You know it is a topsy turvy world when your congressman
• Votes to deeply defund government support for those who need help the most and protect largesse for those who need it the least. Like slashing prenatal and childhood nutrition programs in poor neighborhoods while voting eighteen times to protect the subsidies and tax loopholes for Big Oil. Like preferring Fat Cats to Big Bird and malnourished children.
• Calls himself an “environmental steward” while voting in excess of 100 times to either defund or otherwise weaken protections for our air and water, like throwing open our Roadless and Wilderness Study Areas to logging and any other exploitation the corporate mind can imagine. Like stripping any environmental review from the mine permitting process. Like ignoring or opposing any effort to deal with Global Warming.
• Promises “no cuts, no privatization” to Medicare, then votes twice to privatize Medicare by converting it into a voucher system, deeply cut Medicaid (health care for our poorest children and nursing home care for our poorest elderly) while providing a massive tax cut for those who are already doing quite well.
• Joins the popular call for Monument status for Chimney Rock but would not fund it. Like asking the President to declare it so while at the same time working on legislation to prevent his being able to make that declaration.
• Constantly objects to the presence of government in our lives and then votes to have government monitor the private lives of women, with a new, narrow definition of rape.
• Promises to represent us, but then ignores the fact that democracy requires constructive compromise. Like bringing debate to an acrimonious standstill, so that the current congress rates the least productive in seventy years and with the lowest approval rating of all time.
We must stop this topsy-turvy standing on our heads before serious brain damage occurs. It is time to replace Scott Tipton with Sal Pace, a man of moderate world view who has already demonstrated that he can and would replace rigid ideology with careful analysis and constructive compromise.
Sincerely,
Christopher Isensee
Durango, Colo.
