JERUSALEM--OFF THE TABLE?

March 6, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Off the table?

Did I hear this wrong? I thought to hear your Trump claim, in a press session with Netanyahu, that by sanctioning the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, he had take Jerusalem “off the table” in the interminable peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. I searched for the exact quotation in vain in the New York Times and elsewhere. Perhaps I did mis-hear.

Even so, that reckless announcement some months ago could hardly have been better calculated to throw a wrench in an already badly mishandled situation. Mishandled, it must be said, on all sides. Years ago, at the time of the Oslo accord, there seemed to be some glimmer of hope. Since then, good faith seems to have been abandoned. On the Palestinian side, the persistence of violence and threats of violence have been helpful only to extremist Israeli arguments; on the Israeli side, the provocation of the settlements and the intransigence of the religious right has been abetted by the hawkish Netanyahu.

Now, with the thumb of the bellicose Trump firmly placed on the Israeli side of the scale and the assignment of American policy to a hardly neutral, naïve, and wholly inexperienced son-in-law, the prospect of peace is further than it ever was. Trust, the indispensible ingredient, is understandably shattered by an American president who is not only a transparent liar and reckless opportunist, but also a man of unabashedly declared favoritism.

May we know where you stand on this issue, Congressman? Do you support peace talks, conducted in good faith on either side? Or do align yourself with those who support Israel at any cost?

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

NATIONALISM

March 6, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman

Re: A question

I write this morning to inquire as to the meaning of your tweet yesterday, about the result of Italy’s election. In response to what appeared to be a surge in support for the right-wing populist movement, you wrote: “US policy makers need to recognize that populism=nationalism=patriotism.”

What exactly does that mean? Does it mean, perhaps, since you equate them, that you are in favor of all three? As I’m sure you must be aware, it was the centerpiece of your equation, nationalism, that spawned such upheaval and tragedy in Europe in the 20^th century. To my knowledge, it has never done anyone any good.

I will confess that I am not, myself, a patriot. Even the experience of World War II, through which I lived, was not enough to persuade me to love my (victorious!) native country to the exclusion of all others. I wonder if you watched the two versions of the Dunkirk story, both up for Oscars at this past Sunday’s award ceremony? I did, and not without pride in the courage of my countrymen and women. But what was at stake, in my view, was not country, but rather the survival of freedom and democracy in the face of, um… ugly nationalism.

As for populism, I’d be all for it if it had anything to do with democracy. However, as you correctly point out in your tweet, it has more to do with the spirit of rabble-rousing nationalism. Democracy, to have viability, depends primarily on a well-informed and educated electorate—the kind of electorate that proved sadly deficient in our 2016 election, when disinformation was widely broadcast to angry and disillusioned supporters not only by Russian hackers but by candidate Donald Trump himself.

So, Congressman, am I to understand from your tweet that you regard those three with favor? If so, we are once more in radical disagreement.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

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.

NEPOTISM

February 28, 2018 

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,
101 Main Street #380
Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

 It has been a while since you heard from me. My apologies. I do try to keep up, but sometimes life gets in the way of the best intentions.

Are you as displeased as I am by the shameless nepotism of our “president”? Qualified or not—and in fact, not, not at all—the Trump family strides across the globe with appalling arrogance and presumption. Trump Jr. shows up in India as an uncredentialed quasi-ambassador, accepting greetings as though he represented this country even as he promotes the family business. Ivanka Trump is dispatched to the most dangerous place in the world, charged, it seems, with disclosing official American policy to the President of South Korea.

Worse, to my mind, the ubiquitous and (forgive me) infinitely smarmy Jared, lacking even the most basic diplomatic credentials or experience, is supposedly not only overseeing our relations with Mexico but also brokering that peace in the Middle East that has eluded a host of skilled diplomats and negotiators before him. That he has finally been stripped of even the temporary security clearance that allowed him access to the most confidential information until now is surely evidence that he is not only unqualified, he is a security risk. Yet his father-in-law makes no attempt to replace him. 

Are you content, Congressman, with the United States becoming what’s close to a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump Inc.? Is it okay with you to see our nation’s international relations and international business conducted as a family fiefdom, by people who are, at best, rank amateurs and at worst, quite possibly, a criminal enterprise? 

