Nancy Pelosi Trying to Limit Grassroots Activism?

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Published on Thursday, 21 December 2006 01:00

Written by Daniel White

The biggest strength of Ohioans For Concealed Carry has always been the efforts of our grassroots members. The ability to mobilize that base to contact their legislators has been crucial for gun rights reform in Ohio. Similar actions have been widely credited with the waves of reform which have swept the country in recent years.

Now, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly making overtures to curb that sort of grassroots activism by establishing "lobbying reform" to impose strict new regulations on such displays of free speech.

According to some reports:

The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of "grassroots lobbying" and require any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.

The new legislation is expected to be modeled on the failed 2006 bill H.R. 4682. If so, then in addition to that requirement, grassroots organizations would also be required to file quarterly reports on all informational and educational materials produced for each issue. Other regulations expected to be included the requirement to be registered with congress and impose strict and heavy penalties for failure to comply.

Washington Examiner editorial page editor Mark Tapscott put it best when he said, "In other words, for the first time in American history, potentially millions of concerned citizens involved in grassroots lobbying and representing viewpoints from across the entire political spectrum would have to register with Congress in order to exercise their First Amendment rights."

This is nothing less than a further attack by elitist Liberals who are determined to squash any public outcry against policies they set forth. Grassroots activism is one of the purest forms of political activism, with broad support coming directly from the people. Any attempt to throttle the voice of the American people into silence, whether through a direct act or the intrusion of oppressive regulation, is a direct affront to the very freedoms upon which this country was built and must not be tolerated.

Will such an attack on Free Speech die in infancy, or will it be merely the first encroachment in an effort to break free of the Will of the People and ensure unpopular policies are imposed upon the sheeple without opposition?

While the Second Amendment has always been the focus of the efforts of OFCC, almost nothing we do would be possible without the First. We will be watching these developments closely.

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