A PROPOSAL

11 April 2017

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Are you back in California for the congressional Easter break? I imagine so. And I have a proposal.

Last time you were here I wrote requesting a Town Hall meeting—a request you denied, citing an incident at your office the previous week that got (ever so slightly) out of hand. It seems you feared a rowdy session with constituents, given the widespread disapproval among voters for the Trump administration and the Republican-dominated Congress. There was, too, the example, of numerous such events that embroiled Republican colleagues in confrontational situations.

So this time I am not repeating my request for a Town Hall. Instead, I’m suggesting a one-on-one meeting at a location of your choice, for a genuine discussion of the issues we face together as a country. You’ll be aware by now, if you receive my frequent letters, that you and I disagree on almost every issue. That being said, I am truly open to hearing from your own mouth where you stand on some of these issues, and why you take the positions that you do.

I am more interested in this, indeed, than in expressing my own opinions. I am already familiar with these, and with the reasoning behind them. I am acutely aware, too, that we who hold differing opinions have been unable to reach “across the aisle” and hear what our counterparts genuinely think. This is a huge problem, resulting in the kind of stalemate that reduces our government to paralysis. I’m assuming that you sincerely want the best for your constituents and for the country that you serve, and would honestly like to know how that intention squares with the positions that you take—for example, in your recent boilerplate letter about immigration.

Would you be up for such a meeting? Just you, my congressman, and I, your constituent, open to listening? In order to serve more than just our two selves, I would undertake to publish the results of our discussion as accurately as possible on my blog, “The Rohrabacher Letters,” where I publish our correspondence. Please let me know. I attach, below my signature, a cell phone number where I can be reached.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

323 376-4666