Technical Difficulties

Dear Senator Johnson:

Well, here I am, writing to you again. I don't suppose either one of us is surprised.

I am writing to express my contempt for the underhanded, bad-faith tactics used by the Republican Party to pass H.R. 1. Given how much breath and ink Republican politicians have wasted complaining about how the Democrats "shoved through" the ACA, it takes a particularly special kind of hypocrisy to demonstrate so blatantly to the American people what "shoving through" a bill actually looks like.

I am also writing to observe that you have made the same maneuver at least twice this year, expressing "opposition" to the GOP's unpopular legislation and then voting the party line as if you'd never opened your mouth. Senator, just once, I'd like to see you put your vote where your mouth is and put the needs of your constituency before the interests of your party.

Because if you've somehow deluded yourself into thinking this bill will be good for your constituents, please wake up and look around. It will be a disaster for everyone except the financially topmost fraction of the American people--and those people, of all the citizens of the United States, are the ones who do not need the government to be doing them favors.

I know that I'm not going to change your mind. You've demonstrated too clearly where your allegiances lie, no matter what kind of posturing you indulge in. I am, however, asking you to change your vote. The tax cuts for corporations and billionaires proposed by this legislation will create a vast deficit where one currently does not exist. I don't quite understand how this squares with Republican claims to be the party of fiscal responsibility, but I suppose that comes in the next part, where the bill imposes disastrous cuts on Medicare, Social Security, and other vital social programs. Moreover, the repeal of the ACA individual mandate will completely destabilize the health insurance market, uninsuring millions of people, spiking premiums for those who retain coverage, and removing protections for those with pre-existing conditions. I know you don't care about that--you've made your position on that subject clear--but as a person who has "pre-existing conditions," I care very much. And then there's the SALT deduction, which will hurt the same middle-income American families Republicans have been claiming this bill will help.

Honestly, this bill, like many Republican bills this year, is cruel. It's mean-spirited, petty, unethical, and seems to be motivated by nothing but greed. With all that being said, Senator, I would suggest you think very carefully about what your vote says about you.
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I used 5calls.org's script as a template. If you want to use my letter as a template, you are welcome to do so.

Dear Senator Johnson:

You have been saying terrible things about people with "pre-existing" conditions for all of 2017, comparing us to cars, saying that we should pay more for our healthcare, even though most "pre-existing" conditions are not caused by anything a person does or by bad choices they make. In fact, since pregnancy is a "pre-existing condition," you are actively punishing people for having families--which seems to run counter to the agenda the Republican Party has been pushing for years The Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson proposal, which callously strips all protections from people like me (and which makes it entirely possible that a premature baby will hit his or her lifetime cap before leaving the hospital for the first time), makes it clear that in fact you have no idea of what it's like not to be able to afford healthcare, or to have a chronic, incurable condition, and that you don't even have enough imagination to be able to empathize with the people whose lives you are destroying.

Moreover, given that there is astonishing unity among healthcare professionals, patients' interest groups, and major insurers (plus all fifty Medicaid administrators and a current count of eighteen governors), it is quite clear that you aren't doing this because it's a good idea. You don't care whether it will be good or bad for your constituents. All you care about--and more than one of your Republican colleagues have admitted as much--is repealing "Obamacare." You're doing this because you made a campaign promise, and you're too blindly self-centered to see that this is a promise that would be better honored in the breach than in the observance. You and your colleagues are behaving childishly, destroying something only because you hate the person who built it. The ACA is not failing, as you keep claiming it is, Senator. It is suffering mightily from obstructionism and deliberate sabotage from you and your colleagues, and, yes, it does need reform. But your proposal isn't reform. It's wanton demolition of legislation that is working, legislation that is succeeding in making the lives of Americans better, demolition which you are pushing without the slightest consideration of its effects on the people you claim you serve.

I'm not writing this letter because I expect you will change your mind--or, frankly, even read it. I'm writing this letter because I'm angry and scared and unbelievably frustrated with your deliberately cruel and blindly stupid determination to do something that no one in this country wants. You won't change your mind, but you can't say you didn't know there was opposition.

P.S. I'd still really like to see you denounce white supremacism, Senator. Because right now, I unwillingly believe you don't think there's anything wrong with it.

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Dear Ms. DeVos:

I am appalled at your decision to roll back the protections given to sexual assault survivors by Title IX. I'm not surprised, because it's perfectly in line with the other cruel, short-sighted, and bigoted decisions you've made since being appointed Secretary of Education, but I honestly wonder (and I wonder this about a number of Trump appointees, so you needn't think you're alone) how you live with yourself. How do you justify, even if only to yourself, the damage you're doing? Do you believe the lies you tell?

