We'll never have trustworthy leaders until we elect people we can trust.
Lance Enderle is not a politician in the way we think of politicians in the new millennium. After 6 months of contact over the phone and through Twitter, I finally met Lance face-to-face in January and was quite taken aback by his forthrightness. I've been a rabid follower of politics for many years and never expected to meet a man running for Congress who wouldn't even consider separating the life he lives from the words he speaks. It just doesn't happen in politics anymore, unless you're Lance Enderle. It only took that one meeting to know Lance does not put up a front to satisfy any constituency. He wouldn't dream of pandering just to get a vote or an endorsement. In fact, I don't think the word "pander" is in his vocabulary. You won't have to know Lance for long to know he would never lie or tell you what he knows you want to hear. He tells it like it is because he doesn't underestimate any of us. Other politicians will say what they want you to believe, and often enough until the media picks it up and prints it as fact. Lance understands this "game" all too well and he's not playing. He doesn't accept corporate blood money or special interest money so he doesn't have an agenda. Lance does, however, have a motive, and that motive is to reverse this sickening ideology and turn the voice back over to the people, where it belongs. He really listens and he really cares. His motive is to restore democracy in the state where democracy has been neglected the most.
In 2011, when the Emergency Manager powers were expanded to the extent that ALL elected officials in a school district, city or township would be summarily dismissed, no one fought harder than Lance during a 4 day protest at Lansing's Capitol. Lance was the voice for the people when no one else was stepping up to confront them when these un-Constitutional laws were being pushed through the Michigan legislature.
Now is the time for progressives to be aggressive in bringing forward new ideas and calling out the crimes of current legislators trampling over the rights of the people. As Lance's hero, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, once said, "People yearn for a politics of "center", the center of people's lives: affordable child care, health security, living wage jobs that will support families, respect for the environment and human rights, and clean campaigns and clean elections." Lance stands behind, and will fight for, all of these rights, many of them the middle class used to take for granted, but can no longer afford to do so.
Lance is running for Congress to make waves. Not just for the Republicans, but for the Democrats as well, who seem to have lost their way. Where is the justice? With Lance, you won't get a timid Democrat. He is a labor-intensive progressive, meaning that he is ready to roll up his sleeves and do the hard work required. He won't "tippy toe" around worrying about being politically correct. There is too much work to be done to be afraid to raise the tough questions.
Every Congressperson is accountable to the people and it's time they start working as though their job depended on whether or not they served those people honorably. Politics is not about money or power or games. It's about improving people's lives and making our state and country better. If you fail at that, you need to be replaced. It's time to replace Mike Rogers.
To see Lance's plan and help us get Lance where he needs to be to accomplish that plan, please visit www.Lance2012.com