Voting Biblically
Oct. 29, 2024
Host: Dr. Gary Dull
Co-host: Dave Kistler
Guest(s): Hon. John Eichelberger
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 10/29/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Gary Dull: Well, greetings, dear friends, in the name of our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we want to welcome you to another edition of the Stand in the Gap Radio program. I’m Gary Dull, and along with me today is Dave Kistler, and we’re going to be discussing the concept of voting biblically. I think that’s a pretty good subject to take into consideration today, voting biblically. And then in addition to that, we have a special guest with us. He’s the honorable John Eichelberger, who’s been with us in the past on a program or two, and he’s been involved in government for many years as a commissioner for Blair County Pennsylvania, as well as a state senator from the 30th Senatorial District here in Pennsylvania, which is the district in which I reside. And not only that, but he’s a Christian. He loves the Lord, he’s a good friend of mine and we’re delighted to have him on the program as well.
Gary Dull: And as I said, today we’re going to be focusing on the concept of voting biblically and then we’ll be talking with John about a very special project that he’s been asked to work on that I believe will be of interest at least maybe an encouragement, but at least of an interest to many of you who are across America today. But the fact of the matter is election day is coming as of right now, November the fifth is just one week away. And I’m sure that many of you have already voted in that early advanced voting is a legal process in America. And I guess that you could say that I’m just an old fashioned guy because I do not vote in advance, and that’s to the disappointment of many of my friends, but rather I vote on the day that has been statutorily set by the United States government as, and I quote it as it is written the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even number of years, which is the Tuesday that occurs within November the second of the eighth, which this year is November the fifth. Now that sounds like governmental lingo, doesn’t it? Well, it is. It’s actually taken right out of the governmental policy book as I’ve read it, the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November of even number of years, which is the Tuesday that occurs within November the second of the eighth this year so many people do vote in advance. I usually wait to the actual election day. And Dave, I believe that you and your wife Betsy have already voted early, is that correct,
Dave Kistler: Gary? It is. We voted this past Saturday and I’m like you. I like to normally vote on election day, which would be November 5th, but because I was going to be out of town on the fifth, I did have to vote early and I’m thankful for the opportunity to do that. But also I voted early this year because of the big push to try to get those that that can to vote early in case something were to happen on election day I were to get sick or that we were to have some weather event. But normally, Gary, every election I try to vote on the election day itself, but this year we did it early.
Gary Dull: Seems this year more people are voting early. The only time I’ve ever voted early is when I’ve been out of town and have used an absentee ballot. Like I said, I’m just old fashioned I guess, and like to vote on the day that’s designated. John, what about you and your wife, Charlotte? Did you vote early or are you waiting the next Tuesday to vote?
John Eichelberger: We’re waiting until Tuesday. We’re like you. We can stick with the traditional day. I think I’ve only done it maybe twice, maybe over my lifetime where I was away. This was years ago before the no rules absentee ballots. But yeah, we like to vote on election day.
Gary Dull: I understand that probably the early voting is up this year more so than in the past, and I’ve heard already that there’s been some discrepancies even here in the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Have you heard anything about that, John?
John Eichelberger: I have, yeah. I heard on the news this morning, 44 million people have voted across the United States so far, which is much more than anybody anticipated in the Lancaster County situation was the applications for ballots. And then it’s affected three counties I guess, is the same person they feel has been supplying some fraudulent applications to three counties. So it’s an ongoing investigation. We’ll see how that comes out here as they look into it.
Gary Dull: Well, it’s something I think that we need to be concerned about, not only here in Pennsylvania but across the nation. But you know, folks, ever since I was a child, I always looked forward to election day, which was a big day in western Pennsylvania where I grew up. As a matter of fact, I can remember how my parents and others would always reach out to other people and encourage them to vote and would even offer to drive them to the polls and sometimes offer them a meal in the process if they would go out and vote. Now, mom and dad never told people how to vote, but they were very concerned that people would actually vote and they encouraged it very strongly, and my dad drove that into me as I was a child growing up. And the first time that I voted was in the presidential election in 1972.
