It should surprise no-one that given an opportunity to interact with a constituent, a GOP elected official behaves like a jackass...
first some context, then the full body of the exchange can be found below the squiggly.
I diaried earlier in the week about an entity called Democracy Connection, which provides the 'service' of providing email connections to elected officials as well as varies publications for a small fee. Of course, all of the connections they facilitate are available for free for anyone who cares enough to look.
A recently graduated student who sees my facebook page and twitter feed, decided to pursue the matter with Rep Esquivel and what came next is worth preserving :)
Representative Sal Esquivel maintains a facebook page. Whether her writes himself or staff does, he has some text up there as of this moment that is NOT cool for an elected in exchange with a constituent. This is the link to his wall: HERE
These are the posts on the wall as of now... I am doing some screen grabs and I'll upload when I have a chance.
Wall Post from yesterday (8/23) at 12:43am
I see that you deleted my post about the fundamental flaw with charging $25.00 for Democracy Connection. Why? You should embrace this criticism and pass it on to those who run it. After all, you are my State Representative!
Initial response posted about 2:45pm today...
Dylan I resent your pious demeaning attitude. You do not even know what you do not know - and in particular regarding Democracy Connection. I find it interesting that it is a week after the Northern Blue Liberal Blogs have discussed this website that you pipe in. I do not control this site, nor is it my responsiblity as a State Representative to control websites. I see you work at Kohl's. I am sure that when people come to your store to buy, you send them to Ross's where they can purchase the same thing cheaper, correct? I did not think so. I am sure you believe it is ok for people to pay $25.00 to $35.00 for a form letter that no one reads. That is what other websites charge for people to express their opinion - where is your criticism of those websites? Lastly, young man you may be critical of what these people are doing, I am for it. I like the grassroots approach. Maybe you do not, for fear people may get to understand just what their government is up too and object. As for your statement that you get the information as quickly as this web sight is pure fabrication and if you think that, again it shows your lack of understanding of the system.It would take you approximately 35 hours to look up and then contact each of the nationally elected officials - and you haven't begun on the state wide individuals! Perhaps you believe that the liberal blogs up north are completely unbias and factual, Right? If you want to pass on to the individuals who are presenting this service through Democracy Connection, I am sure you have already figured out how to do that! If you do not like this site, do not go there. No one if forcing you to particpate in anything, but Democracy Connection makes it easy to get involved! I enjoy frank discussions with reasonable people. However, it is difficult to have a conversation with an individual who has just one agenda - demeaning other people and their ideas! It is unfortunature that you are unable to see a service when you are looking at it.
and Dylan's reply about 2 hours later...
I'm not trying to demean your ideas, it just upsets me that you support a website that is charging people for information that is otherwise free. After you deleted my comment, it furthered my aggression on the issue. One of the most important things I learned this past year at the University of Oregon was how little I know, and how little I will ever understand about a variety of subjects. If you wish to demean me for my youth, then I will pin your disconnection with that same trait on your parties selfish ways.
I do work at Kohls, and when a customer brings in the same product we sell at our department store for a lower cost, we meet that price- because we strive to give the people who employ us (the customers) the best possible experience they can have, so they will choose us again. We don't like ripping people off.
Do you know why I don't want to contact a state representative in Missouri? Because they're in Missouri! If there was something happening in some other state and county that really mattered that much to me, then I would contact them individually. Like the GOPer who recently said that I, and others my age are not worth minumum wage. That's an issue I would address with the individual. Otherwise, I contact my Oregon State officials, because they listen to me because I elect them, and I campaign for them.
Have fun with Democracy Connection, but to avoid further criticism, why not put up my USA.gov link? We'll see how many people want to pay $25.00 to contact every state representative and state senator in the country with issues, some of which, don't concern them!
Then this is a separate wall post from the same constituent, about 15 minutes after the first post...
I've decided that because Representative Sal Esquivel couldn't give me an answer, and ultimately decided to delete my inquiry off his wall, I thought I'd ask everyone else online! I know I have convenient access to communication with my Representatives and Senators without paying $25.00 a year. It seems like there's something wrong with requiring a fee to receive information that ought to be public.
