{"id":23706,"date":"2014-10-29T10:10:57","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T14:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23706"},"modified":"2014-10-29T10:10:57","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T14:10:57","slug":"letter-rep-pitts-only-represents-the-1-not-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23706","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Rep. Pitts only represents the 1%, not us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note:<\/strong> The following is an open letter to U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts \u2014 and it’s author asked that it be published as a letter to the editor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Rep. Pitts,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Letters1\"<\/a>I received your letter asking me to contribute to your re-election campaign and vote for you on Nov 4th<\/sup>.\u00a0 It was good to hear from you.<\/p>\n

You expressed pride in the work that you have supposedly done for me.\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 That is delusional; I am not in the 1%.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

You lied, repeatedly, that \u2018financial markets will self-regulate.\u2019\u00a0 You voted for Gramm-Leach-Bliley (aka, Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999), which overturned the Glass-Steagall Act of the 1930s.\u00a0 That \u2018modernized\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

We lost $16 trillion in worth, and millions lost their homes and jobs.\u00a0 Then you refused to support sufficiently large job stimulus programs of Pres. Obama to provide jobs and restore the economy. \u00a0You blamed the unemployed for being the unemployed, when we had 6 people looking for work for every job available.\u00a0 You cynically calculated that continued high unemployment and economic malaise would cause Pres. Obama to be defeated in 2012.\u00a0 Holding unemployed Americans and us as hostages for your political gain is despicable.\u00a0 Despite your destructive behavior, we have experienced over 50 months of continuous job growth.<\/p>\n

Bush, et al, and you lied, repeatedly, about WMD in Iraq, yellowcake from Niger, aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and meetings in Prague, etc.\u00a0 Bush and you proceeded to implement the biggest foreign policy blunder in the country\u2019s history – the illegal, unnecessary and immoral Iraq war that will eventually cost us over $3 trillion.\u00a0 Over 4000 of our kids were killed, and tens of thousands wounded (full disclosure \u2013 my son did six tours in your Iraq War).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

You funded the war with off-budget supplementals so that the people would not easily see the yearly impact on the federal deficit.\u00a0 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 \u2018ever-looming\u2019 fiscal crisis.<\/p>\n

You lied, repeatedly, that \u2018tax cuts for the rich would create jobs.\u2019\u00a0 The Bush tax cuts, your Great Recession, and unnecessary Iraq War, created immense budget deficits, national debt, and wealth inequality not seen in decades. \u00a0Then you sought fiscal austerity measures, including cuts to Social Security and Medicare and all social programs, to further stick it to the 99%.<\/p>\n

You lied, repeatedly, in 2010 when you ran on creating jobs, jobs, and jobs.\u00a0 We got the classic bait-and-switch: union busting, voter suppression, war on women\u2019s health care and reproductive choices, and gutting regulations are not jobs programs<\/p>\n

You lie, repeatedly, about Voter Fraud.\u00a0 There is no \u2018Voter<\/span>\u00a0Fraud\u2019; one billion ballots cast in the US since 2000, and only 31 cases of voter fraud.\u00a0 Using non-existent \u2018Voter Fraud\u2019 as an excuse to suppress the vote of millions of people of color, young and elderly across the country is Republican\u00a0Election<\/span>\u00a0Fraud. \u00a0Lest we forget, 4 presidential elections since 2000 and 2 cases of Republican\u00a0Election<\/span>\u00a0fraud \u2013 Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 – gave the country the eight-year debacle of GW Bush.<\/p>\n

You lied, repeatedly, about the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).\u00a0 You had 100 years to provide us with universal, affordable health care.\u00a0 Not only did you fail to provide it, you blocked all previous attempts by the Democrats to pass it.\u00a0 You have now voted 50+ times in the House to repeal it, a totally meaningless waste of my taxpayer dollars.\u00a0 Then you shut down the government over it, costing us $24 billion, and causing some small businesses to go out of business.<\/p>\n

You lie, repeatedly, about Global Warming and Climate Change calling them a hoax and a conspiracy, and about the EPA.\u00a0 You remain willfully ignorant of the science. \u00a0As a cop-out, you claim \u2018you are not a scientist\u2019; but now you want to pretend that \u2018you are a doctor,\u2019 and tell us what to do about the Ebola virus. \u00a0Left 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<\/sup>\u00a0great extinction of species that corporate money can buy.<\/p>\n

Your letter goes on to say you want to maintain the country you grew up in.\u00a0 I do not!\u00a0 I grew up in the Old South during the latter stages of Jim Crow.\u00a0 The Old South was ruled by racist, bigoted Democrats \u2013 the likes of Faubus, Wallace, Thurmond, Helms, and thousands of others at all levels of government and society.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

We have watched those Southern Democrats become Republicans, as the Republican Party embarked upon its \u2018Southern Strategy,\u2019 invented by Republican strategist Kevin Phillips, and put in place by Nixon and Reagan.\u00a0 We have reached the place where the Republican-dominated Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act.\u00a0 Is the Civil Rights Act next?\u00a0 We begin to see the resurrection of Jim Crow.\u00a0 The Party of Lincoln has sold its soul, and transformed itself into the Party of Jeff Davis.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 You refuse to do anything to help ordinary middle-class Americans, and instead you support the slow-motion coup d\u2019\u00e9tat by the billionaire corporatists (Citizen\u2019s United, etc).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Your letter does say that you \u2018have faith in me and my ability to make decisions that impact my life and the future of my family.\u2019\u00a0 In that, I firmly do agree.<\/p>\n

Therefore, I will not provide a campaign contribution and will not vote for you on Nov 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. B. Gerard Bricks,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kennett<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: The following is an open letter to U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts \u2014 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.\u00a0 It was good to hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[4444,6319,6318,70,2530],"class_list":["post-23706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","tag-election-2014","tag-iraq","tag-recession","tag-taxes","tag-u-s-rep-joe-pitts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}