How much longer will you and your fellow Republicans continue to tolerate an administration that violates every principle you once claimed to stand for? Are you not in the least bit troubled by this travesty? 

Respectfully, 


Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

TEACHERS WITH GUNS

February 23, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Teachers with guns

From our balcony, we look down over Laguna Beach High School. The football field is immaculate, green, and well lit both in the early morning and the evening. The track surrounding it is state-of-the-art. I imagine there could be no better place in the world for a young person to get an education. Those of them who are raised in this most privileged of areas are fortunate indeed.

And yet… we now know that this school, along with every other school in this most privileged of countries, is vulnerable to the kind of mayhem that we saw last week in Florida. It is appalling to think that virtually anyone, with little effort and few questions asked, can lay his (yes, unfortunately, almost always “his”) hands on the kind of lethal weaponry that is designed exclusively to kill and maim as many human beings as possible on the field of battle. It is appalling to reflect on how many have acquired them, and have brought them into schools like ours, and have used them to inflict death and injury on a scale that should be unimaginable.

I want to ask you, Congressman: do you stand behind the appallingly simplistic, ignorant and dangerous words of your president on this issue? With his childish notion that the problem will be (so easily!) solved by arming teachers? Or by “hardening” every “target”—which is to say, every school in the country? Will you, as does the president, capitulate to the self-serving edicts of the NRA, and parrot the despicable words we heard from its leader yesterday?

I ask this because I value the school in my neighborhood and the lives of the young people who arrive there every day—with the expectation of returning home at night. I value the education it provides, and the teachers who provide it. I expect you, my representative, to share those values and oppose every effort to diminish or besmirch them. I expect you, my representative, to do what is necessary to protect them. And in today’s world it appears that the very least that can be done is to remove weapons of war from the equation. Entirely. Unequivocally. Immediately.

I expect and demand nothing less of you, as my representative, than a ban on all assault rifles. For a start.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

A PURPOSEFUL MISREADING

February 20, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Your statement

I read the February 16 statement you put out regarding the Mueller indictment of 3 Russian agencies and 13 Russian individuals in connection with the attack on the integrity of our 2016 election. I believe that you distort the facts.

First, to suggest that the activities of the Russians support “both the Trump and the Clinton campaigns” is to purposely misread the indictment (I read it in full: did you?), which makes it perfectly clear that the support was in Trump’s favor. In cases where false flag rallies were staged, purportedly in Clinton’s favor, it was clear that the opposite was intended.

Further, to latch on to that single word, “unwitting,” is to ignore what I pointed out to you in an earlier letter, the allegation early in the document stating that “Defendants knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury) to defraud the United States.” This is hardly an exclusion of the possibility of collusion. It is merely an opening of the door for future revelations.

In view of this, your statement’s assurance that “the ‘collusion’ theory will likely collapse, and soon” is clearly misguided. And to lay the blame for the Mueller investigation on Democrats, as your statement does, is to gloss over the very real threat that Russia poses to our democracy. You should instead place the blame squarely (and honestly) where it belongs: on your Russian friends. And you should be asking why the presumptive leader of our nation fails to respond in even the mildest way to a now unquestionable attack on our country and instead, like yourself, chooses to blame those who wish only to defend it.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

TWEETS

February 19, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Tweets

In lieu of my usual letter, forgive me if I unabashedly quote myself, from my most recent post on Facebook.

What a pathetic thing is a "tweet"! It's aptly named, the word defined in the dictionary as "the chirp of a small or young bird." Yet that's what we get from the occupant of the Oval Office, in response to what is finally, openly, indisputably acknowledged as an act of "information war" against the United States: a series of tweets. A real man in that office would speak with the voice of a real man, a voice of integrity and authority, a voice of justified anger and resolve; I think of the voice of Roosevelt in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He would not "tweet" from behind a puny cell phone, but speak out loud to the world from behind his desk, or from behind a lectern. But we lack the presence of a real man in the Oval Office. Instead, we have a small-minded, bird-brained creature who responds to a still-continuing attack on our country with nothing more than tweets.

To quote the inadequate expression of our Tweeter-in-Chief: Sad!

And you, Congressman, will you remain silent? Will you, through your silence and inaction, be guilty of collusion with your Russian friends, who attack this country with impunity? With not so much as a murmur of condemnation from the man who poses as our “president”?

Yours, in full-throated anger,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.