Andy Horning clarifies July 4th protest in Ft. Wayne's Journal Gazette

More being protested than property taxes

Regarding the editorial,
“Hold the tax ‘fixes’ ” (July 8): There was no “property tax protest” on July Fourth.

It’s true enough that some people (not enough) are still mad about unconstitutional property taxes. This may have motivated about five of the 50 who showed up on the Governor’s Mansion lawn in the pouring rain. But tax policy was never billed as any part of the purpose of this year’s Independence Day protest. In fact, in all five news releases, two radio spots and dozens of e-mails and Internet postings related to this event, I specifically insisted that we were protesting our politicians’ defiance of state and federal constitutions, and not just a specific tax policy. Politicians’ illegal abuse of power is what created our current problems with debt, spending, education, prices, jobs and, OK, property taxes. Politicians are breaking crucial, protective laws in other words, and we were protesting lawless lawmakers, or what I call anarchy.

The disease is ungoverned government. That’s what we were protesting. It’s wrong to report just one symptom such as property tax when that wasn’t the core issue last year either. Last summer’s popular “Tea Party” protests that followed were solely about property tax. And yes, I first advocated constitutionally eliminating property tax back in 1998 and haven’t changed my tune on that subject. But I never had anything to do with a “property tax protest.”

We have much more serious threats to our life, liberty and property.

While the rest of us are tightening our belts and surrendering our rights to keep them fed and happy, our politicians are gorging themselves on money and power with no end but total collapse in sight. It is of course your choice what you want to say about what really happened on July Fourth. It’s your paper. But I hope you offer me the opportunity to set things right.

Constitutions are the laws that protect us from politicians. Politicians, by their nature, break those laws when we let them. It’s time we say “whoa” and end the anarchy.

Our protest was really just one, simple, basic plea: It’s time for politicians to honor their oaths of office and obey written laws, as written. If you’d like to read those laws, they’re all posted at my campaign Web site, http://www.horningforgovernor.com/

ANDY HORNING Freedom