Editor’s Note: The following is an open letter to U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts — and it’s author asked that it be published as a letter to the editor.
Dear Rep. Pitts,
I received your letter asking me to contribute to your re-election campaign and vote for you on Nov 4th. It was good to hear from you.
You expressed pride in the work that you have supposedly done for me. Really? That is delusional; I am not in the 1%.
You and your Party have imposed devastating domestic and foreign policies on We-the-People based on outright lies; radical, right-wing, ideological myths; non-stop fear-mongering; and race baiting (food-stamp President, etc).
You lied, repeatedly, that ‘financial markets will self-regulate.’ You voted for Gramm-Leach-Bliley (aka, Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999), which overturned the Glass-Steagall Act of the 1930s. That ‘modernized’ us right back to the 1920s, and led directly to the rampant, greed-induced speculation and criminal behavior by our white-collar criminal class on Wall Street and caused the Bush Great Recession.
We lost $16 trillion in worth, and millions lost their homes and jobs. Then you refused to support sufficiently large job stimulus programs of Pres. Obama to provide jobs and restore the economy. You blamed the unemployed for being the unemployed, when we had 6 people looking for work for every job available. You cynically calculated that continued high unemployment and economic malaise would cause Pres. Obama to be defeated in 2012. Holding unemployed Americans and us as hostages for your political gain is despicable. Despite your destructive behavior, we have experienced over 50 months of continuous job growth.
Bush, et al, and you lied, repeatedly, about WMD in Iraq, yellowcake from Niger, aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and meetings in Prague, etc. Bush and you proceeded to implement the biggest foreign policy blunder in the country’s history – the illegal, unnecessary and immoral Iraq war that will eventually cost us over $3 trillion. Over 4000 of our kids were killed, and tens of thousands wounded (full disclosure – my son did six tours in your Iraq War). A million Iraqis lost their lives, 4 million more were displaced, their country destroyed, all of this leading to the current situation with ISIS/ISIL in the region.
You funded the war with off-budget supplementals so that the people would not easily see the yearly impact on the federal deficit. However, when Mr. Obama did the honest thing and put the wars on-budget, you suddenly, with great hypocrisy, screamed loudly about budget deficits and the ‘ever-looming’ fiscal crisis.
You lied, repeatedly, that ‘tax cuts for the rich would create jobs.’ The Bush tax cuts, your Great Recession, and unnecessary Iraq War, created immense budget deficits, national debt, and wealth inequality not seen in decades. Then you sought fiscal austerity measures, including cuts to Social Security and Medicare and all social programs, to further stick it to the 99%.
You lied, repeatedly, in 2010 when you ran on creating jobs, jobs, and jobs. We got the classic bait-and-switch: union busting, voter suppression, war on women’s health care and reproductive choices, and gutting regulations are not jobs programs
You lie, repeatedly, about Voter Fraud. There is no ‘Voter Fraud’; one billion ballots cast in the US since 2000, and only 31 cases of voter fraud. Using non-existent ‘Voter Fraud’ as an excuse to suppress the vote of millions of people of color, young and elderly across the country is Republican Election Fraud. Lest we forget, 4 presidential elections since 2000 and 2 cases of Republican Election fraud – Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 – gave the country the eight-year debacle of GW Bush.
You lied, repeatedly, about the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). You had 100 years to provide us with universal, affordable health care. Not only did you fail to provide it, you blocked all previous attempts by the Democrats to pass it. You have now voted 50+ times in the House to repeal it, a totally meaningless waste of my taxpayer dollars. Then you shut down the government over it, costing us $24 billion, and causing some small businesses to go out of business.
You lie, repeatedly, about Global Warming and Climate Change calling them a hoax and a conspiracy, and about the EPA. You remain willfully ignorant of the science. As a cop-out, you claim ‘you are not a scientist’; but now you want to pretend that ‘you are a doctor,’ and tell us what to do about the Ebola virus. Left to you, we would have the filthiest air, water and environment, rising sea levels, acidification of the oceans, high temperatures, extreme storms, and the 6th great extinction of species that corporate money can buy.
Your letter goes on to say you want to maintain the country you grew up in. I do not! I grew up in the Old South during the latter stages of Jim Crow. The Old South was ruled by racist, bigoted Democrats – the likes of Faubus, Wallace, Thurmond, Helms, and thousands of others at all levels of government and society. I lived in segregated neighborhoods, went to segregated schools, used white-only public restrooms, rode to baseball practice in the front of the bus, while black women rode in the back of the bus to all-white neighborhoods to provide maid service for a pittance.
We have watched those Southern Democrats become Republicans, as the Republican Party embarked upon its ‘Southern Strategy,’ invented by Republican strategist Kevin Phillips, and put in place by Nixon and Reagan. We have reached the place where the Republican-dominated Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act. Is the Civil Rights Act next? We begin to see the resurrection of Jim Crow. The Party of Lincoln has sold its soul, and transformed itself into the Party of Jeff Davis.
As if all this were not enough, you refuse to raise the minimum wage, refuse to support equal pay for equal work, refuse to support the Violence Against Women Act, refuse to support meaningful immigration reform, refuse to support equal rights for the LGBT community. You refuse to do anything to help ordinary middle-class Americans, and instead you support the slow-motion coup d’état by the billionaire corporatists (Citizen’s United, etc).
Because of you we have become a plutocracy, a corporatocracy, a government of, by, and for the rich and of, by, and for the corporations, leaving the middle class and the poor in an inexorable decline.
Your letter does say that you ‘have faith in me and my ability to make decisions that impact my life and the future of my family.’ In that, I firmly do agree.
Therefore, I will not provide a campaign contribution and will not vote for you on Nov 4th.
Dr. B. Gerard Bricks,
Kennett
This is an excellent letter by Dr Bricks, and I agree with virtually everything in it. Republicans are extremely good at revisionism. They have done a great job framing their terrible misdeeds in a positive light, while presenting Democratic accomplishments in a negative light. The Republicans are basically hoodwinking low information voters into supporting their terrible polices that only benefit themselves and their wealthy contributors.