Barbara Lee doesn't really speak for me
By failing to respond when our country is under attack, and by attacking the US constitution herself, Lee opens herself to criticism

By Robb McFadden and Kelso G. Barnett
9:30 AM, 2/6/2003

With last week's feature article in TIME magazine about the California Patriot and our impact on campus, we have received much praise and interest from supporters across the country. However, no praise was quite as gratifying as Berkeley Congresswoman Barbara Lee's response to the article on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

"Now from TIME magazine," the interviewer started, "they have a piece about a new conservative campus publication called the California Patriot...and the article says that the Patriot has courted controversy from the start dubbing you a traitor for casting the sole vote in the House."

Finally, the moment conservatives across the country have been waiting for--the moment when Barbara Lee would face the music. Following 9-11, her vote against military action in Afghanistan enraged Americans from coast to coast, but conservatives held Congresswoman Lee in especially low regard. Not only was her vote wrong, it also represented everything that the 'Blame America First' crowd stood for. Consequently, a Patriot staff writer editorialized against her and labeled her a traitor for her actions, and now it was time for Barbara Lee to answer her critics.

"Well, let me just say, obviously they don't know what democracy is," she replied. "And obviously they do not understand that the right to dissent is central to our form of democracy."

In fact, dissent is central to our form of democracy, but unfortunately, so is tolerance of stupidity. When Barbara Lee voted against military action in Afghanistan, she exercised her full rights as a United States Congresswoman to represent her constituents and vote as she pleased, but in doing so, she also chose not to defend the country that gave her those very rights.

Lee concluded her statement by saying, "I am just shocked that young people would not be clear enough and informed enough with regard to the central elements of our Constitution and the right to provide a different point of view."

We at the Patriot take issue with Congresswoman Lee's assertion that, when it comes to the Constitution, we're misinformed. On the contrary, we know our Constitution so well, that we stand up for it against all enemies. When our country was attacked that tragic September morning, Osama and his band of thugs didn't just fly planes into concrete and steel. The World Trade Center and the Pentagon were symbols of this country's financial and military might--all possible because of our Constitution.

This divinely inspired document, written during the hot Philadelphia summer of 1787, has allowed our country to become a shining beacon of freedom for all the world. Our central constitutional values of separation of powers, liberty and justice is why the terrorists attacked us, and why they will go to great lengths to "kill the infidels."

At the very root of the attack on America was an attack on our Constitution, the document that serves as the foundation of this great land.

Three days later, across the river from a still smoldering Pentagon, Barbara Lee attacked the Constitution again. As our country unified as one people in those days after 9-11, ready to seek justice for the three thousand Americans who lay dead, Barbara Lee couldn't bring herself to defend this country. As a United States Congressman, it was a detestable act.

When Lee was sworn into Congress, she vowed to protect this country from all enemies, foreign or domestic. Not only has she not lived up to her oath, but a case could be made that she has become an enemy from within. It's not good enough to defend your vote by saying, "it's my right to dissent." From what do you dissent? Your own country while it is being attacked?

So, we'll say it again. We hope we're clear this time.

When Barbara Lee was the sole member of Congress to vote against the War Powers Act of September 14th, she was a traitor.

She turned away from her country when it needed her most. It's an act we at the California Patriot will never forget.