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Veterans Unite!
From the beginning individuals have served their country-some gave all.
PHILIP EARL JONES
Attorney at Law
USA, Ret. Director, Patriots’ Coalition
126 E. Main Plaza, Ste. 6, San Antonio, TX 78205
Phone: Toll free: 1-866-VET-VOTE; Fax: (210) 227-4229
Web Site: http://unitedvets.tripod.com
Email: philipejones@earthlink.net
12-21-03
Press Release: to all veterans, conservatives and media outlets
As many of you know my latest attempt, which started out as the Veterans Party of America and was changed to the United States Veterans Party has resulted in yet ANOTHER fragmentation. The platform plank proposals may be viewed at our state site: http://unitedvets.tripod.com or our interim national site: http://unitedvets_tripod.com The purpose of this lengthy message is to propose a bold reversal of strategy. A brief background is necessary for those not familiar with me. I retired from the Army in 1995 as an NCO, and went to law school in order to find a way to get back our earned, promised, no-cost, lifetime medical care for retired military personnel. After graduating and passing the Texas Bar I filed the Mass Action Health Care Restoration suit (sister suit to Col. Bud Day’s suit on same subject), which was dismissed after the Supreme Court refused to hear Col. Day’s appeal. Currently, my other Mass Action lawsuit, Concurrent Receipt, is on appeal to the Court of Appeals in D.C.
Along the way I have learned quite a bit about our legal system and politics. I have learned enough to despise some of the political procedural tricks used by both Parties in Congress to perpetrate inequities on Veterans, regarding a plethora of issues. To redress these inequities I tried the above-mentioned projects with limited success.
Many of you know I used to be a Republican until the Congressional Concurrent Receipt fiasco of October/November, 2002, after which I withdrew from the Republican Party, as did thousand of other Vets. I continued working as National Director of the Veterans Voting Bloc ( www.vets-voting-bloc.org ), a non-partisan group, and we finally got a partial victory with the recent Concurrent Receipt legislation only two weeks after I sent the attached proposal to the House Armed Services Committee. We need to keep in mind that, while the Democrats postured with a Discharge Petition on this issue, it was a Republican Administration, a Republican House and a Republican Senate, that actually got the Bill passed. This was a monumental victory considering the VSOs had been lobbying for this same thing for over 30 years with almost zero success (and which the Democrats failed to do even when they had control of both Houses and the White House for two years during the Clinton reign). While this is a partial victory, the rate of these piecemeal Veterans victories means that most of us will be dead long before Veterans true equity is achieved, using the same strategies.
All of this has been weighing heavily on my mind during the recent breakup of the Veterans Party. You know that feeling you get when you know you are forgetting something, or leaving something out, but you just can’t put your finger on it? Well, I have had that feeling for a few months now – then it hit me. I suppose it was sparked by the recent complaints by the liberal Democrats regarding the capture of Sadaam – it made me sick when I realized that these people are such radical partisans that it does not matter what President Bush does – they will “find” some reason to criticize it.
There are obviously many things I do not like that the Republican Party has done. However, I realized that there are many more things the Democratic Party has done that I disapprove of. None of us will ever find a Party that satisfies each of our desires.
Through all of the projects I have tried there is one thing I did not try, which someone, whose name I cannot remember, pointed out a few months ago. I dismissed his proposal at the time, but that is what has been nagging at the back of my mind since. That gentleman pointed out that it would be much easier to basically have a friendly takeover of the Republican Party by working from “within” the Party, since a relatively small number of people actually participate at the Precinct level, and a reasonably large number of active participants could actually control the policy of the Party if they became active locally.
At the time I was so disgusted with the performance of my old Party that I failed to recognize the wisdom of that strategy. Then, a couple of weeks ago I saw a group on the Internet in California called the California Republican Veterans, or something like that, and it occurred to me that the strategy suggested made sense. However, to make it work so that the Republican Party will actually reflect the will of the people it will take an organized concerted effort on our part – not just a matter of joining at the Precinct level – we will have to join at the Precinct level with a uniform goal in mind. It will be kind of like a Party within a Party, of sorts.
If you read the platform plank proposals of the United States Veterans Party at: http://unitedvets.tripod.com you will note that the vast majority of people you survey will agree with the majority of those proposals. Try it for yourself – I have – survey one hundred random people on any of the proposals and keep track of the objective poll. These common – sense proposals, which the majority of citizens agree with have not been enacted into law – why is that? Because our elected representatives have not represented the wishes of their constituents - and whose fault is that? It is our own fault, because we have not gotten actively involved, other than to vote – we have LET them get away with it. That can change with active participation. We need to stop wasting our time with marches and rallies, which have accomplished nothing more than to amuse our representatives as they look out the window and chuckle – which I am sure they did while we marched earlier this year in support of Col. Bud Day’s health care restoration lawsuit at the Supreme Court. I was there, with several thousand others, and what did it get us?
