining Bad Behavior

Now that we have that settled that I ask you what constitutes “bad behavior”? Would putting our children and grandchildren future hope and dreams of providing a successful livelihood to include living conditions in jeopardy through massive debt the experts say future generations will never be able to pay back qualify as bad behavior? Would using U.S. taxpayer money to fund abortions worldwide and here at home? Would removing the D.O.M or defense of marriage act meaning marriage only between a man and a woman and not homosexuals be bad behavior in your way of thinking? Would having the president of the United States going on a worldwide tour apologizing for America being such a sorry country detailing how our great country has mistreated other nations of the world be in your opinion bad behavior? Would government takeover of private industry, financial institutions, and healthcare against the overwhelming desires of “we the people” be considered bad behavior? Should the dismantling of the most successful freedom-loving economic system ever devised by man be taken into consideration for bad behavior? In a freedom-loving capitalistic economy the necessary glue that sustains it is a strong middle-class and the current healthcare and cap and trade legislation will greatly threaten the existence of this class of people through the heavy burden of taxation qualify? Even Aristotle recognized the importance of a strong middle-class over 2,000 years ago with Greece being the world’s first democracy and stated such. The middle-class in this country provides over 70% of the jobs that are created and pays a disproportionate share of taxes already. As we have already witnessed NAFTA produced just as Ross Perot predicted it would a “giant sucking sound” of a large segment of middle-class jobs through the exportation of manufacturing jobs leaving us with only service and credit economy to survive and we have now seen what that has produced haven’t we? In a free democracy or representative government would a president surrounding himself with known socialist, communist and Marxist that are determined to transform America as Obama promised he would be bad behavior?

If you believe the above questions qualify as bad behavior then the answer is yes we the people have the necessary elements to remove this man from the office of the president and although the legal authority for doing so lies within the confines of the House and Senate all of these members work for us. If we the people in great numbers demand Obama be impeached and our elected refuse then we the people can remove them from office through the process of recall or the next election cycle; however, in the case of Obama it is expedient that this man be removed immediately before he completely destroys a way of life we have known for over 200 years.

Citizen Responsibility

We are encouraged through other forms of precedent setting and in this case past leaders gave us instruction on what we the people must do to maintain our freedoms.

There are those who say no honorable American would oppose the actions and policies of the U.S. government. We’ve heard Clinton so admonish us any number of times, but Teddy Roosevelt saw through this deception: “Patriotism means to stand by the country; it does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.”

U. S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Houghwout Jackson put it simply: “It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.” As Voltaire noted, “It is dangerous to be right when your government is wrong.” Another of our great founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson) imparted a bit of wisdom to us when he said, “When the government fears the people, there is liberty, but when the people fear the government there is tyranny. Do you fear what you are witnessing from this current government? Ben Franklin warned, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety (security) deserve neither liberty nor safety (security).”

If a nation values anything more than its freedom, it will lose it says William Somerset Maughm. Furthermore, if its comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

“We the People” are the rightful master of both congress and the courts, “said Abraham Lincoln, “not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” A government that is anxious to give alms to as many people as possible is even more anxious to commandeer their earnings. Remember the old Aesop fable about the horse tormented by a boar. Exasperated, Horse asked Man for help. “Certainly,” said Man, “I shall help you, but first you must let me saddle you up.” Agreeing to the terms, Horse found his problem quickly resolved, but found too, the price extracted was weighty: Horse’s freedom. Of course, the moral of this story applies directly to what we see happening in America today, which is a frightened and tormented people that is willing to horse-trade away its fundamental freedoms. The most important question the leader of every household in America must ask is, Am I content to allow the very fabric (freedom) of what has made our great country be done away with and replaced by the oppressive dictatorial government Barak Hussein Obama is installing with the help of his imps in the House and Senate? If the answer to this is no then it is past time each and every one of us begin demanding our elected in the House start impeachment proceedings. Are there any more questions that need answering before we the people go into action to correct the bad behavior by this Imposter-in-Chief being imposed on us?

American Conservative Daily

What’s In a Word of Phrase?

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