Home | Democracy Connection
www.democracyconnection.com
Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 10:44 PM PT: new exchange from Rep Esquivel and a reply from Dylan...
Representative Sal Esquivel
Dylan is not being completely forthright, you DO NOT have to join, all you have to do is spend 30 or so hours gathering email addresses for all of your Reps and Senators in Washington DC and it is free if you want to spend time doing it. He is a typic...al liberal that tells half truths. He also does not tell you, you CAN look up the emails and that is free, but he has not figured out that if you pay $25.00 per year and can do it in 2 mins. and be done with it to communicate with your representatives in not only DC but Oregon as well. You can also write letters to the editors of several larger newspapers in the state for the $25.00 per year. They also try to give you information ahead of the votes in order for you to let your reps. know how you feel about the specific issue. Dylan's problem is he read too much Blue Oregon liberal information and believes it.
9 minutes ago
I wouldn't call my party affiliation a problem Mr. Esquivel. I like to read a variety political news and have chosen the left wing. It happens that taking care of the population is a political priority of mine. I didn't say that you MUST join, in fact I've been trying to deter people from this "grassroots organization".
It seems you're misleading your constituents into buying a product which should be, and IS free. Anyone can carbon copy a message and send it to every representative, senator and president. Even if they wanted to do that- it's not necessarily practical.
"Liberty isn't free"? Honestly, if there's anything our elected officials can do, it's guarantee efficient and available means to Democracy. and charging $25.00 for information is absolutely wrong. It's opportunistic and taking advantage of one's constituents.
7 minutes ago
So, for those keeping score, this is a 19 year old with one year of college under his belt going toe to toe with a mid 60s politician who has held office of one form or another for over a decade. I will not speculate on a Gutridge 2014 campaign... Sal may decide to retire before then :)
Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 10:49 PM PT: heh - more from Dylan
http://www.usa.gov/...
Oh, and one more thing. I did post this on your wall earlier. You deleted it.
I like Sal's estimate of 30 hours needed to research email contact info for elected reps... I think that's not intended to be a factual statement...
Wed Aug 24, 2011 at 11:41 PM PT: Sal's latest, having deleted some of Dylan's posts (notably, the link to usa.gov)
Representative Sal Esquivel Besides, who and what I support is my business, not yours, just like it is not my business what you support or don't. You have a problem, take care of it yourself, it is not my job to protect you from yourself. Oh, I forgot you are liberal and you think the government SHOULD protect you from yourself, I forgot.
5:06 PM PT: Epic rebuttal on Esquivel's fb wall from a 3rd party:
Evan P. Thomas
Esquivel,
I'm not going to demean you based on your age, employment, nor political affiliation. I do not base your arguments on external character attributes, nor do I use such attributes as arguments themselves. I base my assessment of a persons intellect based on the responses they produce, which is a factual and logical assessment.
I understand that you do not work for Democracy Connection, and I understand that you likely do not care about the methods by which they provide service. If a person is willing to buy a service, then the service that is being provided has value, even if the same service is offered elsewhere for free. I really have no issue with the website, nor do I have issue with you supporting it.
I do have an issue with two things. First, I have an issue with is your treatment of Dylan. The only person I saw acting pious and demeaning was you. If you want to debate with a constituent, that's fine. But when you start highlighting a persons employment, age and political party as a debating tool, it makes you look like a moron. Debate arguments, Representative, not character traits. This is generally is not my business, so I'm not going to comment on it further.
Second, there is a fundamental flaw with your last comment: "who and what I support is my business, not yours." Indeed, all of what you openly politically support is a matter of public record. On the other hand, what Dylan supports is, indeed, not anyone's business, because Dylan is not a public official. Your support and proximity in association with Democracy Connection is a matter of public record, and the foundational concept that Democracy Connection leans on in order to succeed is public record! You claim that you are against the prospect of sharing information about your support of an organization that profits because of its nature to share information. Regardless of public records laws, there is a name for this principle: LSAT officials call this a contradiction, it is a form of logical fallacy.
Take care.