Bruce D.Budnik (@BruceBudnik)

Deceived For Years! Earlier this year, I joined the John Birch Society (JBS) after I did a little research on it and found out t what I was told many years ago was a downright lie. The JBS is a Patriotic and mostly Christian government watchdog group whose main mission is to educate and inform American Citizens on the effectiveness of the State & Federal Government representatives. The JBS just wants the elected Representatives to adhere to the supreme law of the land, i.e., the U.S. Constitution. As I learn more, I am terribly disappointed to learn how many state and federal government decisions are Constitutionally unlawful which means the representatives are not adhering to their oath of office. JBS has a wonderful website that allows anyone to access it and see the voting record of any State and Federal elected individual in the three branches: Judicial, Legislative, and Executive. I just accessed the website, http://www.thefreedomindex.org, to check on the voting records of South Carolina's representatives, State and Federal. Absolutely appalling for both parties, but unsurprisingly, the worst are the Democrats. Of the State Reps there are 54 Democrats and 118 Republicans in my State of South Carolina. The best voting score of the State Democrats is a score of 36 and the next two highest have a score of 31. The best of the Republicans is a score of 100, followed by a score of 96 after which it drops substantially fairly quickly. The scoring is first based on the Constitutionality of the vote. If Constitutionality is not the problem, then the score is based on fundamental rights as protected by the Bill of Rights and the 27 Amendments. Now be warned, our Representatives do not want you to know about this, but I believe every one of us regular everyday citizens should be aware so that we know how to vote when they come up for re-election, which makes me wish I had known this before early voting began last month. Please check how your representatives are at doing their job of representing you, their constituents. You too, may be appalled and decide it is time to rethink who you need to vote for. It may cause you to look further than just a personable runner to one who is knowledgeable of the U.S. Constitution and actually keeps the oath they swore to keep when they took office. Again, access the web site, scroll down to the yellow map of the US and click on your State. Your State reps will appear but you will need to input the names of your Federal representatives to determine their individual score. Be prepared for a shock. James W. Griffin