Gary Dull: And of course in that particular voting cycle, I voted for Richard Nixon and I can remember the day that I went to vote. I was very thrilled. And I’ve got to tell you that even 50 years later, as I’m now 72 years of age, for me personally, it’s still a thrill to go and vote and participate in government in that way. I always look forward to election day. It’s almost like Christmas morning for me to get up and say, this is the day to go vote, and I’m looking forward to next Tuesday. But voting in America as I see it is a right and a privilege as well as a responsibility for all legal American citizens. And I emphasize that word legal. Now, it is sad to see that the liberals of the left are working hard to make it legal, non-citizen immigrants to vote, which I see as a violation of the United States Constitution.
Gary Dull: As a matter of fact, as I see it, if you are an American citizen, then get out and vote. If you’re not an American citizen, then don’t vote until you become a legal citizen, become a full-fledged citizen and then you can vote. Now, one of the issues that we face these days is that many people, even Christians do not vote. And yet there are no less than four amendments to the United States Constitution that encourages voting. I’m not going to read those amendments for you today, but they are Amendment 15, 19, 24 and 26. Get your copy of the Constitution and read all about what it has to say about voting. Now, just a few days ago, I was talking to a Christian brother about voting who said that he does not vote because God will put into office those he wants to be in office. Then he made a reference to Romans chapter 13 in verse one, which says, the powers that be are ordained of God.
Gary Dull: Now my response to that was, yes, I recognize that it is God who puts people into office, but in America, God does that through the vote to the people. Well, he could not see that even though I did my best to convince him accordingly. Now, the preamble of the United States Constitution says that the people of the United States virtually make up the government. And when you read that preamble, you’ll see that it says that we are to labor to form a more perfect union. How do we do that? Well, one of the ways of doing that is by voting. I had an uncle who never voted, and when I asked him why, he said, well, if I do not vote, then I’ve got the right to criticize whoever is elected, which I think is probably a pretty bad reason for not to vote. And so we’re going to be talking today about the importance of voting.
Gary Dull: They say that in the last presidential election, at least 40 million Christians did not vote. And they’re saying that this year it could be 41 million Christians who are not planning on voting. My opinion, that’s a pretty sad thing for Christians. So today we’re going to be talking about Christians voting and voting biblically. We’ll discuss this with John and Dave. We’ll be back to conduct this conversation in just a few moments. Don’t go away. We’ll be back right after this break. Well, welcome back ladies and gentlemen. I’m Gary Dull, along with Dave Kissler and John Eel Berger. And we’re going to be talking about voting biblically in this segment. And here at the American Pastor’s Network and the Stand in the Gap Today radio program, we truly believe that as a matter of fact, it’s our conviction that Christians should vote and vote biblically. As a matter of fact, a week ago this past Sunday, I delivered a message at the Faith Baptist Church of Altoona where I serve that I entitled the Biblical approach to voting.
Gary Dull: And in that message I had four points. Number one, we should vote legitimately. That is according to the encouragement and allowance of the United States Constitution, we should vote biblically. That is for those people and policies that are biblically based. We should vote prayerfully by seeking God’s direction as to who we should vote for and then we should vote courageously. And by that I meant don’t be ashamed to tell people who and what you voted for in certain issues. I remember people used to say that you should never tell somebody else who you voted for or what you voted for, but I believe that a courageous Christian will stand up and say, yes, I voted for so-and-so and I voted for this policy. As a matter of fact, the older I become and the longer I live, the more I believe that sharing with others who I voted for and why I voted for is one of the ways that I can be an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ and portray a biblical worldview.
Gary Dull: Well, in my message on the biblical approach to voting, I gave nine principles on what it means to vote biblically that we should vote pro-life. We should vote for a strong border. We should vote for the biblical family. We should vote for proper government. We should vote in support of the nation of Israel. We should vote for truth and freedom. We should vote for personal responsibility. And what I mean by that is its second Thessalonians three 10 says, if we don’t work, we don’t eat. And so we must vote for policies that build personal responsibility. We should vote for religious freedom and then we should vote for that which honors God in all things. And that was my four point outline with nine points under the second point. And so I’ve got to tell you I rushed to get through that particular sermon. But Dave, I want to go to you because as a preacher of the gospel, I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind giving your comments on these nine principles of voting biblically and then add to them in any way that you wish. I know that the other day in our podcast on Sunday, on Saturday, excuse me, we talked a little bit about voting biblically and you brought out some points, but why don’t you just add to what I have shared and explain to people what it means to vote biblically and why they should vote biblically, particularly in these days in which we live.
