My congressman, Steve Pearce (R-Braindead), held a town hall 2 weeks ago. It was complete with charts, and fast talking, and lots of lies. There were just a few of us, and whole bunch of them. The lady sitting next to me kept saying, "that's right" to everything he said. At some point I asked her if she had Medicare, and she said, "yes, but I haven't been to a doctor in 5 years." I guess that was her way of saying that she was doing her part to keep costs down. That sort of started my depression as I kept thinking---5 years? not even a mammogram? Then I asked what turned out to be the last question. "Are you really serious about voting against raising the debt ceiling?" And Rep. Braindead said, "yes, if there aren't sufficient cuts to the budget." Really? And lots of people applauded. I spent the rest of that day and the next in total despair. Doesn't he know that there are hungry, homeless, tired, hopeless people all over this country? Is he really willing to make things worse?
So I started sending him daily emails, telling him how important it was. I encouraged others to do the same. But that wasn't really doing it for me. This morning I got an idea. In my little mind I kept thinking this horror was going to end well because the money people don't want the country to default. But it just keeps getting worse. The gamesmanship is making me crazy. I thought we were out of the woods when McConnell blinked. But then Reid started negotiating with him.
I needed to do something so I decided to call the financial institutions who made contributions to Rep. Braindead and ask them if they were in agreement with him about letting the country default. I went to the FEC site and got the list of contributors. I sent a copy of the list to a friend who has a large local listserv and asked her to spread it around. Also, after the President spoke this morning, C-Span had open phones. So I called in and told their audience what I had in mind. I don't know how many people were listening, but I hope at least someone at the Capitol heard me.
I don't know if this will cause anyone heartburn, but it made me feel better, just knowing that I was taking some action. These people can't be reasoned with. They really believe that if your boss cuts your salary, you'll end up with more money. How can you even have a conversation with someone like that?
Need some feedback. Does anyone think my plan has merit?