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JIM TRAFICANT: CAN HE UNIFY THIRD PARTIES?
By Michael Collins Piper
Former congressman Jim Traficant will make a major speech on national and world affairs in Washington to AMERICAN FREE PRESS supporters and all good Americans who care to come on Saturday, February 13, a holiday weekend.
Monday, February 15, is the official “President’s Day” holiday. The holiday had been known as “George Washington’s Birthday” until Congress, in an ill-considered move, changed the official name. By chance, it is also Valentine’s Day. But it does give you an extra travel day.
Registration for the Traficant conference begins at noon on February 13 at the Capitol Skyline Hotel, located on Capitol Hill in downtown Washington, near the Capitol and the House and Senate office buildings. Call the hotel at: (202) 488-7500 for room details.
Formal events unfold at 2 p.m. with introductions, followed by Traficant’s speech, with question-and-answer sessions. There will be formal breaks and a reception.
Participants will mingle and exchange ideas with Traficant and AFP staff. “You are not coming to Washington just for a speech but for a very special speech,” said AFP’s Peter Papaheraklis, who set up the event. “You will enjoy casually meeting Mr. Traficant, our staff and your fellow patriots.”
Several individuals have put themselves forward as potential leaders of an America First movement. However, Traficant is the one who stands out as having the intellect, the experience, the drive, the emotion, the agenda—and, most of all, the guts—to step ahead of the crowd and address the issues.
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Flexible and not hide-bound to ideology, open to solutions, and experienced in government, Traficant has always been non-partisan in the classic sense. Although he served as a Democrat in Congress—nine terms in the House—Traficant was always a genuine independent, a “maverick” in every sense, often voting against the party line in the best interests of the American people.
Jim didn’t get rich while serving in Congress—unlike many others. Instead, he worked hard on behalf of his constituents, bringing jobs into a region where insane free trade policies were shutting down local businesses and putting thousands of folks out of work. Traficant emerged as one of the leading critics of “free” trade at a time when many politicians—Republicans and Democrats alike—were still touting globalist measures such as NAFTA that have savaged the American economy.
They’re backtracking now and starting to sound like Jim Traficant. But Traficant never changed his tune. He’s saying today precisely what he first said 25 years ago when he came to Washington as a member of the House of Representatives.
Prior to serving in Congress, Jim was a popular sheriff in the famed “rustbelt” community in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley. Before that he was a drug counselor, well-versed in one of the most serious problems affecting every community in America Traficant understands the big cities and the small towns and he knows how government works—or doesn’t work—at local, state and national levels. He’s always mixed freely and on a congenial basis with people of all types. He was ranked regularly on an annual basis as “the friendliest member of Congress.”
By instinct a coalition builder, Traficant understands the necessity of uniting diverse groups in order to achieve common goals. But he’s never swayed from saying, right up front, that it’s time to place America First. A classic “grass-roots” kind of guy from Middle America, Traficant understands traditional American values and he’s literally seen it (although not by choice) from both sides of the bars.
He’s seen first-hand how our Constitution and our civil liberties can be uprooted and twisted and how big government—a direct outgrowth of the abandonment of constitutional principles—has expanded exponentially. Traficant never shields away from taking on the FBI or the CIA or the IRS. He’s consistently stood on the side of the people against corrupt government agencies.
And anyone who says that someone such as Traficant, who has spent time in prison, isn’t qualified to lead because his background would be “too controversial” just doesn’t have any real sense of what America is all about. There are millions of Americans—including “nice” people—who have been behind bars (rightly or wrongly) and they have many more millions of husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and children and aunts and uncles and cousins who turn out to vote, who have political opinions.
Anyone who rejects Traficant’s leadership because of his unwarranted time in prison just doesn’t have a serious understanding of American politics or social reality. Traficant is unlike any other politician. He not only wears his seven years in prison as a badge of honor, but he also refused to seek clemency or a pardon because he would not agree to apologize for, or admit to, crimes he did not commit.
But Traficant is unique in many important other ways. Traficant actually talks about the Constitution and what it means and why it’s being ignored.
He says the IRS needs to be eliminated and that a new tax system can supply all the revenue America needs to function without raping the taxpayers every April 15. Traficant also says that the Federal Reserve System isn’t federal—that it’s the creation of and controlled by international banks and financial institutions that have no loyalty to America or the American people—and that the Fed needs to be abolished.
He openly challenges the influence of the Israeli lobby—and other well-heeled lobbies and interests—in official Washington. (Really, how many other politicians can you name who dare to challenge the Israeli lobby?)
Traficant thinks it’s time that America brings its troops home from policing the world and engaging in fruitless and unnecessary foreign wars and put them to work protecting America’s borders and sovereignty from waves of illegal immigrants and potential enemies.
Come to Washington—along with other Americans from across the country—and hear what Jim has to say. It’s time for a Second American Revolution and this could—and should—be the beginning.
A journalist specializing in media critique, Michael Collins Piper is the author of The High Priests of War, The New Jerusalem, Dirty Secrets, The Judas Goats, The Golem, Target Traficant and My First Days in the White House All are available from AFP.
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(Issue # 52, December 28, 2009)
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