Dave Kistler: Well, Gary, thank you for the opportunity to do so. And again, it’s a delight to be on the program with you. I want to say this, you brought up something about a man with whom you spoke earlier in the week and he said, I’m not going to vote because God will put in place or into the position whoever he wants there. And that’s true, we do believe in the sovereignty of God, but I think I heard it stated well by one of my good friends, and that’s Congressman Louis Gohmert from the state of Texas. He said, hiding behind the sovereignty of God as an excuse for not doing what we ought to do is like leaning on a shovel and expecting a hole to appear. No, the hole is not going to appear unless we I’ve
Gary Dull: Heard you say that
Dave Kistler: Dig it. Yeah. And the other thing is this, Gary, my dad told me this and I voted for the first time in 1980. My dad said this, he said, son, don’t vote party, don’t even vote a person don’t vote because you like the person, you like their looks. You like their speaking ability. Don’t vote person. You need to vote principle, vote for those principles and the people that espouse the principles that most closely align with the word of God. And those nine things, Gary, that you’ve mentioned, there are things that are right from sacred scripture. And a couple of weeks ago, I was invited to go to a church and speak on the topic of voting. And I didn’t have nine of them. I had five of them. But some of the five key principles that I believe are absolutely in many ways non-negotiables four, which I must vote are the life issue, whether it be the life of the unborn, the life of those that are aged and not trying to end their life prematurely because they’re considered no longer productive to society.
Dave Kistler: Life is important. The other thing is marriage is God defines marriage. You were to adhere voting for the biblical family. I agree with that. Voting in support of Israel, to me that is a non-negotiable because of Genesis 12, three, God says, oh, bless. Bless Israel curses that curse Israel. So support for Israel is absolutely essential to me, voting for religious liberty, and you called it religious freedom, same thing. And then voting for those that support those things, which as a general in a general way, honor God, I could not agree more. Gary, these are the things about which we must take note. We must consider, we must educate ourselves on what the respective candidates, whether it be on the local level, state level, federal level, what they believe, and then vote for those individuals whose principles, the things that you’ve mentioned here, those principles most closely align with the word of God, cast our ballot then for them.
Gary Dull: Well, before I go to John Dave, I mentioned in the last segment that statistics show that probably at the last presidential election, 40 million Christians did not vote. And I think it’s George Barna who is saying that it’s estimated that 41 million Christians will not vote this cycle. Why is it in your opinion that Christians who supposedly love the Lord, know the Lord, love the Lord, know the word of God, don’t go out and vote. What is it that prevents Christians from voting?
Dave Kistler: Well, sometimes Gary, it may be that they don’t feel that they have the perfect candidate or the ideal candidate for whom they can cast their ballot. But when we cease to vote or we don’t involve ourself in the specific responsibilities that I believe that we have as citizens of the United States, and I believe those civic responsibilities are also biblical responsibilities. When we don’t do that, we allow the process to become what a lot of Christians call it. And it’s become this way because of lack of involvement. And that is it’s become a very dark world. It’s become, in many ways a very dirty world, but it will become that when we are not involved and bring our Christian values to bear. So like you, Gary, I don’t understand it. I know there’s been a lot more early voting in North Carolina this time than in 2020. I’m hoping that that figure that George Margay 41 million Christians will probably not vote this time. I hope that is absolutely blown out of the water and that Christians understand this is indeed the most important election in our lifetime.
Gary Dull: I know we’ve been saying that I think every four years, but I think every four years it is the most important election in our lifetime. John Eichelberger, I want to go to you and before I ask you a question, I think my daughter-in-law, Melanie, don’t you? You know who I’m talking about. Melanie do. She’s doing work for the Republican party. She’s going around and asking people to vote, and this last Saturday she was telling me that she went to a person who lives in Tyrone. Now I know we’re talking to people in California, you don’t know where Tyrone is, but it’s a little town north of Altoona, Pennsylvania where John and I are right now. But she went to a home up in Tyrone that there were Trump signs all over the yard. She said she could hardly get into the front door because of the Trump signs. And she said, I’m here to ask you to vote, but I guess I can see who you will be voting for. It’ll be Donald Trump. He said, no, I’m not voting for Trump because I do not vote. If I did, I would probably vote for Trump, but I’m not going to vote. Now, what do you think of that one?
