Open letters are all the rage these days. Although this won't have the impact of Sinead O'Connor's advice to Miley Cyrus, a friend showed me I could tag John Boehner on Facebook, and rant directly to him rather than about him. Or at least rant to the now-unpaid sycophantic staff who must sort the "Stay strong, John, and crush the worthless peasants beneath your boot" mail from the more thoughtful screeds such as mine :)
The text of my rant is below the paraph. (Not really a paraph, but I'm trying to popularize that word, and also my new hashtag, #ReapTheWhirlwind)
Dear Office of Speaker Boehner, there have been some sad excuses for House Speakers before, such as Jim Wright, who was forced to resign back when politicians still felt the tiniest modicum of shame for their actions. You, however, have brought the title to a new low of worthlessness, as you are not speaker of the House, nor even the Republican Party, but you are merely Speaker of the ignorant, nihilist segment of America that calls itself the Tea Party. And your grandstanding (or is it merely cowed paralysis?) is at the expense of millions of Americans who are far worse off than those who have enriched themselves in the House of so-called Representatives. I started to Google the percentage of House Republicans who are millionaires, but you know how Google tries to anticipate your search by filling in the most popular search terms -- I didn't get past percentage of House Republicans before it offered "percentage of House Republicans who are idiots". I didn't have to continue because that's demonstrably 100%.
I used to be blind enough to consider myself a Reagan Republican. George W. Bush and his corporate cronies cured me of that. You and your cohort have cured me of ever voting for a Republican again. And I can't tell you the number of people in my former job (working issues of diplomacy and security for the U.S. Government) that switched from Republican to Democrat because of the kind of antics that you are now carrying out. May a Populist wave sweep you and your entire party out of office for generations to come. In the meantime, try to retrieve some tiny shred of dignity, and vote for the good of the country rather than your doomed re-election prospects. #ReapTheWhirlwind.