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Dear Group, Most of you received a copy of McMorris Rodgers’ 2 sheet, 2 1/2 page snail mail letter dated May 4, 2018. Carefully read it is a remarkable document of Republican/Libertarian messaging brought to you courtesy of your own tax dollars. It starts with, “My mission is to restore trust and confidence in representative government and the rule of law.” Clearly, that can mean whatever the reader wants it to mean. Note the use of the word “restore.” The underlying message is that government has lost the trust of the people, the Fox News listeners, whom it is supposed to serve. You don’t restore something that isn’t broken. She leaps right into “Fighting for Seniors in Eastern Washington.” About half of the first page is a short story of McMorris Rodgers’ office helping out a Senior whose Social Security payments stopped coming. She writes, “I know that working through red tape and bureaucracy can be stressful and can feel like you’re getting the run-around…” The message was essentially “I can help you with the horrible red tape and bureaucracy that characterizes our federal government.” She poses herself as fighting the government for her constituents benefit. What a puzzling message about government for a Representative serving in Congress. The second page starts with “Protecting Social Security and Medicare.” Under that heading she leaps into the “sweeping ‘reform’ of the tax code” and tells her stock anecdotes of the benefits of the Republican tax law to the middle class, carefully avoiding, as she always does, the 80 percent of the Republican tax law proceeds that accrue to the benefit of corporations and the already wealthy. She is saying, “Look at the crumbs we threw your way! Don’t look at the whole package. You wouldn’t understand.” She tips her hat to “affordable and accessible health care.” Of course, she voted for the American Health Care Act (AHCA) which would have removed 23 million people from the health insurance rolls. Instead, she touts “transparency” and “competition” to make drugs more affordable. Near the end of the letter she takes one last jab, “Our budget process is badly broken…” She and her colleagues are bringing “commonsense reforms.” Apparently, McMorris Rodgers and her Republican/Libertarian colleagues didn’t get the memo telling them they are actually in control of all three branches of the federal government. Since the 1990s the Republican/Libertarian propaganda outlets (Fox News was founded in the mid-1990s) and the Republican Party in general have been stoking anger and mistrust of the government of which they are a part, a government they now control. For the Republican Party there is no longer any “We” that encompasses government. There is no “We the People” who have gotten together to form a more perfect Union. Instead, it is “Us” against the evils of government. “I’ll do battle for you.” “I will fix this cursed thing.” There is nothing quite like anger and distrust to unite followers to a cause. McMorris Rodgers is careful not to sound too shrill for eastern Washington, but her underlying message is the same as conservative talk radio. It is a message of conflict, mistrust, anger and disparagement—a message of division that runs counter to her frequent mouthing of the word “bipartisan.” Such divisiveness would have been utterly foreign to a statesman like Tom Foley. It is a message we should reject. Let’s put Lisa Brown in this office, a Representative who can work with, not against. Keep to the high ground, Jerry |