Friend's Letter To Her Congressman Summarizes What's Wrong With America

Excerpt: Thomas Jefferson felt so strongly about the freedom of the press that he said we should be ready to devote ourselves to martyrdom. The first thing that suffers when politics is entertainment is the truth. Gerald Ford stated that “Truth is the glue that holds government together”. That which holds our people and its government together—truth—has become “malleable as putty” as is suggested by Charles Sykes who wrote the book, How the Right Lost Its Mind.  We are living through George Orwell’s reality: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. Under the Stalin and Nazi regimes, misinformation, propaganda, deception became the norm, leaving people confused, divided and insecure. When “fake news” is everything you don’t like and people believe objective reporting does not matter, democracy is in serious trouble. As stated by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, “Reason means truth and those who are not governed by it take the chance that someday the sunken fact will rip the bottom out of their boat.” ... During a time when human dignity and social justice was devalued, the Roman empire gave their people “bread and circuses”. Trump is only giving us the circus. As Thomas Merton commented in the 1960s amidst civil rights and Vietnam protests, “Once democracy ceases to exist for a large enough segment of the population, it no longer exists at all”. When enough people are disenfranchised, history tells us there will be a revolution. Out of all the present descent into chaos, do any in the White House or Congress bother to remember the consequences of Luther’s Reformation of 500 years ago or Lenin’s Revolution of 100 years ago? Both caused immeasurable human suffering and death for long periods of time.

October 31, 2017

322 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

To Congressman:

I am your constituent.

PLEASE RESPOND to a previous letter that I sent you: Over a year ago I wrote to you with regard to H.R.711 pertaining to the Windfall Elimination Provision of Social Security. (The Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act (H.R. 711) would replace the current windfall elimination provision (WEP) formula that currently unfairly deducts Social Security income from certain working groups such as teachers, firefighters, and police officers.) The former Superintendent of Education in my home county assured me that I would receive an answer from you. However, I have not heard a word. All I have asked for is equal treatment, which would add $333 a month to a poverty-level income.

You sent out a report earlier this year in which you stated that you would “expand American jobs, rebuild and repair crumbling roads and vital infrastructure and restore respect for our nation at home and abroad”. However, in regard to infrastructure, evidently FEMA has no money to help Plumas County repair damage from the floods of this past January and February.

Why has the Republican-dominated Congress and White House refused to focus on the issue of infrastructure, but instead tried to undermine American’s access to health care, especially when health care is 1/5 of the American economy? Even Trump supporters in Kentucky are rising up to defend The Affordable Care Act, because for the first time, they could finally see a medical professional and those vacant strip malls actually had a viable presence working there.  Jobs!

As to “restoring respect” at home and abroad, the White House and Congress has destroyed any dignity, honor or integrity our country has stood for in the past. Why has the United States elected a leader with the grandiose appetite of Henry VIII, the ostentatious aesthetics of Louis XIV and the appalling ignorance of a Sarah Palin? What could be the consequence of such a choice I wonder?! Why are you not worried?

Our country’s leaders, with a few exceptions, appear to lack intellectual honesty and moral courage. As a country we face enormous crises: inequality, environmental degradation, injustice, division, etc. We teach that everyone is equal, but live in a place where equality is not a reality. What is being learnt under these conditions?

Most developed countries believe that we need to find solutions to prevent destroying the earth. It is a disgrace to ignore the obvious implications behind melting icebergs. Methane gas is escaping as permafrost warms with its millennia of locked-in accumulated carbon and, consequently, a growing rate of carbon dioxide [490 ppm] is being released into our atmosphere. Why are the economic consequences of earth changes being ignored as those in power pursue profit at any cost?

There is no coherence when those in power say they are pro-life yet defund every aspect of legislation which supports family-based health, education and welfare. Why is our present government attempting to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act when we see the illegal risky behavior of corporations like Wells Fargo Bank and Equifax?

Republicans are supposed to believe in state’s rights, so why did they propose H.R.23 which eviscerates California’s law to protect water, land and wildlife? What happened to the concept of our federal government having less power over state government? If the President plans to “drain the swamp,” why has he never spoken about overturning Citizen’s United or proposed legislation which would set limits on large donations? All of these actions or inactions cause the majority of Americans to lose faith in our federal government.

If by “draining the swamp,” the President means to challenge the political elites who serve only to protect and extend their own interests, why has he appointed so many elites whose sole purpose appears to be weakening the institutions designed to protect the American people and promote public well-being (FDA, FEMA, Education, etc.). Why is the current tax plan reform going to cost the average person more money while cutting corporate taxes of companies who take advantage of offshore accounts?

