Did you know???

…  that your elected representatives in government work for YOU, and that they are accountable to YOU?  If you didn’t, you should, and you should also know how well your employee is doing their job.

Most people who have been in the military or who have ever worked with a company of any significant size are familiar with employee evaluations and ratings. Most large organizations officially evaluate their employees on at least an annual basis. It’s a way to identify employees who deserve recognition and promotion, which ones are doing their jobs…and which ones need corrective action or termination.

Unfortunately, there is no official evaluation process for our elected officials. However, organizations that hold the same values and priorities that we do often provide reports or scorecards that can help us identify which elected representatives are cutting the mustard…and which ones are not.

Conservative Review has analyzed over 6,000 votes, taking the 50 most important to calculate a Liberty Score for every senator and congressman in America.

The type of votes examined are a comprehensive look at all major policy areas including spending, civil liberties, education, energy, the environment, foreign policy, free market issues, health care, immigration, moral issues, the Second Amendment, taxes, the economy and trade. In other words, across-the-board ideology.

Now, there was more than enough evidence before the 2014 senate vote to know that Mike Rounds was going to produce pathetic results.  His record as governor of South Dakota produced a “better than a Democrat” lackluster performance typical of RINOs. And now, six months in (when he should be making his best impression, theoretically not having been in Washington D.C. long enough for Potomac Fever to have set in yet), he scores a pitiful 20%. Some of the vote hits he took include voting for more costly government health care programs, supporting the nomination of ultra-Leftist Loretta Lynch, and funding for President Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty.

Incidentally, Mike Rounds’ 20% is the same score Democrat Gary Peters got, and a whopping four percentage points better than admitted socialist Bernie Sanders.  Yeah, I told you so.  Repeatedly. For over a year.

But we expected better of John Thune and Kristi Noem when we first elected them.

John Thune is the stereotypical “home town boy,” a nice guy who is easy to like. I like him personally, myself. I’ve talked with him a number of times, prayed with him, and met with him in his office in Washington D.C.  He defeated ultra-liberal Tom Daschle back in 2004 and his status as “giant killer” helped him quickly rise to the #3 position among Senate Republicans. But a Liberty Score of 52%, to quote Dirty Harry’s evaluation of a coworker’s mouthwash, ain’t making it.

We also expected better of Kristi Noem back in 2010.  Another “hometown girl” from the ranch, with a pretty good record in the legislature. Both I and the Tea Party group I helped found endorsed her and supported her in 2010. She quickly rose to prominence, being picked for a freshman leadership position. But she wasn’t in Washington a year before she started wimping out on us and backing a worthless “debt deal” which everyone quickly realized would only allow deficit spending to continue, and resulted in the historic downgrade of America’s credit rating. Sadly, her voting record hasn’t gotten better since then.

Now, in June, the U.S. Supreme court issued two glaringly unconstitutional and tyrannical opinions concerning ObamaCare and marriage. What have our elected representatives done in response to these attacks on the U.S. Constitution and our way of life?  Not much.

Some may give them kudos for their empty rhetoric, for mouthing all the right words while doing nothing to combat the evil that has taken control of our government. I am not one of them.

Even the legislation some are supporting which is aimed at protecting our First Amendment-protected rights of free speech and religious liberty (well, for some people in some situations, as we found out in Indiana), while better than actively joining in the evil, are little more than toilet tissue as a barrier to a Supreme Court that will heap contempt on the Article 1 Section 8 and Tenth Amendment limitations on government, and will eagerly violate the Article 1 Section 1 reservation of lawmaking authority to congress–not to mention will spit on thousands of years of understanding that our Creator instituted marriage to be between a man and a woman.

Can we really expect a government body that would destroy such solid, historical bulwarks to pay heed to some flimsy new legislative act?

Congress has the authority and the power to impeach judges who violate the U.S. Constitution and their oath to abide by it. With a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate, they have the ability to carry forward impeachment actions. Yet they have not made even the tiniest whisper in favor of taking the only just and appropriate action toward this blatant usurpation of power. They haven’t even spoken out in defiance of the blatantly unlawful action of the court.

