Michael,

Thanks for the Roy Downing obit.  I and many, many others will miss him.  And my heart goes out to Louise and Betty Jean.

I always considered Roy a dear friend, a fellow veteran, a fellow Legionnaire, a fellow founder of the American Reform Party, an advocate and leader in Ross Perot’s United We Stand America national political organization, a defender of the U.S. Constitution, a sane and reasonable voice in Reform politics, and a good guy on the right side of the issues for which many of us were concerned.

Roy was an American loyal to his country, an enemy of political correctness, whether  in favor of, or opposition to, political actions , but certainly opposed to the silent tyranny of Congress and the Foggy Bottom of several administrations. He kept the remnants of reform together for years and years and most of that paid for out of his own pocket.

Remember that ridiculous and frivolous lawsuit in Florida driven by a deplorably misguided power-seeking political faction foreseen by James Madison in the Federalist Papers 230 years ago. The trouble makers claimed that they alone owned all rights to the name Reform Party, but Roy prevailed in that case, and a fair and impartial judge dismissed ARP from the lawsuit, to the benefit of the American Reform Party and political justice in Florida and the nation. The initiatives taken by the ARP organization (political committee) in Schaumburg in October of 1997 preceded all the others by any other name.

The good Roy Downing has done will live on in all our thoughts and actions for the good of the country.  

Don Torgersen, founding member of the ARP.