John Loughlin and Mark Zaccaria at the Tenth Amendment Rally

Republican Congressional Candidates John Loughlin (District 1) and Mark Zaccaria (District 2) spoke at Saturday's Tenth Amendment rally at the Rhode Island Statehouse. The interesting and accurate common theme in both of their statements was that protecting rights via the Tenth Amendment cannot depend on theoretical legal arguments alone; it also requires electing representatives, at both the state and Federal levels, who believe in ideas of limited government.

John Loughlin's remarks:

"...What happens in Congress is obviously very important. But what happens in this building [the RI Statehouse] is sometimes even more important to the Tenth Amendment....It's the little things that add up over time, that lead to a loss of our liberty and loss of our freedom..."

Audio: 27 sec

"[Congress] said, you know what, we think it would be a good idea for all of the states to implement a salt-water fishing license. Sounds like a little thing. Well, it says in our Rhode Island Constitution that we all have free access to the shoreline for fishing and gathering of seaweed and we had a building behind us that says well, the Federal Government wants us to do it, so gee, I guess we better..."

Audio: 48 sec

"So what that tells us, ladies and gentlemen, is that perhaps the most important elections for your freedom, and for the continuance of freedom and for the freedom of Rhode Island and America don't take place at the top of the ticket, they take place down lower on the ticket..."

Audio: 51 sec

"It's great to see you all out here, thinking about your role in government. As you just heard, I'm a candidate for Congress. And people have frequently asked me why do I want to run for a Congressional seat against a five-term incumbent in the bluest of the blue states. The answer is simple. I don’t want to; I have to..."

Audio: 55 sec

"...you are the free citizens of a republic, and that confers on you tremendous responsibility, because it confers on you tremendous authority. For too long, too many of us did not step up and do what they needed to do to be full-fledged citizens of this republic. That's got to change, or we are going to lose the Republic that our founders put together for us..."

Audio: 58 sec

"When I say it's tough to be a citizen, and you have to step up and do it right, what I mean is you really have to consider what your vote is going to be in November, because you need to put a General Assembly into this building that is full of people that you trust to enforce the Tenth Amendment, to stand up against the ever-increasing Federal Government..."

Audio: 43 sec