It should be noted, too, that on a state level, while South Dakota’s governor and attorney general have also mouthed the right words in response to the latest atrocity from the U.S. Supreme Court, they have taken no action whatsoever to resist or even disregard this blatant usurpation of state authority, the rule of law and the will of the people. On occasion in the past, they have been complicit with the Leftist enemy in advancing unconstitutional acts, and attacking conservatives who have tried to do something to defend against evil. I wish Conservative Review did a scorecard of state officials; I would like to see where these jokers running South Dakota as “Republicans” would rank.

Though our state and federal representatives may not be in the active camp of those working tirelessly to destroy this great nation as most Democrats are, they are certainly doing nothing to defend it. Was there any attempt to get two radical pro-homosexual activists on the Supreme Court (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan) to recuse themselves, or to even appeal the opinion? Or did they just bellyache for 2 minutes and then just obediently roll over?

Irion County Texas District Clerk Molly Criner understands what it means to stand against tyranny. From OneNewsNow:

“To keep my oath to uphold the Constitution, I must reject this ruling that I believe is lawless,” Criner stated when announcing her stance. “I have to stand for the Constitution and the rule of law.”

“The Justices of the Supreme Court acted outside and against the authority granted to them by the very Constitution that we have sworn to uphold,” contends Criner, who has been offered legal representation over the matter by the Christian nonprofit legal group,Liberty Counsel…

Staver says that Americans standing for true justice should not succumb to a bad ruling, but join together and stand for the intended law of the land.

“The opinion of five lawyers regarding marriage is another example of an unjust law that will be overcome as people stand together, individually, and as States,” the pro-family leader continued.

The Virginia-based attorney adamantly urges citizens not to back down and submit to a ruling that he says defies the very principles that have guided America for centuries.

“Like Molly, each of us should vow not to be intimidated but, instead, to stand united for our God-given liberties and the Rule of Law,” Staver exhorted Americans across the country.

Criner hasn’t resigned like some rather principled clerks have done, slinking away as if they had done something wrong; she’s standing her ground and fighting for what is right.

Why is it that a clerk in Irion County, Texas, whose very job is on the line and who is personally going to bat against tyranny can figure this out, but U.S. senators and congressmen, far more insulated from consequence than Molly Criner, who literally work across the street from these black-robed tyrants, can’t seem to find the anatomy to fight judicial tyranny?

Something few citizens and fewer still Republicans understand is that evil does not rest. Evil does not appease. Evil does not compromise, except to buy itself more time in which to grow stronger to attack later. Evil does not want to “get along.”  Evil does not seek “bipartisanship.”  Evil does not seek “mutual understanding.”  Evil seeks to dominate, to conquer, to force obeisance, to control, to destroy.

While our “Republican” elected officials seek truce with evil and accommodation from it, evil seeks the complete dominion over and destruction of all that is good.  Our “Republican” representatives are so naive and weak (at best), it is deplorable.

I would have to say that someone who has the power and authority to do something to fight evil, yet does nothing to wield that power, is a form of collaborator with that evil.

You may think me extreme in saying so…but I am reminded of Barry Goldwater’s wise words: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”

And if my expectation of action and leadership from our elected officials still seems “extreme,” consider what Dietrich Bonhoeffer thought of those who do nothing when evil is on the march:

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.

Nor was Bonhoeffer alone in his expectation that people who call themselves good should take action. Martin Luther King Jr., when confronting tyranny and unjust government action, observed:

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

Finally, we would do well to remember the statement often attributed to Edmund Burke:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

Our elected officials will continue this pathetic performance, and will continue to allow this great nation to go down the toilet,  as long as “we the people” continue to put up with this crap and keep re-electing them.

So if you like tyranny, if you like seeing the greatest nation in history sink into a liberal cesspool of mediocrity, impotence and oppression, then keep patting them on the back and keep voting for them.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, if we can’t make them see the light, we have to make them feel the heat.

And the warmth of our lips on their rear ends isn’t enough heat to get the job done.

*** Bob Ellis *** Is a conservative author  and Life and Liberty News contributor