John Eichelberger: Yeah, that’s a funny one. That’s a good story to remember. You never know. You just don’t.
Gary Dull: I wonder how many times that’s multiplied across the board where people will put up signs to vote for, so-and-so, or they’re supporting so-and-so, but they don’t actually go and vote for those people. That’s an interesting thought. I never thought of that until Mel shared that with me the other day. But John is a Christian conservative, and you’ve got the reputation of being the conservative. When you were in the state senate here in Pennsylvania, you’ve been involved in government for many years, and I’m wondering how often have you found out about Christians who do not vote, and if they do they vote person or party and not biblically Now from an insider in government, have you experienced that? And if so, how do you think that could be changed?
John Eichelberger: Well, I have experienced it, and actually the church I grew up in took a dim view of people being involved in politics. As Dave said, it was really kind of a dirty thing and people just didn’t really get involved with it. And we needed to be a little more separate from the world. The biblical view and the worldview were in contradiction to one another. So we thought that that was participating in the worldview of things in government. And of course I grew up then and got involved in politics and ran for office and did all the things that I’ve done over the years. So it’s changed. But I think some of those people today would be different because I think back then most of what government did, at least in my recollection as a younger person, was that they took care of the fundamentals of government.
John Eichelberger: They provided for roads and the military and social security and all the things that we think of that government does. And the social agenda really wasn’t at least evident then, at least to me now, it’s more of really, I think in a lot of ways a Christian view versus a non-Christian view in a lot of what’s done in government today, which should never be part of what government does, but it is. So I think some of them might see that. And as Dave said, if we stay out of it, we will not have the proper people in place to make the right decisions and have that biblical view.
Gary Dull: Well, John, I agree. And one of the things that I’ve often said, in fact I preached about it here a week and a half ago, and that is that God has ordained three institutions. The first is the Holman family in Genesis two. The second is civil government in Genesis nine, and of course Romans 13. And then of course the third one is the church as is brought out in Acts chapter two. And I believe that as Christians, we must be involved in all three of God’s institutions to support what it is that God has established to rule the world as it is. And so from the biblical point of view, the biblical worldview, I believe that we should be involved in government. We should stand up for biblical truth and vote for those who are going to support biblical truth. And so ladies and gentlemen, if you’re a Christian, get out and vote and vote biblically.
Gary Dull: Now, when we return after this break, we’re going to chat with John about a great opportunity he has been invited to participate in that has the potential to change how people vote in the future. You’ll not want to miss these next two segments, so please stand by. We will be right back after these messages. Well, thank you for staying tuned. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m Gary Dull. Along with me is Dave Kistler and John Eichelberger. We’re just speaking on voting biblically, and I would encourage you that if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, whether you vote in advance or wait till November the fifth, make sure that you vote biblically, don’t vote person or party, but vote as it relates to biblical principles. And I believe in doing that God will use you to strengthen our country, but we’re going to change gears a little bit and talk about a subject that well many people are interested in.
Gary Dull: And sometimes it’s a hotly discussed subject. It’s divided people, and that’s the concept of term limits. For as far back as I can remember, there have been people who were voted into certain offices who remained in those offices for many, many years, if not even for a lifetime on the federal level. At one time there were no term limits for any federal office at all. But back in 1951, the 22nd Amendment was ratified to the United States Constitution that stated that no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. And that was ratified, as I said, on February the 27th, 1951. And as far as I know, there were no other term limits given to any federal, state or local office prior to that. And so John, as you’ve been involved with government down through the years, am I correct in saying that or in thinking at least that the 22nd Amendment became a due to the fact that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times to the office of the presidency?
John Eichelberger: That’s correct. Yeah, that’s what triggered that. And Harry Truman was the vice president, became the president. Roosevelt only lived 82 days into his fourth term. So Truman took over and served the rest of that term, which was almost a full term. And then he ran for a second term and won. And he could have run for a third term, but he chose not to. He said that two, he considered that to be two full terms, and he didn’t, he was a big believer in term limits. And when he signed that, I mean his hope and thought was that Congress would next move to limit themselves, and that never happened.