Have you supported S.65, which requires Donald Trump to divest and end his financial conflicts of interest? Will the proposed tax reform end corporate welfare and subsidized water for wealthy interests? Will you vote to phase out the earnings cap for Social Security’s Trust Fund (S.427/H.R. 1114)? Will you support the young people under DACA whose education has been supported by taxpayers, some for 12 years, whose only desire is to give back by becoming contributing members of the only country they have known as young adults? Will you support family-based programs like the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which has been defunded (if not discarded) by your administration? Will you find solutions to the growing number of the 20 million elderly whose limited incomes are resulting in hunger and homelessness?

I have heard nothing about solutions from this administration with regard to a near future where 40% of jobs is predicted to disappear because of the robotics revolution.  The short-sighted dismissal of this impending challenge to employment is exacerbated by a White House that does not value expertise, competence, logic, coherence or reason. It is not a time to be sycophant. You of all people should know that putting off a problem (e.g., the upkeep/repair of the Oroville Dam) potentially results in a far worse scenario (e.g. flooding, evacuations, and destruction).

After nearly one year, this White House has not once talked of addressing the vulnerabilities underlying Internet security challenges and cybercrime. In his dealings with Russia, Trump is either incredibly naïve or unscrupulously deceitful in encouraging Putin to wage cyberwar against America (as when he urged Putin to hack Hillary Clinton’s email). Technology has taken us into the reality of deception gone viral and with Trump’s inability (or refusal) to see Putin’s ruthlessness we are in a real danger. The factual evidence is clear that the Russians wanted to erode confidence among Americans.  It worked!

How is America made great again when we have a President who:

• openly admires and eggs on an autocrat like Putin while jeopardizing our own national security and alienating our allies,
• has made administrative appointments that make a mockery of any progress we’ve made toward the well-being of American families (e.g. Trump-McConnell’s dirty energy bill, S.1460),
• demands that loyalty to him takes precedence over supporting and defending the Constitution,
• has made sleight-of-hand overtures to white supremists and other biogots, leading to a great divide in our nation and the endangerment of millions of citizens who are not white, male, straight, Anglo-Saxon and [so-called] Christian,
• supports the erosion of voters’ rights by ignoring voter suppression tactics and obvious gerrymandering, and
• expresses such antipathy toward a free press yet glories in fake news about his own greatness.

So I ask again, how is America made great again?!

Thomas Jefferson felt so strongly about the freedom of the press that he said we should be ready to devote ourselves to martyrdom. The first thing that suffers when politics is entertainment is the truth. Gerald Ford stated that “Truth is the glue that holds government together”. That which holds our people and its government together—truth—has become “malleable as putty” as is suggested by Charles Sykes who wrote the book, How the Right Lost Its Mind.  We are living through George Orwell’s reality: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. Under the Stalin and Nazi regimes, misinformation, propaganda, deception became the norm, leaving people confused, divided and insecure. When “fake news” is everything you don’t like and people believe objective reporting does not matter, democracy is in serious trouble. As stated by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, “Reason means truth and those who are not governed by it take the chance that someday the sunken fact will rip the bottom out of their boat.”

During a time when human dignity and social justice was devalued, the Roman empire gave their people “bread and circuses”. Trump is only giving us the circus. As Thomas Merton commented in the 1960s amidst civil rights and Vietnam protests, “Once democracy ceases to exist for a large enough segment of the population, it no longer exists at all”. When enough people are disenfranchised, history tells us there will be a revolution. Out of all the present descent into chaos, do any in the White House or Congress bother to remember the consequences of Luther’s Reformation of 500 years ago or Lenin’s Revolution of 100 years ago? Both caused immeasurable human suffering and death for long periods of time.

Money, not principles, rules American politics and short-term gain rules our economy.  No wonder Trump admires Putin and Russia, as money has replaced Communism there. In both countries, the already wealthy have the power to fuel political corruption and support cronyism. To paraphrase Erik Erikson, psychologist: How does hope for fulfillment—Make America Great Again—end up as a warrant for national criminality? We live in a new Gilded Age in which political power builds on the wealth of those with economic power. Until enough elected officials act for the common good and understand that public office is a Public Trust, inequality will grow until the consumer has no buying power at all.

While Trump’s domestic policies have revolved around the obsessive, irrational destruction of Obama’s legacy, his international stance has been not only embarrassing with an abysmal lack of diplomacy, but frightening to the point that we now live in a dangerous Kafka-esque Theater of the Absurd world. When a leader disregards the implication behind the use of mutually-assured-destruction type weapons, he truly is unfit for office. Do we really want to subject our country and the world to annihilation by nuclear war, far exceeding the devastation inflicted upon the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

When you legislate, will you continue to show partiality to those who already hoard vast sums of money or will you represent the majority of us who need your voice and vote? It is not only the average American citizen you need to stand up for.  You need to stand up for yourself as a member of Congress.  When Trump makes statements like, “I alone can fix it,” and “I am the only one who matters,” you become irrelevant as does everyone else in our democratic system, which is being dismantled by a wanna-be dictator. Please, have the moral courage to stand up for yourself and all of us.

Thank you for reading my letter.  I would appreciate a response.

MW