Our freedom fighter in D.C.

Jack Abramoff was recently profiled on the front page of the 3 July edition of The Wall Street Journal. Who is Jack Abramoff?

Every freedom-loving, pro-self-governing CNMI citizen ought to know who Jack Abramoff is. Mr. Abramoff is one of the CNMI’s best friends in Washington, D.C. He is the point-man in our vital campaign to avert a disastrous federal takeover of our islands.

It is probably no exaggeration to suggest that Jack Abramoff is a kind of hero to the indigenous people of the CNMI. Through his work at Preston Gates, our commissioned advocate, he has kept our islands free. He has upheld the principles of liberty, autonomy, and maximum local self-government in the Northern Marianas. He has protected us from unwarranted federal encroachments upon our relatively free markets.

Before Mr. Abramoff and Preston Gates took up our cause, the CNMI was virtually unknown in the nation’s capitol. Many US Congressmen could not even locate our islands on the map.
The little that was known about the CNMI at the time was decidedly negative. It was primarily comprised of the assorted propaganda and distortions leveled by our special interest detractors: by the protectionist labor unions and their liberal friends in the media, Interior Department, and US Democratic party.

But Mr. Abramoff changed all of that. For the first time in our ordeal, we were hitting back. For the first time, positive and more accurate stories about the CNMI began to appear in such prestigious publications as the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times.
No longer did our liberal foes–driven as they are by the allure of a bigger, more expansive and controlling federal government–have the entire public opinion and policy-making field to themselves.

For the first time, the facts began to emerge; and US Congressmen and their staff members began to confirm these facts first-hand by ignoring the media smear campaigns and coming directly to the source. They visited our islands.

As the recent Wall Street Journal story attests, Jack Abramoff was primarily responsible for all of this. But Mr. Abramoff is not a mere lobbyist. He is a dedicated champion of free markets and individual liberty. He is ideologically committed to supporting organizations that actively support and promote ideas on liberty–organizations such as the Cato Institute and Citizens Against Government Waste.

Mr. Abramoff, in a very real sense, is an ardent champion of the little guy–of the much maligned Northern Marianas as well as the Choctaw Indian tribe of Mississippi. He does us a valuable service, demonstrating once again that the true champions of the little guy cannot be found in the US Democratic Party, which promotes a victim mentality that expects solutions from the Federal Government.
On the contrary, men like Abramoff support our own self-reliance.

Some cynics will no doubt say that Mr. Abramoff is a hired gun. They will predictably complain about the substantial fees we have paid for his firm’s services. But, in the final analysis, it is all worth it. For we are at war to protect our vital freedoms. We had no friends or representation in Washington. We had to make sacrifices. We had to counter the many thousands–perhaps millions–of dollars the labor unions were using to lobby against us. In a liberal democracy, speech is not free. We have to pay to get our message across, to tell our side of the story. Our friends in Washington need money to promote liberty and counter the efforts of those who would deprive us of it.