I'm not going to quote statistics, because I'm sure they've been shown to you. I'm not going to try to change your mind with personal stories. I am going to ask, futilely, that you stop and truly think about the young women whose college careers, already catastrophically imperiled by the sexual assault they have survived, may be destroyed because of the policies you're implementing. And I'm going to ask how on earth you think this destruction is part of your mandate as Secretary of Education?

Everyone's civil rights need to be respected. I believe this strongly enough to belong to the ACLU. But victims' rights are historically ignored, trampled on, and outright broken, especially in cases of sexual assault, especially when the perpetrator is white and male. I also strongly believe that the purpose of government should be to ensure that privilege is not used to skew justice. It was already crushingly difficult for sexual assault survivors to report their assailants. You have made it that much harder, and that much more likely that they will simply remain silent. I cannot help thinking that that silence is your goal, and that, Ms. DeVos, is truly shameful.

Dear Senator Johnson:

Today you unveiled your proposed health care legislation. I am not impressed by it, especially in comparison to the health care legislation of Senator Sanders and Senator Baldwin. I know I cannot change your mind, or convince you that removing federal regulations is a catastrophe, not a solution, or that block grants to states, while perhaps a workable solution in some states, will be misused in every way possible in others to ensure that the money does not go where it is most needed. I count Wisconsin as one of those states. I do not believe the state government has its citizens' best interests at heart any more than I believe you do.

Republican senators have been trying and failing to repeal the ACA for all of 2017, despite intense opposition from their constituencies, while Senator Sanders' Medicare for All plan creates the reform you claim to want. You are wasting time, energy, money, and other resources that would be better spent on almost anything else--perhaps the opioid crisis you also claim to be concerned about.

I am disappointed and angry. You have betrayed your constituents again, Senator. And although this is just one more chapter in a book you are making longer by the day, I am still appalled by the stupidity and cruelty you continue to endorse. Even though Wisconsin is not my native state, I have lived and voted here for more than twenty years. I am ashamed that one of my senators has put his name on this bill.


P.S. You still have not made a public statement denouncing fascism, either.

Dear Senator Johnson:

I am writing to ask you to persuade your Republican colleagues to abandon efforts to repeal the ACA. While I whole-heartedly believe that the American healthcare system needs to be reformed, repealing the ACA is not the way to begin. The ACA is not failing, is not in a death spiral, and would in fact be more and more successful if President Trump and Republican legislators would stop sabotaging it.

I am writing to ask you to reach out to your Democratic colleagues. I am writing to ask you to work on a reform process for the ACA that is built on bipartisan cooperation and includes committee work, public hearings, and the full, correct parliamentary procedure for Senate legislation.

There are so many other issues I am angry and/or frightened about, like President Trump's ban on transgender service people, the utter disgrace Jeff Sessions is making of the office of Attorney General, and this new and horrible attack on the rights of people in nursing homes, but I feel defeated by my prior knowledge that you are not interested in my concerns. I am writing anyway because it is something I can do in defense of my ideals and my country, unlike all the many things I can't.

Dear Senator Johnson:

For most of this week, I've been too angry to write a letter. I'm angry at Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and Steve Daines and all the rest of the smug Republican apparatchiks who think scoring points against Barack Obama is more important than the lives of tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of their constituents. I'm angry at the way the GOP is trying to bully the Congressional Budget Office into giving their healthcare bill a better score. And I'm afraid, Senator Johnson, that means that I'm angry at you.

Your weaseling around to try to make the CBO score "better" infuriates me. First because you're trying to change the rules of the game (to use Senator Daines' extremely unfortunate metaphor) so that you can reach the goalposts your party has moved with your actions this year. Second because, while l6 million people uninsured may be fewer than 22 million people uninsured, it is not BETTER.

I wish I thought I had any hope of making you understand that.

It appalls me that you have any say in the governing of our country. (You're not alone in that. I'm equally appalled that Paul Ryan has any say in the governing of our country. Not to mention Donald J. Trump.) It makes me cringe to think that when I say, "I live in Wisconsin," people will now immediately associate that with the guy who argued that 16 million people uninsured was a meaningful improvement over 22 million people uninsured. And it infuriates me that you, my elected representative to the United States Senate, demonstrably and out of your own mouth care not a single iota about my welfare, or the welfare of 99% of your other constituents.

We both know you won't read this letter. Honestly, that is the least of my disappointments in you.

Dear Senator Johnson:

Yesterday, you compared me, not favorably, to a car: "We’ve done something with our health care system that you would never think about doing, for example, with auto insurance, where you would require auto insurance companies to sell a policy to somebody after they crash their car."

I cannot tell you how furious I am.

