I have just faxed the following letter to Senator Robert Byrd, D-WVA.
VIA FAX 202-228-0002
Senator Robert Byrd
The United States Senate
Washington, D.C.
Re: Confirmation of Mr. Samuel Alito, filibuster, the United States Senate
Dear Senator Byrd,
I'm writing to ask you to reconsider your position on Mr. Alito, and to ask you to consider joining a filibuster against the confirmation of this man. I ask you this because I believe that you understand the profound and world changing significance of this moment in history. From the perspective of what follows from this decision, from the point of view of those who come after us, this is a moment when we must live so that 100 years from now, someone will be proud of us for having saved the nation. Your power in this matter is central. And Mr. Alito is ultimately ignorant and disrespectful of the processes of citizenship and democracy.
You and I have never met in person, but you have been the Senator from West Virginia all my life. I was raised in D.C. in a very political family. My father was economist to the Joint Economic Committee; he wrote the Kennedy tax cut and some years later was President Reagan's Treasury undersecretary, and author of the 1982 tax cut. I remember watching President Kennedy give you your diploma at American University. I remember your filibuster against civil rights, over which I disagreed with you absolutely. I remember the improvements you made for the people of West Virginia year after year, because every summer my father taught at a West Virginia university, and we saw how roads improved every year, and my father always told us that this was the work of Senator Byrd. I followed your career as you developed into a leader and philosopher. I watched you learn the pedagogy of the United States Senate and come to grasp its historical reverberation and its soul, more than any other senator still alive.
Therefore I say to you that I fear this moment in our history. I ask you, sir, if you do not see this: if the Democratic Senators will not filibuster against Mr. Alito, then what follows are the end of the United States Senate as the most august body of our national debate; the end of the Democratic Party, and the end of the United States as a constitutional republic. If the Democratic Senators will not filibuster, if they go silently to defeat on this matter, they tell citizens like me that they will not fight for me. There are times to go to the mat, even if you lose. This is that time.
If the Democratic Senators do not fight over the confirmation of this ultimately ignorant man Alito, then the Senate becomes a rubber stamp for the Administration. That is not the proper role of the United States Senate. That is a tragedy.
If the Democratic Senators do not fight against the confirmation of Alito, then the Democratic citizens who voted for them will feel deflated, unrepresented, and without hope. They will abstain from voting or turn their backs on the Democratic party.
If the Democratic citizens abstain from voting or turn their backs on the Democratic party, it is the end of the United States as a constitutional republic. History teaches us that third parties in the United States have been absorbed by the larger parties and their platforms and visions marginalized. That was tragic for the Populist movement and a loss of democratic participation to the citizens of the United States.
If you do see these potential results of not fighting against Mr. Alito, as I do, then you see why I must urge you as the single Senator most powerful in this moment to change your position, and agree to filibuster against this man whom you now support.
Citizenship is a contract between citizens and elected officials. I would be remiss in my citizenship if I did not ask this of you, if I kept silent. If I could not bring myself to this request, even though it is likely you will deny it, then how would I be able to ask the Democratic Senators to undertake a probably unsuccessful filibuster?
I ask you in the name of the Republic we both cherish.
Very truly yours,
Martha E. Ture