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Jon Roland explains how one can gain support to get reforms enacted. With Lela Pittenger. Austin Constitution Meetup Jan. 25, 2010.
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okay so on this particular piece you're
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drafting right now to get our federal
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action review commission is there anyone
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in our state house that you could see
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taking this and going forward with it
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and if if you do see this person how can
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we encourage them how can we how can we
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help you make this happen well we
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already have sent a state representative
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Lee Oberman of Tyler with a proposal
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just on the health care which of course
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has the defects that we don't have a
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health care bill yet and is limited by
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that one piece of legislation in our
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action would not be a greater cause by
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the time that it actually gets enacted
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it may be we mean we could have a
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provision that a Texas Constitution
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which doesn't apply to it at all so I'm
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hoping I sent a message to mr. Berman
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asking him to adopt my proposal and of
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course if enough people contact him
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especially if in his own district he
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might pick it up so at this point it's a
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matter of a lot of people picking it up
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and taking it to their state legislators
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to get them to try to back it I'll be
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doing that with mine I'll be asking
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others to do the same and hopefully some
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of them will pick up on it we'll just
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have to see how that worse but you know
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a lot of people imagine that since the
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state legislature is not in session that
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it's pointless to contact their members
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but in fact they're never really not
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working right they are only not as
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central not their offices are often they
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may be not in their offices they may be
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at home but you can certainly contact
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them and this is the time when they're
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preparing legislation now mr. Berman is
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also called for
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Governor Perry to call a special session
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that's probably not very likely it takes
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a lot of political support to call a
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special session we would need tens or
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thousands of people rallying to to get
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him to do that and if we're going to do
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that we may only get a chance to do it
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once and we're going to do it if we're
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going to spend our political capital on
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something let's create a permanent
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solution that can go on and will operate
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well past just this one issue such as
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this commission would try it would be
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designed to do so that's what I'm
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working on I'm also working on state
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legislators in other states
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representative Susan Linn of Tennessee
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is one of them so I'm trying to rally
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support across the country don't have to
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wait on Texas we can make it a race and
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there's plenty of room for a variety of
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it at different approaches I happen to
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think that mine is the best one but
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perhaps somebody can come up with others
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there would be better suited for their
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states or their circumstances but the
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important thing is to get moving on this
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before we get much working
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unconstitutional legislation it mean
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after all we need to not only prevent
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future legislation we need to repeal
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what some of what we've already got here
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we go to my campaign website for you the
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US Senate in case if and when Senator
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Hutchison finally resins and I can come
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up with a five-thousand-dollar filing
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fee to file for that office
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I have already drafted a bill to repeal
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all federal gun control legislation now
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a lot of people have wondered including
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a lot of gun rights that too is well why
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don't we just get a member of Congress
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to introduce a bill to repeal all
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federal gun control legislation why
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hasn't anybody done that yet well if I
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got elected I would do that in fact I
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have a long list of legislation i'm
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currently trying to draft the last
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earlier what i do in my spare time
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that's the kind of thing I do in which I
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would basically systematically go
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through all the unconstitutional federal
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legislation and introduce bills to
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repeal them now I might not get any
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Coast any seconds on most of that
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legislation but the bills need to at
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least be introduced so people can start
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having a public debate on them and you
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don't get the public debate until you
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get a bill introduced so hopefully I
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could get at least one at least a second
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on them get the ball rolling and
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embarrass the hell out of all people to
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say that they're in favor of gun rights
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that don't actually introduce any
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legislation to repeal stuff it's not
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enough to oppose new bills it's time to
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start rolling it back and never mind
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that we have a Democrat income in the
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house in the White House and majority of
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Democrats in Congress is never too early
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to introduce legislation against the
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time a future time when we may have
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majority as they will like
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enacted most legislation needs to
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percolate for a decade or more before it
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finally gets adopted
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