NEGOP Executive Director Ryan Hamilton testified in support of LR107 in front of the Executive Committee on Thursday, May 6th. Hamilton delivered the following remarks: “Thank you, Senator Hughes and members of the Executive Committee.
My name is Ryan Hamilton, R-y-a-n, Hamilton like on the ten dollar bill.
I’m the executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party, the largest political organization in Nebraska, representing over 595,000 registered members and I’m here to testify today on behalf of Nebraska Republicans in support of this resolution.
LR 107 is a well written statement in opposition to the clear preparations being made in Washington to deprive American individuals of their constitutionally enumerated protections and rights.
As a society, our free exercise of religion, conscience and our historically free elections have been exceptional across geography and time.
In the annals of known history, Americans can be proud that they strove for a political system that empowered individuals and restrained the state, a system which produced greater domestic tranquility and economic prosperity than virtually any other society of which we know.
The constitution guarantees the right of Americans to keep and bear arms as a guarantor of all other rights, as a check against coercive government or mob power, and because it is the entitlement of a free people to be able to arm themselves in the manner in which they choose.
Rolling back this natural right, particularly in the manner identified by the resolution—unilateral action—would be the first stone in our road to serfdom.
The constitution further provides for local control over elections. Mail in balloting is more prone to fraud—this is not a conspiracy theory or an unsubstantiated position. France, for instance, banned mail in ballots in the 1970s because they were too susceptible to fraud.
The Carter-Baker Commission, a bipartisan commission, called on states to increase voter ID requirements; to be leery of mail-in voting; to halt ballot harvesting; to maintain voter lists, in part to ensure dead people are promptly removed from them; to allow election observers to monitor ballot counting; and to make sure voting machines are working properly. This was a bipartisan, US government-sanctioned investigation into best practices.
The pending federal legislation is an end run around constitutionally-guaranteed local control, a pre-emptive strike against state legislatures seeking to enact the reforms recommended by the Carter-Baker Commission to clean up and restore faith in our elections.
Further, the constitution guarantees free assembly with no exception made against the diseased or undesirable. It protects private property ownership. All of the factors above have contributed to the relatively uninterrupted prosperity and tranquility within our country that is rarely seen in the history of a people—it is, in fact, exceptional.
It is incumbent on those serving to ensure the substantial rights we enjoy are available for the next generation.
As Ronald Reagan noted, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.”
Please fight to keep our freedom alive.
On behalf of Nebraska’s Republicans, I urge you to vote in favor of this resolution as an expression of confidence in our constitution and a repudiation of the threats currently coming together to oppose it.”
