A 16-year-old high school student has challenged Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Mn.) to a public debate because the student, Amy Myers, thinks Rep. Bachmann doesn't know what she's talking about and is harming women.
"It's just been the general statements she's been making," says Ms. Myers, adding that she found large numbers of inaccuracies in Rep. Bachmann's statements about history, and "I know all the answers to the majority of the statements, and I'm sixteen."
"I feel that she's defaming herself," and by extension, all women, she adds. "When people look at politicians, they look at the worst-case scenario."
"As a typical high school student, I have found quite a few of your statements regarding the Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted," Ms. Myers wrote to Rep. Bachmann in a letter dated April 29th. "The statements you make help to serve an injustice to not only the position of Congresswoman, but women everywhere."
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Ms. Myers' letter reads as though it was written by a more mature person, but Ms. Myers' principal, John O'Breza, says Ms. Myers isn't the sort to pull pranks or otherwise play loose with the facts.
"She's a bona fide, high-profile sophomore in a highly competitive high school -- a bright kid," who will be op-ed editor of her high school newspaper next year, he says. Ms. Myers attends Cherry Hill High School East in Cherry Hill, NJ.
What will Ms. Myers do if Rep. Bachmann says yes? "I'm very familiar with American history," says Ms. Myers. "All I have to do is brush up from Polk to maybe Woodrow Wilson. If I do that, I'll have a generalization of American history in concrete." She's also studied the Constitution in her advanced placement classes, she adds.
Not that she expects Rep. Bachmann to accept the challenge. "I did at first, but since it's taken her over a week-and-a-half to respond... I would have expected her to respond by now, or at least make a statement, but I haven't seen anything at all," she says.
Ms. Myers put her challenge up on her website and by May 12th somebody -- Ms. Myers says she doesn't know who -- put up a page about it on Facebook, "Ask Rep. Bachmann to Debate Amy Myers". That page has attracted over 5,000 "likes" as of this writing. That in turn has prompted emails from as far away as India, she says.
The Facebook page also attracted a fair number of personal attacks on Ms. Myers on Right Wing message boards like Free Republic, but her father, Wayne Myers, says that hasn't impressed his daughter "They were calling her the C-name, they were calling her a lesbian, and she was actually laughing about it" he says.
What do her friends think? They routinely make fun of people like Rep. Bachmann, says Ms. Myers. When Christine O'Donnell famously said she wasn't a witch during her recent campaign for office, she says, her friends told her she should make her campaign slogan -- Ms. Myers is running for junior class president -- "I'm Amy Myers, and I'm not a witch'. "They all said 'Amy, you'll win now, because everybody thinks that's hilarious.'"
Rep. Bachmann's office didn't return four telephone calls seeking comment. According to Ms. Myers, she sent the Congresswoman a written challenge via United Parcel Service on April 29th -- the return receipt says it was received on May 4th -- but Rep. Bachmann hasn't responded.
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In fact, the Constitution was created to augment the powers of the federal government vis a vis the states as compared with the Articles of Confederation.
Anyway, you seem to be confused; on the one hand you imply that the right of state citizens to debate federal officers is limited, yet in the same breath, you assert the subordination of the federal government to its citizens.
More to the point, you overstate the reach of the 10th Amendment; there's nothing in it that subordinates federal power to state power, or somehow subrdinates state citizens by denying them access to federal officers; it merely says that those powers not enumerated to the federal government by the Constitution are.reserved to the states, or to the people. In cases involving laws or regulations, therefore, the 10th Amendment is subordinate to Article 6, Section 2--the Supremacy Clause. I believe that's your underlying implication.
While the Constitution may have expanded the powers of the federal government over those granted in the Articles of Confederation, it, like all constitutions, is a document limiting governmental power, not augmenting it.
Amendments are NOT subordinate to any clause in the Constitution. Otherwise blacks would still only count as 3/5ths of a white. Amendments supersede the Constitution. While the commerce clause has been distorted beyond recognition with the tacit approval of the Supreme Court, the federal government has no constitutional authority to dictate education policy to the states.
From Congressman Jack Kimble's Open Letter to Amy Myers, http://kimbleforcongress.blogspot.com/2011/05/congressman-kimbles-open-letter-to-amy.html
Michele Bachmann is one of the finest Constitutional scholars I have ever known. I am not just saying that because she is a woman either. I honestly learn something new every single time she talks about the Constitution. The Constitution is the result of the greatest men of all 13 original colonies who got together on an excessively hot July 4th to write down the rules for how our government would work. They made history.
As much as I salute your intelligence, I am afraid you need to learn humility. In my day, that would have happened already during your PE classes, but I understand things have changed. If you want to challenge somebody to a test of Constitutional knowledge or a debate of any kind, then I will gladly accept on behalf of all Republicans in the 112th Congress. Just realize that if you accept, I will crush you. I know nearly all 2 dozen amendments backwards and forwards and with a little brushing up I will be ready for any challenge. If you want a challenge little girl, bring it.
Congressman Jack Kimble
Congressman CA-54
Update: If I appeared harsh to Amy I apologize... [more] until she embraces the power of the GOP. In time she will realize she is mistaken about a great many things.
How about you, Michelle? I am all for it.
Ms. Myers, 2024?
Ms. Bachman could not hold her own in a debate with a first grader in my humble opinion. Much less with an intelligent, well read, motivated young lady like Ms. Myers.