As long as congress can pursue the destructive Paul Ryan agenda, it may not matter that Donald Trump is defeated in November and kept out of the oval office. It is absolutely important that Democrats try to regain as many seats as possible in both Houses. In Minnesota Congressional District 3 where I live, we have a good chance at capturing the seat now held by Republican Erik Paulsen. Paulsen wants to portray himself as a moderate, but he in fact supports and promotes the Ryan agenda.
Paulsen is being challenged by Terri Bonoff, currently in the Minnesota Senate for the DFL. Bonoff holds progressive stands on most of the issues that we care about, but also understands the role of small business in a healthy economy, having been active in small business herself. Another contender in a Minnesota District is Angie Craig. We should support her as well. Her opponent is a Trump clone called Jason Lewis. Google him. You will be appalled.
What you will find below is the first of a series of comments that I have been posting directly on Paulsen’s Facebook wall. It was posted on August 8. I view it as taking the battle to the enemy’s turf. And of course I have been called lots of things there by Trump supporters (stupid, insane.) Keep in mind that I have just cut and pasted here the comment exactly as it was originally posted on FB. So there is no HTML markup and there are possibly plenty of grammatical, punctuation and stylistic failings. This is not intended as literature. It is political warfare.
If I tell you my name is Javier, you might see why I take such an interest in bringing down the GOP wrecking machine.
August 8, 2016
91 days till election day.
One of the great things about America is the possibility that I, a private citizen, can publicly rebuke you, an elected official, without fear of retribution. In that sense at least America IS great despite what your candidate Mr Trump says repeatedly. The fact that I can do it on your web page is also remarkable. In part you can take credit for it, but don't be too smug about it either, since it wouldn't look good for you to shut out one of your constituents, particularly since I would make a big stink about it.
This kind of campaign is uncharacteristic for me. I don't like calling people "not so smart", like I've called you, but that discomfort is a small price to pay. Why? Because I believe removing you from office is one tiny but important step in preserving our democracy and our constitution. This is a little bit like the ancient Athens you read about in Thucydides, where citizens would gather on a hill, discuss war and taxation and shout insults at their leaders. Democracy is a weird and yet wonderful thing. I hope I can keep my insults to "not so smart."
You and I really aren't that different. We both have families which we both love and care about. I have a beautiful grand daughter (you can see pictures of her on a recent visit). My guess is that you don;t have grand children yet. I saw that you have a BA from St. Olaf, majoring in math. I myself am a mathematician: I have a PhD from Harvard in 1972 (AB from Berkeley), although unlike you who went straight from a BA into politics, after my doctorate I worked as a mathematician my entire working life. And you can see I am a lot older than you. Don't hold that against me.
You probably ask yourself "why does this guy think removing me from office helps democracy or the constitution or whatever" That's a good question. In the coming days. I'll try to answer it. But I wish you would try to talk to your constituents in an honest and forthright way. I've given up on your denouncing Donald Trump and in any case if you did it now it really wouldn't be very convincing. But there are other issues on which you seem to do "what you are told by the party." That must not be a good feeling now.
Till tomorrow.