First of all, in comparing health insurance to car insurance, you are implying that:

(1) we can avoid illness, cancer, strokes, etc., the same way a driver, hypothetically, can avoid accidents (although accidents can't always be avoided, either);
(2) human beings are nothing but machines;
3) if we are not useful--as, say, children or elderly people no longer able to work are not useful--we are not worth taking care of;
(4) we decrease in value when we are damaged.

All of these implications are wrong. Frankly, they are all reprehensible. Also, a car accident is in no way, shape, or form like a "pre-existing condition." "Pre-existing conditions" are chronic. You can't deal with them once and then move on, the way you can buy a new car if yours is totaled. You have to deal with a "pre-existing condition" for the rest of your life; it goes on being expensive, eating up energy, and making your daily life harder long after the crisis point (the accident, in your analogy), if there even was one. Many people's "pre-existing conditions" start before they're even born. It is a false and pernicious analogy which you should never have permitted yourself to make.

Moreover, my "pre-existing conditions" are not things that I did, or things caused by my bad choices. The same is true of my friends who are bipolar. The same is true of any child who has cancer. Illness, whether mental or physical, is not a moral judgment, and a person's value, which is inestimable, is neither measured nor affected by the health care they need. And no one can predict the health care they're going to need--in much the same way no one can predict a drunk driver crossing the median and colliding head-on with their car.

Frankly, I have never expected you to oppose TrumpCare, whether it's called the AHCA or the BCRA, and I was angry enough about that. But the contempt this analogy shows for your constituents and for their need to have effective and affordable health care--a need that does not correlate with either their socio-economic status or their moral rectitude and that should never be thought of in terms of free-market capitalism--is appalling, especially from someone who claims to consider it "an honor and a privilege to serve the people of Wisconsin." I sincerely hope that this analogy is not a reflection of your true opinion of your constituents.

Senator Johnson, I AM NOT A CAR. I am a person, created equal with yourself, and I deserve to have my elected representatives respect my humanity and treat me with dignity.

Dear Senator Johnson:

I'm writing to ask you to put pressure on Senator McConnell to release the text of the AHCA bill and to hold public hearings before the bill is put to the vote. I ask this in a nonpartisan spirit, simply as a principle of ethical governance. Patrick Henry said in 1788, "The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. . . . to cover with the veil of secrecy the common routine of business, is an abomination in the eyes of every intelligent man, and every friend to his country." I believe that's as true now as it was then.

Please don't let Senator McConnell set a precedent with the AHCA. Insist that the text of the bill be published. Insist that there be public hearings. We fall short of the ideal of American democracy a lot of the time, but we are better than this crude and childish attempt to strong-arm an unpopular bill through the Senate by refusing to let anyone see it.

It would only take three Republican senators refusing to vote for the AHCA without proper disclosure and hearings to make it impossible for Senator McConnell's strategy to succeed. I would like to believe, not only that there are three Republican senators who have the ethical and moral strength to make that refusal, but also that the senior senator from Wisconsin is one of them.

Dear Senator Johnson:

If the first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency have shown us anything, it is that ignorance is neither harmless nor innocent. Ignorance is destructive and dangerous, and the more power it has, the more dangerous it becomes. Donald Trump must be removed from office, not only because he is clearly colluding with Russia, but because he is equally clearly incompetent. Trump is not competent to be President of the United States, and in his ignorance, and the fear and hatred that his ignorance engenders, he has already done incalculable harm to America: to her people, to her relationships with her allies, to her land and air and water. And he plans to do more harm and greater harm, in the service of nothing but himself.

There are so many things I'm angry about that I had to make a list:

1. The continuing efforts to repeal the ACA.

2. Trump's incredibly stupid decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. And your support for his decision does not make me happy, either.

3. His equally stupid attempts to use Pittsburgh and Detroit as symbols of his "putting America first," when both those cities were overwhelmingly against him in the election and are overwhelmingly in favor of America participating in the Paris agreement. And are both prime examples of why the Paris agreement is necessary.

4. The deaths of Second Lieutenant Richard Collins III, Sergeant First Class Rick Best, and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, and the failure of the Trump administration to call their murders what they are: white supremacist terrorism, committed by Americans on American soil.

5. Trump's plans to privatize air traffic control. Senator Johnson, I know you are a loyal Republican, but even so, surely you can see that privatization never works.

6. Trump's Tweets about the terrorist attack in London, and the breath-taking irresponsibility and ignorance they show.

7. Kim Weaver's decision to withdraw from the Iowa House race because of retaliatory measures taken against her by Iowa state officials and because of death threats.

8. The budget cuts being imposed on vital parts of the federal government, like the EPA.

9. The White House's failure to recognize LGBT Pride Month.

10. The ongoing efforts of officials who have recused themselves from the investigation into collusion with Russia to control that very investigation.

