I was recently asked if I would be running for office. My answer was a guarded, "Maybe". What does a politician mean when he/she says "Maybe I will run"? Now I know, they mean just that. Deciding to run for office is a very serious undertaking...if you are doing it right. First you ask, yourself why would you run. To answer that, you need a platform. Normally a platform is constructed AFTER a person decides to run. Those people don't know why they are running! You need a platform first to know if your reasons are valid.
Usually a platform is a "Gift List" of things that a politician offers to "the people" to get their votes. Our government is supposed to be "Of the People, By the People, and For the People", as Lincoln put it at Gettysburg, PA. From now on I will refer to the voters/constituents as "the people", not the Voters, not the constituents, but as the people, because they are involved at every level, not just at the ballot box. The people includes us all, from the single voter up to and including the holder of the highest elective office in the United States. We are all, the people, and we all craft our government.
Giving a "Gift List" of items to a group to get their votes is NOT what the founding fathers had in mind when they formed our nation. Secondly, a "Gift List" is very parochial. It is specific to a particular area or group and often is left behind when the politician moves to his new office after the successful election.
A platform is defined in the dictionary as "A raised flooring or stage". If I am to build a platform from which to talk to the people, it must be both stable and strong and it cannot be changed for every office I might run for. My platform needs to recognize that I DO NOT intend to bring home a bag full of goodies to the people that elect me. Our current fiscal situation was brought on by politicians bringing home a bag full of goodies in order to be re elected.
My platform must be stable. Have you ever tried to cut off some from a leg on a four legged table to make it sit right on the floor? It is a very difficult job to do right and you usually end up cutting off more than one leg before it sits, stable, on the floor. Then if you move it to another place, it no longer sits stable. My platform must be stable and movable, and must not sacrifice any of its legs to do so. So my platform will have three legs. A three legged table always sits stable.
The first leg of my platform will be HONESTY. I will always tell you the truth. If you ask me a question you will get an honest answer. No platform can be based on anything but honesty and be expected to produce good. Though many have tried to do otherwise, they have failed.
The second leg of my platform will be the CONSTITUTION of the United States. I will uphold the Constitution in any and every act and vote. Without the Constitution we have no government worth having. The oath of office says that the person will uphold the Constitution, but many if not most dont even know what it is let alone uphold it.
The third leg of my platform will be FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. We cannot continue spending money that is not ours to spend. We may have to make some hard decisions about things we cannot afford but if those decisions are not made then we will kill the Eagle that laid the Golden Egg. You cannot kill the Eagle and expect it to lay MORE golden eggs. The solution to having our cake and eating it too may lie in having a smaller piece of the cake.
Now that we have set the three, stable, legs in place, we need strong planks on top for me to stand on. I do not want weak planks. I do not want to fall through. "I will try...", is a weak plank. "We must attempt......", is a weak plank. I want strong planks that I can rely on and that will support me for all time. Those ten planks will be the Bill Of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. These are statements of absolute truth and they will support me for all time.
Now we need a hammer and nails, the people and their ideas are the hammer and nails, to assemble the platform.
If my platform is assembled with the above materials, my platform will be stable, strong, and durable. I will be able to move it from office to office. It will tell you how I will vote on every bill that might come before me. It tells you of my character. You will be able to take any question you might have about how I will vote and hold it up against my platform to find the answer. You might not always like the answer, but you will know it. "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free" This bible quotation is over the main entrance to the University of Texas in Austin of which I am an Alumni and from which I am retired. I saw it every work day for 22 years and every school day for 7 years.
MY goal is our ultimate freedom. I want to establish a government framework that will assure your freedom, your neighbors freedom, my freedom, without restricting anyone beyond that which is necessary to protect his neighbors freedom. You should be able to swing your arms as far as you want unless it impacts your neighbors nose. At that point you will have to give a little just to insure your neighbors freedom.
You may not agree with every vote I make. But you will know, from my platform, just what it will be. You will know that it will be for the Freedom of all the people. I only met one person with whom I always agreed, so I married her.....THEN I discovered that she didnt always agree with me.....but its lasted 54 years.
This is my platform. My platform is FREEDOM. As you can see, it is NOT a gift list. In fact, it calls for sacrifice not receiving of gifts. The future of our nation will be a future of sacrifice not unlike what the founding fathers had to give, because we have strayed so far from what they intended. Hopefully we can restore their dream and go back to a future of plenty that we can all enjoy before too long. But for now, we must sacrifice till be get back on the road to Freedom again.
Now, will I run for office? I still don't know, but at least I know, now, what I will be doing it for, if I choose to do it. The thing that I have learned from this platform construction project, is that if I run, it will be for the right reasons.
I would suggest that a great majority of all Congressmen and Senators are doing it for the wrong reasons, for personal gain. I wont be doing it for personal gain. I really don't want to run for office. I don't like work and I don't like people criticizing me. If I decide to run, I will have to change. I know I can, but its comfortable being lazy with no one yelling at you. I will not be running for personal comfort or gain, I already have that and will loose it if I run.
I will guarantee you that I will not stay past two terms. I will leave after ONE term if I can find a replacement that will carry on my work. I don't want to be there long enough to learn how to steal. Too many of our legislators have learned how to steal and are addicted to the practice. I will not stay long enough to become tainted.
I will let you all know if I decide to run, but you already have my platform, its FREEDOM.
Jim Isbell
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