Gary Dull: Well, that hasn’t happened, and I know that there’s been many efforts to cause that to happen down through the years. And it’s true that in recent years there have been movements to limit the terms of those elected to various offices in America. And John, as I recall, you led that movement when you served as a state senator here in Pennsylvania. Isn’t that correct?
John Eichelberger: Yes. I had term limits limit legislation for the state, and then I also worked with another organization that was looking at trying to get term limits in Congress along with a couple other issues. And we made some headway, but we could never get very far. We had a hearing, we did have a hearing on term limits for the state legislature, and I was new and the older senators didn’t like it, and they beat me up at the hearing. I can remember some of that hearing as a new senator then and having to sit as a witness instead of on the committee and getting beaten up by one gentleman in particular from Philadelphia that really didn’t like it. So that’s how it went
Gary Dull: From Philadelphia. That makes sense. I’m sure that they wouldn’t like term limits out of Philadelphia. Well, now you say that was one of the first things that you did. I remember you doing that, but I didn’t realize that’s one of the first things that you, as far as trying to get a piece of legislation through.
John Eichelberger: Yeah, yeah, that was early on. It’s a good idea.
Gary Dull: You really hit the ground running then, didn’t you, on that term limit legislation? It’s interesting that those who are against term limits say that it should be up to the people to vote in and out of office who they want without any restrictions given by the Constitution. And then there are others who believe, and even some in office like a John Eichelberger who believe that when you run that there should be limits on the amount of time that you can spend in government. That is what we call term limits, and that’s why we have John with us on the program today. And John, before we get involved with the discussion on what you’ve been asked to do, what was the belief of our founders? As I mentioned a moment ago, unto the 22nd Amendment into the United States Constitution, there were no term limits at all. But what was the thinking of our founders? Did they believe that elected officials should make a permanent living by serving in government or go and serve and then go back to their regular secular jobs or whatever the case may be?
John Eichelberger: Well, it’s pretty clear that the founders were for two issues that always come up when you have this discussion. One is that they never envisioned that people would be there for long periods of time. They clearly never did that. And when you look at the Federalist Papers and other writings that they had, even personal letters and things, they never anticipated people being there for long periods of time. And as a citizen legislature, people went back, and we’ve all heard that for years, but it’s very true. People went back to their farms, their businesses, their families, and they stayed for a period of time and left. And Washington chose not to stay. I mean, all those people made up their own minds that this was the proper thing to do and that’s what they did. The other issue that comes up is the process of amending the Constitution, and I guess we’ll probably talk about that, but it was very clear that that was something that they put in place so that the states could protect themselves against federal abuse if they needed to. So they have Article five of the Constitution, which was put in place to allow the states to amend a process to amend the Constitution if the Congress doesn’t act.
Dave Kistler: John, one of the things I want to say to you personally, because known you since you were a commissioner there in Blair County, Gary introduced me to you many, many years ago. I’ve followed your service to both Blair County as well as to the state of Pennsylvania. And I just want to say this, I’ve had nothing but the highest respect for you. And if there were anybody that I would want to see continue and not be term limited, it would be you because I appreciate and respect you so much, but I know John, some states have term limits for their governors, and North Carolina is one of those. And then some restricted to one term, some two terms. How many states out of the 50 states is it exactly that have that restriction? Why do you think that restriction is in place for governors as well as President of the United States? What was behind the thinking for those two respective offices?
John Eichelberger: Well, thanks for the kind words, Dave. I appreciate that. 36 states have term limits for governors only 14. It’s the thinking that we’ve always had. Once you’re in office for a long period of time, you accumulate too much power, too much control. There’s no new ideas coming from you or very few. Everybody has a limited lifespan in what they can contribute in government. And 20, 30, 40, 50 years or more is too long. And we have people that do that. And then we had the legacies also, which is a whole separate issue, but where family members then take that next step and it goes, there’s a family in Michigan that’s been in office in Congress for close to a hundred years. It’s amazing. So that type of control is a problem, and I’ve seen it in the legislature. If you know how the legislature works, you know how the committee system works and chairmanships in other positions, there’s a lot of control that’s put in some of those positions.