I will admit that I never really was active in Party politics, except to vote, and that is not enough. It is going to take a little more effort than merely voting, but what is the alternative – to continue to allow this country to slide into an amoral abyss?
Last night I did some math: lets say there are about 90 million potential members of a Veterans Party (if we only had one Party), when you count 27 million Vets, 2 million retirees, the National Guard, Reserves, Active duty personnel and all of their families. Let us further presume, for mathematical convenience, that the Democratic and Republican Parties have about 100 million members each. Assuming that we could garner, out of our potential 90 million about 40 million vets or supporters to join our Veterans Party, and that about half were from each of the two main Parties. That would leave each Party with 80 million each, a force we could not defeat in Congress with our mere 40 million. A worse case scenario would be that we drew away 30 million Republicans and only 10 million Democrats. In that case, not only could we not defeat either of them, but also we would have weakened the Republicans to the point that the Democrats would control everything. Well, what happened when the Democrats controlled Congress AND the White House for two years during Clinton’s Presidency? Did we get any Concurrent Receipt or TriCare For Life – NO!!! Where were these Discharge petitioners then? I do not want to see that again.
Now, let’s take that same 40 million people we could theoretically garner support from as a Veterans Party and presume we could convince only a fourth of them to join, en masse, the Republican Party again (or for the first time), with the intent of actively participating at the Precinct level to elect our representatives to the state and national Party Committees. I believe a nationally coordinated coalition of Veterans with the ultimate goal of changing the Platform of the Republican Party from within, would be our best chance for success in our lifetime. All of the conservative third Parties out there could join in this effort and actually control our own destiny. After considering all of the options, and realizing that forming a third Party is extremely costly in money and effort, I call on all Veterans and conservative third Parties, who agree with our proposals listed at the website above, to join my last attempt to complete this mission: the “Patriots’ Coalition”, so named so that we do not need the approval of the RNC.
We have all recognized that there is a problem, but how many of you have had the same experience as me – never became active at the Party Precinct level? If you agree with me fill, and are willing to donate one hour a month – just reply to this message in the affirmative and/or fill out the members application at the end of this Press Release, and we will get started. You may also call 1-866-Vet-Vote. I sincerely believe this is our best chance to achieve the equity we deserve, and I believe the Republican Party is the closest to our ideals, of the two main Parties. The proposals found at the website mentioned above are a STARTING point, and they will obviously be refined as we progress. If you are willing to serve as a Precinct, County, District or State Coordinator please indicate which and I will send you instructions accordingly.
In closing I would like to mention that we all should thank President Bush for his performance in the war on terror – we have not had another 911 since he has been in charge, the economy is great, his signing of the Concurrent Receipt legislation, and the man actually placed himself in harm’s way on Thanksgiving to boost the morale of the troops – I applaud the President, and will now support him in every way, from within the Party, while working to change the Party platform from within.
I need everyone to do three things: 1. Fill out the members’ application below and send back; 2. If possible volunteer as either a State, Precinct, or County Coordinator and attend the very next RNC Precinct, or County RNC Meeting; 3. If not either of the above, please volunteer to spend at least one hour a month working for the RNC effort or this coalition's effort.
State Coordinators need to recruit members and obtain County Maps of your state from the Court House Elections office. Then, you will need to select all of your County coordinators out of the new members we send you.
The County Coordinators need to go to the Court House Elections office and get Precinct maps sorted by zip codes, or whatever method they use to identify which Precincts new members reside in. They need to then appoint Precinct Coordinators out of the members sent to them by the state Coordinator. Then, they will simply relay info up and down the chain.
Precinct Coordinators should all go to the first available Precinct meeting and learn the routine - then report to the County Coordinator what takes place and how many members show up.
With this method we may determine actually how many members we need to command a majority, in order to elect one of our own members to be the representative at each higher level. If everyone will be willing to donate one hour a month to this effort I believe we can make it work by not working hard, but working smart. It is critical, because of the short time period until elections that we start immediately going to the meetings.
I will work on getting us a national monthly newspaper started wherein we may relay info to our members who do not have computers.
Thank You, Phil Jones
THE PATRIOTS’ COALITION
126 E. Main Street
San Antonio, Texas 78205
I, the undersigned, am/will be a registered voter in the Republican Party and am applying for membership in the Patriots’ Coalition.
________________________________
SIGNATURE
_______________________________________________________
I would like to volunteer to serve on the following committee (Please select your first three choices and indicate your preference by numbering them 1-3 in order of their importance to you):
Administrative Committees:
National Defense including Veterans Affairs______; Education______; Employment Issues______; Immigration______; Social Security______; Economic Affairs______; Foreign Aid_______; Welfare______; Affirmative Action______; Criminal Justice______; Health Care______; Second Amendment______; Environmental Issues______; Foreign Trade______;
Other (Please indicate. We are open to all suggestions and/or proposals) ____________________________________________________________________
__________________________________
I am unable to serve on any committees,
but count me among your numbers as a member of the Patriots’ Coalition. _______
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