11. The increasing number of states passing voter restriction laws. They don't prevent voter fraud, because there isn't any. They don't prevent electoral fraud, because they're focused on the wrong people. All they do is prevent American citizens from voting, and that is absolutely heinous. Voting rights should be coterminous with citizenship, and every elected official and representative in America should be trying to get more people to exercise their constitutional rights, not fewer. I am 100% in favor of electoral reform, but it needs not to focus on the voters. The voters aren't the problem. (See #7 above.)

12. The North Dakota pipeline and the treatment of the protesters.

13. Trump's attempt to undercut the status of our National Monuments with Executive Order 13792.

I don't suppose I need to go on. We both know that you won't read this letter. I am writing anyway, because I--perhaps stupidly--continue to believe in the Constitution and American democracy. Which leads me to the final thing I wanted to bring up: your failure to hold a Town Hall meeting during this Congressional recess. Republicans nationwide are choosing to avoid their constituents during the recess, and I have to ask: if you aren't willing to face their anger, why are you willing to support legislation that makes them so angry? How does this count as representing your constituents?

I post all of my letters to you on my blog. Full disclosure: they are open letters, and I won't stop writing them.

So apparently what I do on Mondays is write open letters to Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI).

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Dear Senator Johnson:

Today is Memorial Day. To show my respect for the men and women who served--and are serving--our country bravely and honorably, I am writing you a letter I know you won't read.

Two of those men died this week for standing up against bigotry and terrorism. They were not on foreign soil and they were not combating Muslims or ISIS or any of the other bugaboos our current administration likes to shout about. They were combating white Americans. As of right now, our President, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who has found time to tweet gloatingly about Congressman Greg Gianforte bodyslamming an unarmed journalist, has not, apparently, been able to find the time to make a public statement about Sergeant First Class Rick Best, Second Lieutenant Richard Collins III, or about the civilian who also died combating white supremacist terrorism on American soil, Taliesin Namkai-Meche.

Senator Johnson, I am appalled and disgusted. I would greatly appreciate it if I could see evidence that you are also appalled and disgusted--or at least that you condemn the actions of Sean Urbanski and Jeremy Christian. This is not a complicated issue; there are no shades of gray or subtle nuances to be explored. This is white supremacist bigotry, and it is continuing to motivate domestic terrorism as it has done for more than 150 years. (The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865. I am not exaggerating.) Sergeant Best, a white man and a veteran, did an honorable and morally right thing; he stood up against bigotry, and he died for it. Lieutenant Collins, a black man and a veteran, did the same thing and died for it. The only way we can honor their memories, and the memory of Taliesin Namkai-Meche, is to take the same stand and to turn the force and strength of the American government and the American people against the terrorists in our midst. "Thou hypocrite," said Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, "first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (Matthew 7.5 KJV). I am old enough to remember the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I don't know why that wasn't enough to convince Democrats and Republicans alike that a bipartisan effort to eliminate domestic terrorism was necessary, that we need to be as "tough" on white supremacists as we claim we are on foreign terrorists (by which we seem to mean Muslims), but if it wasn't enough, as it seems it was not--since white supremacism continues to flourish and, in fact, to grow--I am asking you to understand that the murders of Best, Collins, and Namkai-Meche are enough. Grassroots efforts are necessary and valiant, but they have to be echoed by those in positions of power. They have to be echoed by legislators.

Please speak up. Please advocate against domestic terrorism committed by white Americans. Please make Collins, Best, and Namkai-Meche the last people who have to die before we finally call white supremacism unacceptable and move to eradicate it. It is the beam in our eye, and we need to cast it out.

Thank you.

(1) Congressman Mark Pocan
Dear Mr. Pocan:

Thank you for voting against the American Health Care Act yesterday. Thank you for speaking out so frankly against it in your press release. When so much of our current government seems either indifferent or actually hostile to the welfare of the citizens of the United States, I am grateful to have a representative who continues to put his constituents' needs first. Thank you for not betraying your voters.

(2) Senator Tammy Baldwin
Dear Senator Baldwin:

Yesterday, the Republicans in the House of Representatives, after carefully exempting themselves from the consequences, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When the bill comes before the Senate, I know that you will vote against it. Thank you for being someone your constituents can rely on to protect them.

(3) Senator Ron Johnson
Dear Senator Johnson:

Yesterday, the Republicans in the House of Representatives, after carefully exempting themselves from the consequences, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I know your voting record; I know how you feel about the Affordable Care Act. But I am asking you, please, to reconsider your stance. The American Health Care Act is a debacle that will harm--quite possibly kill--millions of Americans. If you support Americans' right to bear arms, how can you not support their right to adequate affordable health care?

I am one of your constituents, and I will be harmed by the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. When the American Health Care Act comes before the Senate, please vote against it.