John Eichelberger: And if you have people that are long-term and they remain in those positions for a long period of time, they can control the agenda for the entire legislature. One person. And I’ve seen it happen, and there’s just problems with having people in for too long of a period. There’s a lot of corruption. There’s a lot of things that happens over a period of time, even if people go in and they really are doing a good job and they’re there for the right reasons over a period of time, I think sometimes they get involved in things, maybe even unknowingly that corrupt them and create problems for them and making the right decisions for the right reasons.
Gary Dull: John, we have you on today to talk about something that you’ve been asked to do as it relates to term limits. And I’m wondering if you’d share with our listeners what it is that you’ve been asked to do. Who’s behind this project, and is this both a federal and a state effort?
John Eichelberger: Thank you, Gary. It’s the United States Term Limits Organization, and they have a Republican chairman and a Democrat chairman in each state. So I’m the Republican chairman in Pennsylvania, and they are involved in what we call an Article five issue, which is trying to get term limits in the Federal Congress. So that’s the sole effort that we’re involved in, is trying to get term limits in Congress. We’re not proposing any specific years. People have different ideas about that, and that would be up to either Congress to decide, or if the states do it, then the states could make that decision. But we work with Article five of the Constitution, which clearly displays a way to accomplish an amendment. So either Congress can propose an amendment and then bring it back to the states, and then three quarters of the states, which would be 38 states, would have to approve that amendment.
John Eichelberger: And they can either do that through the state legislatures or through conventions in each state. And there’s 27 amendments that have been done in Constitution since it was created, and everyone has been through Congress, but many of them have been done through Congress only because the states have started a process. And once they reach kind of a critical mass Congress understands that, Hey, probably by next year this is going to happen, so we might as well take control of the issue and frame it the way we want it. So that has happened most of the time with the constitutional amendments.
Gary Dull: Well, thank you, John Eichelberger. And ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to take a break, but when we come back, we’ll continue our discussion with John on the matter of term limits. So stay tuned. Don’t go away. We’ll be back right after this break. Well, thank you folks for staying tuned. I’m Gary Doll, along with Dave Kissler, and we’re talking with John Eichelberger, who has been asked to be a part of a commission to amend the United States Constitution limiting the terms of those in Congress. And this is a very interesting, and I might say perhaps in some circles, a hot topic to discuss, and we want to continue our discussion with John here during this last segment of the program today. So John, if you would please remind us who is working with you on this project. How much support do you have on the project across the nation, and how are things going forward with it?
John Eichelberger: Well, every state has a Republican and Democrat chairman. Andy Denman is the Democrat chairman of Pennsylvania. He’s a former state senator. He and I worked together on the state Senate Education Committee, so I knew Andy pretty well, and he’s retired from the Senate now as well. And so we keep in touch through this and he has different contacts, and it is a very bipartisan issue, which is interesting. It polls pretty close to the same, slightly more Republican for some reason. I’m not sure why, but it does. But it still polls very much the same with independents and Democrats. The recent polling is that 87% of the voters in the United States approve this 87, which is stunning. I mean, I don’t know how many issues you’re going to get an 80% approval rating on, but this is one that does, and it hovered around 80 to 82% for a long time, and it just went up over the last year, I think, with older candidates for president, I think with people like Nancy Pelosi and
Gary Dull: Joe Biden.
John Eichelberger: Well, yeah, I was thinking of people in the legislature though.
Gary Dull: Oh, yeah.
John Eichelberger: Oh my gosh. The Republican majority now’s minority leader, Mitch McConnell.
Gary Dull: Oh, yeah.
John Eichelberger: We had Diane Feinstein from California. I mean, you can go through examples. Of course, one of the,
Gary Dull: And she kept going even though she had Alzheimer’s, correct? Yeah,
John Eichelberger: Yeah, yeah, she did. I mean, people lose, sometimes. They lose their physical mental ability, sometimes they just lose their gumption. I mean, if you’re there for so long, I don’t know how dedicated they are and how committed they are to getting things done. There’s a lot of problems with it, but age-related issues are certainly part of it. So I think that elevated in people’s minds, the issue of term limits when you saw some of these people when them are still there that have been there for many, many years, I mean decades and decades, and they may not agree with them. But again, if you’re in a leadership position, you have a lot of control what happens in the legislature.
