Hello, Kos gang. I’m not one to write Republicans much, though I have fruitlessly experimented with appealing to John Cornyn’s much vaunted “morality”. Frankly it’s almost always a huge waste of time and an exercise in frustration but in light of the ongoing abuse of children on the border, I have reminded myself that if it is my Congress critter’s job to check the Cheeto Mussolini, then it’s my job as a Democrat and as an American citizen to contact my Republican Representative and let my concerns be known. This is the end product of what started to be a short note to Will Hurd of Texas’ 23rd Congressional district regarding my concerns about the ongoing madness at the border, a large chunk of which lies in his own district. It understandably soon blossomed into a full on rant.
I know that it seems pointless most of the time to write to your Republican Senator or Representative but it needs to be done. Even if they refuse to do their jobs, we must do ours. I urge each of you to write your own Republican(s) in Congress. It may be frustrating or even infuriating but they must not be allowed to claim that their constituents support the abominable policies that the administration keeps inflicting upon the country. Feel free to use the below letter as a template or ignore it completely and write your own but please contact them. How we vote and how we spend our money are the only powers that we have, unless or until that elusive critical mass is reached and the country takes to the streets en masse.
Since I wound up putting a great deal of effort into the letter, I’ve decided to publish it here. Maybe some of you can make suggestions of things I’ve omitted and help me polish it up.
Dear Mr. Hurd;
I've never contacted you before because you're a Republican and Republican politicians always ignore my messages, except to add me to a mailing list and periodically bombard me with transparent pandering, accompanied with money begging but the current situation at the border is intolerable. In these places which, like it or not, meet the very dictionary definition of concentration camps, children are being illegally held and neglected, despite court rulings finding that the administration is in violation of the law. Their nutrition is neglected, as is their sanitation, their comfort and their health. A United States Department of Justice lawyer was recently arguing in court that the federal government shouldn't have to provide children, CHILDREN, Mr. Hurd, with blankets, beds, toothbrushes or soap. These children aren't even guilty of any crimes since the overwhelming majority approached the border with parents and/or guardians to LEGALLY request asylum. These human beings are being treated worse than most people treat animals and you have done nothing, you have said nothing, other than some obligatory pandering about being very concerned. Why? Because our "President" is a Republican. I don't have to think very hard at all to imagine the outrage on your part had this been happening under Obama.
I didn't serve in the armed forces of MY country so the "President" of the United States of America could abuse other human beings. A man who has lied more than any other President in history, who daily and flagrantly violates the emoluments clause of the Constitution, who is trying to destroy all of the hard won civil rights of LGBTQ people, who has been credibly accused of sexual assault by no fewer than 16 women, who has destroyed lives with ill considered tariffs, who has openly speculated about being President for life and rejecting election results should he lose in 2020, who has co-opted our nation's birthday to aggrandize himself, who has created concentration camps along the border to hold children, who has separated said children from their parents and guardians without even establishing a way to track both, who has ignored the slow train wreck of Puerto Rico which still doesn't have full power, adequate services or clean water two years after hurricane Maria hit, who has openly incited violence against the news media and his detractors, who has threatened journalists with prison time for publishing information they are entitled to publish, who has called neo Nazis and white supremacists some "very fine people", who has turned the Presidency into some awful, ratings based reality show, who has embraced brutal dictators from Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, who is threatening a war with Iran over some obviously badly faked "attacks", who has openly defied Congressional oversight that is mandated by the U.S. Constitution, who has taken nepotism to a whole new level, who has bullied and badmouthed our allies, who is incapable of remorse or regret or empathy, who has not just tolerated but encouraged racism based policing to make a huge comeback, who refuses to read anything put in front of him, who makes grandiose promises that he knows he can’t or won't keep, who has gutted scientific research and openly denied and brazenly exacerbated climate change, who has an ongoing campaign with the rest of the Republican party to discourage, deny and suppress the vote of minority communities, who has raised taxes on everybody else to pay for enormous, unsustainable tax cuts for the very wealthy, who has repeatedly violated the Hatch Act, who holds partisan political rallies on the taxpayer dime, who has been sued by people who he has stiffed for money owed scores of times, who seems to "govern" based on what Sean Hannity and the shallow, moronic couch potatoes of Fox and Friends have to say, whose only executive actions have been for the benefit of himself or his close associates or qualify as political stunts.... I could go on but then I'd be sitting here for the rest of the day and frankly I'm pretty certain that you've already rolled your eyes and moved on.
You, Mr. Hurd, other than a vote against the funding for a ridiculous border wall, which frankly smacks of some Eastern bloc projects of the 50s and 60s, have been sitting there with your mouth closed and your eyes averted. This is not acceptable. Thanks to some very imaginative gerrymandering and a politically neophyte opponent, you somehow managed to win re-election in 2018 and though you won't be losing a vote by ignoring my concerns, YOU have a responsibility to stop this insanity and inanity, whether you like it or not. You at a minimum have the responsibility to speak out about it, to remind everyone that this isn’t what the United States is about and to stop voting for Donald Trump’s interests, especially over the interests of the rest of the country. If you find it distasteful to do your job due to party affiliation, then I urge you to step aside for somebody who will. Because, Mr. Hurd, these things are not some imagined crimes, malfeasance and buffoonery like you guys used to constantly pretend to be outraged about when our President was named Obama, these things that I've listed and many, many more besides are empirical, well documented FACTS, which cannot be successfully refuted or morally defended. Reality still matters, Mr. Hurd, even if Trump prefers to live in a world of “alternate facts”.
If you’ve made it this far, (if you’ve read it at all), thank you for that at least. But sir, if you can’t bring yourself to do what I believe that you KNOW is your job, the job that you’ve spent treasure and time asking to be hired to do, then it’s time to step down. There’s no shame in admitting that you don’t have the ability to do a job. The shame lies in the knowledge that you can’t or won’t do your job but still refuse to make room for somebody with the competence and wherewithal to do it. You were elected to represent the interests of the people of Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, not those of Donald freaking Trump. Our very way of life is under a huge threat and we are illegally holding, neglecting and inflicting great harm on our fellow human beings so that our “President" can stand in front of a bunch of like minded, bigoted jerks and shout about “victory”.
This isn’t a game. This is reality. This is existential. And you’re letting it happen.
P.S.
I have selected "Yes, please contact me" below when asked if I wanted a response. Yes, I want a response but I am only interested in a real response addressing my concerns. If all you have to offer are platitudes and hand wringing, then I can watch those on television.