Virtual Fridays Without Fitzpatrick (VFWF) 36
In Response To Your 10/15/21 Newsletter
QUESTIONS
“Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war? ...
Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
Because the truth is hard to swallow...”
The Moody Blues “Question”
Congressman Fitzpatrick:
I just read your latest newsletter and wow, it was pretty empty. I guess you were too busy taking photo-ops to report on any of the innumerable critical problems facing our country today. To be fair though, maybe you were busy preparing for your next town hall with your constituents and that’s why your weekly newsletter was so devoid of content. But no, that can’t be the reason. You don’t do town halls with your constituents, right?
Well maybe next week you can address some real issues facing your constituents and America. Here are some questions for which many of us would like some answers:
Why did you vote for the former president in 2020 after you saw for four years what havoc he wrought on the American soul? Do you regret that decision after you saw him incite an attack on the Capitol and our democracy? Or would you still vote for him if he ran in 2024?
Do you believe, along with a majority of your fellow-Republicans, that the former president won the 2020 election and is in fact the real president of the United States today? The former president continues to say that he won the election. If you do not believe this Big Lie, why aren't you publicly condemning this Big Lie that is undermining faith in our democracy?
Will you vote to impose criminal sanctions on people like Steve Bannon who are refusing to respond to Congressional subpoenas concerning the January 6, 2021 insurrection which the man you voted for incited? Do you regret not taking a principled stand on investigating this treasonous day as did your Republican colleagues Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger? Or do you believe, as the man who incited this act of treason, as well as so many Republicans, that this was not a violent insurrection and an attempt to overturn a lawful election, but just a peaceful tourist gathering, despite the video and testimony and deaths and wounded police to the contrary?
Do you regret not voting to impeach the former president twice?
Your fellow Republican leaders in Texas just passed legislation that requires a woman who was raped to carry to term the baby of her rapist. Do you agree with that law? Do you agree with other provisions of that law, which sadly may become a model for many other Republican controlled states, which attack the rights, freedom and health of American women?
Do you agree with Republican legislation being passed in many states that is resulting in voter suppression and denying the opportunity of many poor and minority citizens to vote? If there were negligible (almost zero) voting irregularities in the 2020 election, why is your Party working so hard to make it, not easier, but harder for citizens to vote?
Do you regret voting for the tax scam of 2017 which added over two trillion to the national debt, provided tax cuts to rich individuals and wealthy corporations, and did nothing to improve the conditions of working Americans?
Why do you never speak about the growing income inequality that is making life more difficult for working Americans? At the very least, why aren’t you fighting to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to a living wage? Do you know how many of your constituents would benefit from raising the minimum wage? Why do you choose to ignore their needs?
Why do you oppose President Biden’s Build Back Better program when it would help so many working families in our district and across America? Which of these programs are you against providing to your constituents? Why are you doing nothing to help them in these areas?
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Two free years of community college
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Medicare expansion
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Extended child tax credit
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Cut prescription drug prices
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Paid family and medical leave
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Climate change initiatives
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Closing the Medicaid coverage gap
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Home- and community-based care
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Child care and universal pre-K
When you visited the border during the last administration, do you regret being concerned that ICE guards had so much overtime to work while you said nothing about the kids in cages or the kids being separated from their parents?
What is your reaction to the murder of George Floyd and other innocent Americans who died while interacting with police? What are you doing to implement police reform? Does your motivation to effect real criminal justice reform conflict with the many dollars you receive from police unions?
Do you believe there is systemic racism in American institutions? If so, what are your ideas and plans for attacking this social injustice? But do you ever reflect on why so many hate groups were attracted to the former president whom you voted for in 2020?
What is your honest assessment of how the former administration handled the COVID pandemic? What are so many Republicans not getting vaccinated? Why are so many Republicans resisting simple public safety ideas such as social distancing and mask wearing? Why don’t you speak out more against your Party’s politicization of public safety and health matters that are prolonging this pandemic and causing more Americans to get sick and die?
Do you feel unions are a vital force for the benefit and prosperity of the American workforce? Or do you perceive unions as an obstacle to business which should be overcome in the interest of the consumer desire for low prices and management’s desire for higher profits? What are you doing to support the growth of labor unions in the American workforce?
Oh so many questions and I haven’t even scratched the surface. Especially about the most critical issue facing our species: our possible extinction (and many other species) due to human induced climate change.
But these questions should give you enough material for subsequent newsletters. That is, of course, unless you continue to fill them with meaningless photo-ops.
“Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?”