Dave Kistler: John, let me ask you this. Obviously one of the processes for getting term limits, the members of Congress would have to vote to limit themselves to a certain number of terms. And again, you’ve said you’ve not put any number on this. I’m just curious where right now, today, where this process sits with this effort that you’re involved in. I love it. To be quite honest with you. Can you bring us up to speed on where you are and what would need to be done yet to make this a constitutional amendment, make it become a reality?
John Eichelberger: Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s a two-pronged attack from the organization. One is that we would like Congress to do that, and they did have a vote this year in a committee. They got through the first committee, got the legislation proposed and in the house and got it through the first committee. And in the second committee it was voted down unfortunately. And we thought maybe we had the votes that day, but we didn’t. We had over 100 co-sponsors on that resolution. So there was a lot of support for it. But as often happens, people were told at the end, don’t do this, and some might think maybe change their mind at the last minute and we couldn’t get it done. So we’re still working on that. But in lieu of that, what we can do is have legislatures in the states pass resolutions supporting the term limits, and we have language for that so that everybody’s consistent in what they approve.
John Eichelberger: And then once we would get to two thirds of the states, that would be 34 states, if they all have a resolution supporting term limits, then Congress will be forced to propose an amendment and then it would go back to the states for approval, but they wouldn’t have a choice. That’s what Article five says of the Constitution. So right now we have eight states that passed our resolution. 19 states have passed resolutions that don’t have the same language but have term limits language in that. And six states in this last session, which ends at the end of this year, have our legislation at least through one chamber of their legislature. So we potentially by the end of the year, might pick up a couple more states. So there is a lot of interest in it, and we can get closer if we can just get a few more states. Once you get to 20 some states though, Congress starts to pay more attention to the issue and maybe we’ll do something on your own.
Gary Dull: Well, John, I’ve never known you to back down from a hard fight, but I would think that this is one of the most difficult fights that you’ve been in, perhaps potentially. And I think it’s one of the most effective fights that you probably have tackled as it relates to our entire nation. And so I’m thankful for your willingness to be involved with this, but the United States of America is a country that’s based upon the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Right now, you’re talking to people all across the nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific on over 500 radio stations. So what would you like to tell our listeners today to pray for? Or is there something they can do by enacting certain things? I mean, what would you say to those listing right now as it relates to this concept of term limits that you’re involved with? Should they contact their legislatures? What are your suggestions and elements of advice that you can give to our listeners across America today?
John Eichelberger: Well, I appreciate that opportunity. An easy thing is to just get on the website for us term limits.org, us term limits.org. And there’s things that you actually, you can get information on there about where it stands in your state, information about how to contact your legislators there. All that is provided for you if you get on that website. So we do need, and you can sign a pledge. You can sign a pledge on the website, but we do need people to speak out, go to their legislators, both state and federal and say, we want this to happen. One of the points that I didn’t make is one of the reasons that the founders wouldn’t appreciate things today with the media, the expense, it’s a different world than it was back in the 17 hundreds, and the people that are in there are so difficult to beat that we don’t even have people running for office in many cases.
John Eichelberger: We would have a lot new fresh faces, fresh ideas, all that would happen if we had term limits. There’s a lot of arguments that say, we don’t want that. We’re going to have the lobbyists take control. Lobbyists don’t want term limits. They like the relationships. They have these cozy relationships with long-term members. That’s how they get things done. If they had to sell their goods to people fresh all the time, it’d be much more difficult for them. So it’s harder to kind of corrupt some of these folks. If they’re only in there for a shorter period of time, they’re not going to be withholding for future terms and things like that. So the last cycle, two years ago, congressional elections, no incumbent United States Senator lost none, and I think it was maybe 30 house members didn’t have any opposition in the spring or the fall, and 98% of them won reelection, 98%. That’s always been the rule for many years is about 98% of legislators win office if they have contested primaries or general elections. I mean that if you’re a county commissioner in Pennsylvania, for example, at least a third are replaced every election cycle during
Gary Dull: The election. It’s hard to beat an incumbent. They always say it’s hard to beat an incumbent. Give the folks that website again, web address again, would you please john
John Eichelberger: Us term limits.org.
Gary Dull: And I would encourage you folks to go and check it out and pray for John Eichelberger as he’s involved with making a difference in America today. Well, folks, our time is up, but the program will return in just 23 hours from now until another stand in the gap comes your way. I’m Gary Dull.
Recent Comments