I live in a very red district in Georgia and as such, I've more or less become resigned to the fact that my representative is going to hold a radically different viewpoint than my own. But watching this shutdown, I can't just wait for the next election and vote for a democrat again knowing that my vote will be effectively meaningless in this ridiculously gerrymandered republican district. As such, I've sent the following to my Representative (Tom Price of Georgia's sixth congressional district) informing him that unless he votes on a clean resolution to end this shutdown, I will donate both my time and money to ANY candidate, democrat or republican who will run against him for as many elections as it takes to remove him from office.
I may not expect my representative to agree with my views, but I do expect him (or her) to at least do their job. And that job doesn't include shutting down the government they were elected to serve.
Mr. Representative,
Because I want to make sure that out of this letter you get this very important point I will put it first; if you have not voted to end the shutdown of the government through a clean resolution by the end of this week, I will not only donate my money but my time as well towards any candidate whether democrat or republican who will run against you for as many elections as it takes to remove you from your office.
As a gay, atheist, democrat living in your heavily red and gerrymandered district, I have resigned myself that any representative of mine will likely disagree with me on fundamental issues. But I do at least expect that you will do your job as an elected official in the running of our government and that includes not intentionally shutting it down. Instead, you have done something that not even Osama bin Laden and al-Queda has been able to do... you have shut down our government regardless of the harm it does to millions of Americans over your misplaced ideology and as far as I can tell that makes you and those others in the House who vote with you terrorists or at least no better than them.
When you as my representative voice a belief I disagree with, I can at least console myself with the fact that it is simply another part of the dialogue that makes our participatory democracy great. That through the back and forth exchange of ideas, we come out with something better. But by ending the dialogue through ultimatums and destructive scare tactics, you personally destroy the fabric of our society and that is something I cannot abide in silence. End this shutdown.
Adam Schmidt
Marietta, GA