WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

March 1, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: What’s wrong with you people?

And by “you people” I’m afraid I mean Republicans. I don’t like to generalize, but it seems to me that, unlike Democrats, you walk pretty much in lockstep these days. I ask “what’s wrong” because it seems to me, again, that something is fundamentally broken in your approach to government and the genuine, sometimes urgent needs of this country.

It’s an amazing country. It has taken only a couple of hundred years to become the most powerful, wealthiest and—yes, generally—the most benevolent nation in the history of the world. Which is not to say that we have reached anywhere close to perfection; there is still much work to do, there are still serious challenges to address. And from Republicans, these past few decades and increasingly these past few years, I have heard nothing but negative, obstructionist, reactionary, even punitive ideas.

To name some of those challenges we face:

·      health care for all Americans; surely we can agree that every American should enjoy the right to live free from anxiety about illness or the results of accident;

·      hunger, poverty and homelessness; again, we can surely agree that there is still needless suffering to be addressed;

·      equal justice for all, and an end to the institutional racism that tarnishes our judicial system;

·      an increasingly impoverished and underserved education system, whose outcomes compare so negatively with those of other wealthy countries;

·      wealth inequality, which has reached obscene and unsustainable levels;

·      a decaying infrastructure—roads, bridges, public transportation services, all in need of modernization or repair;

·      an aging population; we cannot abandon our elderly to poverty, illness, and neglect;

·      a natural environment that needs protection and resources that need conservation, not exploitation;

·      the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat;

·      an unimpeded, insane culture of guns and violence;

·      the civil and voting rights of every citizen;

·      our relations with the rest of the world; the leadership we risk abandoning, our commitment to freedom and justice for fellow human beings everywhere.

Our former President, Barak Obama, made a conscientious effort to address these challenges in the interest of forging, as he sometimes said, “a more perfect union.” Despite implacable Republican opposition, declared without shame from his first day in office, he achieved some significant progress. But now, with Republican domination of every branch of government, there has been nothing but obliteration of every trace of progress. Your president, aided at every step by the Republican Senate and the Republican House, has been obsessed (I suspect out of pure spite) with undoing every achievement of his predecessor, from great things (like the Affordable Care Act) to small: every regulation designed to protect the health and safety of the American people, every protection for the environment is subject to attack. Every agreement designed to improve our relations with other countries and our standing in the world is subject to high-handed and ill-considered reversal.

And to what end? To “make America great again”? I see American greatness, both at home and abroad, being frittered away at every turn. I see our country becoming small-minded and insular. I search in vain for one single idea, one single action from Republicans that is positive, forward-looking, and constructive. Instead, I see only negation, obstruction, vengeful deconstruction, petty penny-pinching when it comes to the poor and disadvantaged and open-handed generosity toward the rich.

So I ask, Congressman, what is wrong with you people? Or perhaps I should be asking, what is right? Show me, please, the evidence of one single positive idea or action that benefits not only the wealthy and the privileged but also those who need it most. Show me an idea or act of generosity, something that actually enhances the greatness of this country rather than diminishing it. If it’s there, I fail to see it.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.