Dreams are wonderful things. They can be pure flights of fantasy, meaningless forgettable jumbles, or sometimes convey solutions to problems that have troubled your waking consciousness.
I had a dream last night that seemed so real, so marvelous in its detail, that I savored it for a long time after I woke up. I thought I might share it with you here.
In my dream, many of the leaders of Congress, mostly conservative but even some more liberal Democrats, called a national, urgent press conference. Something was in the air, and worldwide press representatives were in attendance. The urgency seemed palpable.
These were real, recognized leaders, not just elected seat fillers. Sens. Coburn and Graham and Paul and Cruz and McCain and all the leading Republicans; active and outspoken representatives from Boehner to Ryan to Issa to King to Cantor and on down – backed by every Republican and many Democrats in both houses – all filed into the House chamber, where presidential addresses occur, and faced the assembled press corps.
Speaker of the House John Boehner spoke, holding a prepared speech in his hand:
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an extraordinary occasion, made necessary by the extreme urgency of this moment.
Our beloved nation is in very serious danger. You all know it, and I won’t take the time to detail all the threats we face, but they include possible bankruptcy and economic collapse of all our institutions, an imminent governmental shutdown, widespread mistrust of all our most vital agencies, dictatorial regulations and takeovers of health care, banking, our energy resources, our education, immigration, and a serious weakening of our national defense.
The American people elected us, the Congress, to address these dangers and come up with solutions. And we’ve been trying, with every means at our disposal, to do just that. But we’ve been thwarted, on every hand, by the man the same people elected to lead and work with us, to discuss and develop workable plans to rescue us from the mess we find ourselves in. Instead of meeting with us, this man travels the country campaigning, as if for another re-election, and blaming us, the Congress, at every stop for the problems he himself has created or severely exacerbated by his own policies and “executive decisions.”
This cannot go on. We need answers, we need practical solutions, and we need them now! And so, on behalf of all here assembled, I address the president:
Mr. President, we are the Legislative Branch of our government. We are constitutionally equal to the Executive Branch. You are not our boss, and you can’t order us around. In fact, you are bound by your oath of office to listen and take directions from us. Representing the wishes of all Americans, we make the laws, and you swore to uphold those laws – did you not?
We – including you, sir – are the servants of the people, not the other way around. We’re constitutionally bound to take orders from the people we work for.
Already, in virtually every current poll, a majority of citizens disapprove of your policies and what you’re doing to this country. And we’re tired, extremely tired, of your blaming us for all the “sequesters” and looming shutdowns when you orchestrated and forced them on us! You are picking and choosing who gets less governmental support, deliberately choosing segments that hurt the most people, and claiming it’s your opponents in Congress that will force a shutdown – because we’re unwilling to rubber-stamp your drastic policies.
Well, sir, here and now, we demand you quit calling our legitimate questions and concerns, which we share with most Americans, “phony scandals.” They are indeed scandals, but they’re not phony. They are real, tragic and serious. AND WE DEMAND YOU GET DOWN HERE, GET SWORN IN, AND ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS!
Mr. President, you promised unprecedented “transparency,” but you have ducked all reasonable efforts to find out where you were and what you were doing, or not doing, other than flying to Las Vegas to fundraise, on Sept. 11, 2012, while Ambassador Stevens and the other embassy officials in Benghazi were being slaughtered because – precisely because – you, Mr. President, and your secretary of state refused their urgent requests for more security and didn’t send anybody to rescue them. Come before us and refute this if you can.
You, Mr. President, and your cohorts have allowed or directly authorized the IRS to target and hassle hundreds of conservative and Christian groups applying for tax exemption because you resent their traditional ideology. And you, implicitly or directly, unleashed the NSA to invade the privacy of members of the press and eventually every citizen of the United States. Even ultra-liberal Oliver Stone has called you a “snake”!
You, Mr. President, have steadfastly refused to secure our borders, as you were sworn to do, and instead are doing every unconstitutional thing you can think of to invite millions more illegal aliens into our country, flouting our laws and further devastating our economy – and you and Eric Holder are thumbing your nose at us in our investigation of “Fast and Furious,” the outrageous sale of arms to Mexican warlords and drug traffickers.
You are degrading and corrupting our children’s education and promoting immorality while debasing marriage.
You’re adding trillons to our national debt, usurping authority over our health care and allowing your own appointed “czars” to make so many senseless regulations in the name of the environment that you’re destroying our ability to produce our own resources!
You promised “transparency,” sir, yet you’ve spent millions of our tax dollars to keep all your early school, travel and passport records hidden from the people who elected you – twice. WHY, SIR, WHY? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?
Why did you put a fake supposed “copy of your birth certificate” on the White House website? All experts confirm that it isn’t a copy of anything; it’s a photoshopped fraud. WHY?
So, Mr. President, get down here and answer our questions! Bring Holder with you, and anyone else you can blame for your own directives. If you refuse, the American people, who have already learned to distrust anything you say, will determine if you are fit to continue holding your office. There are already bills of impeachment being drawn up, and if you think you can just ride roughshod over your constitutional equal, the Congress, you’re in for a big, big shock. You are not our boss – we are yours! We represent the American people who put us here.
We await your response, Mr. President.
Sometimes, dreams come true. We’ll see.
