I recently got upset with an email sent to me from my Republican Congressman, George Holding, R-NC (13th District). In essence, the letter stopped just short of calling Obama a dictator and/or a traitor for taking Executive Action on Immigration Reform.
This email was simply the straw that broke the camel's back, and I absolutely had to write Congressman Holding and let him know how I felt. I got a response back the next day...an obvious form letter which made it very clear to me he hadn't even READ my actual letter, or he would have known that my letter had little, if anything, to do with Immigration Reform.
It just so happened that this particular email was what had basically set me off on a tangent. So I have sent Congressman Holding another email today, and I simply want to share this with the Daily KO's community. A few things have been redacted in order to preserve "anonymity" of my letter, because I know that at Daily KO's we are not supposed to be using our real names, or any other identifying information in Diaries.
My second letter to Congressman Holding appears below the orange doohickey.
Dear Congressman Holding,
While I thank you for a quick reply to my most recent message, I am left wondering if you actually READ the message I sent. The reply I got was obviously a form letter, and had little to do with the content of my message. So I am going to try again.
What prompted me to contact you in the first place was an email I got from your office, concerning Obama's Executive Action on Immigration, and your message was just short of accusing him of acting like a dictator in this matter. And I knew I had to write. I had to write, not because immigration is a hot-button issue with me, it really isn't. I don't personally have a dog in this fight, really. But the tone of your email is what prompted me to write you.
Because I, for one, am sick and tired of all the posturing, and the finger-pointing, and the grandstanding I see coming out of Washington...while nothing actually useful or helpful to the American people ever seems to! Basically, I am seeing two groups of schoolyard children, both refusing to listen to or work with the other group...each busily pointing fingers at the other side...each blaming the other side for why things are not getting done. and I have HAD IT.
I am old enough to remember the days when moderates of both Parties worked together to arrive at solutions everyone could live with. They weren't perfect, and neither side got everything they wanted. It was called "compromise," I believe, back in those good old days. These days, it seems "compromise" is not even in the lexicon of Washington politicians anymore.
The fact is that Obama has taken Executive Action, which is his right as a President. He has done so far less times, in his six years so far in office...than the three previous Republican Presidents had done at the same point in their time in office - this is a verifiable fact (and because George HW Bush was one-term-only, one can only compare him to the first four years of Obama's tenure as President.)
But your email stopped just short of calling him a dictator and even a traitor, for taking actions you seem to feel are beyond his authority. I have to ask you how is what Obama just did...any worse than a do-nothing House of Representatives who refuses to act on a bill passed over a year and a half ago, by the Senate, concerning immigration?
It is this very inaction on the part of the House of Representatives which led Obama to issue his Executive Order. But, it seems to me, sir, in your world...an Executive Order is an over-reach of authority...but deliberately refusing to act on legislation passed by the Senate...seems to be just fine with you and your colleagues in the House. And I must ask why.
It seems that your Republican colleagues, in both the House and the Senate...seem all too willing to play political brinkmanship, even to the point of shutting down the Federal government, and hurting your own constituents...in order to score cheap political points. It seems to me as if you and your colleagues feel that my life, my concerns, and the issues that affect my life and my business...are nothing but a political football to be used to score whatever cheap points you can.
I am getting disgusted with it.
I am especially concerned over the threat of another government shutdown on December 11. Not that I expect you to care very much, but such a shutdown would have severely negative impacts upon my life and my livelihood. I am a medical biller and coder. I own my own company, (name of company redacted)
We recently relocated here from Pennsylvania. The doctors I serve deal mainly with Medicare patients. And when the government shuts down, Medicare quits paying on claims. When that happens, the clients I serve see their earnings decrease substantially. And because my contracts with my clients are based upon a percentage of actual collected funds...when THEIR earnings substantially decrease...SO DO MINE!!
You and your colleagues actions could literally cause my entire life and livelihood significant hardship. While you play political brinkmanship with the other side, you hurt real people...constituents like me. And when my income is significantly reduced, I am certainly not able to hire or maintain employment, and, n fact, could be placed in a position of being unable to pay my rent, and get EVICTED, all because you and your colleagues can't just TRY to work something out with the other side.
You are all not satisfied unless you get 100 percent of your way, 100 percent of the time. And real people...constituents like me...get hurt by this process...again, not that I much expect you actually care.
Seems to me like all of you politicians only care about me when you want my vote or financial contribution to your campaign...but when I want things to be done to help myself, my business, and my fellow Americans, you all seem to have no concern whatsoever for us.
It's time to end the hyper-partisanship that has done nothing but cause harm to real people. It is time to work with your fellow Representatives on the other side of the aisle, sir. It is time for you to sit down with your colleagues from BOTH Parties, and work out REAL SOLUTIONS TO REAL PROBLEMS that are facing our nation today. Not only immigration, but many other important issues need to be worked on, including job creation, fixing Social Security, improving and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and getting us out of wasteful boondoggle wars and police actions across half the world that suck our Treasury dry and produce nothing but dead soldiers.
Please, for GOD'S sake, will you ALL please just come together and try to work together?
I, for one, cannot afford another government shutdown...it could be the thing the completely ruins my business, my livelihood and my entire life. And I am telling you that if such a shutdown DOES occur...and it causes negative impact to my life, my business, or my livelihood, I am going to hold you personally responsible, at the ballot box, two years from now. This is a promise.
I will remember how you refused to work with the other side, and how you shut down the government, and how you hurt me and my business. I will remember it. I will remember how little my life or my concerns meant to you. I will remember how you were willing to use my life and my livelihood as a political football in a game of brinkmanship...all to score cheap political points. I will remember how your actions harmed me. and I will work with every ounce of strength I have to see you voted out of office if this happens. So help me GOD I will.
Sincerely,
Your Angry Constituent
(name and location redacted)