Letter to My Legislators
Dear ____________,
I am writing to encourage you to give your full support to all Progressive Democrats and their policies. My comments below are aimed at federal legislators but can be be applied at State and City levels. Below is the message I’ve been sending to my elected officials at City, State and Federal levels. The topic is the destruction of the USDA, devastating for Minnesota farmers, whether they know it or not.
Last night, at midnight, the scientists of the USDA had to decide whether to move to Kansas City, to a new USDA facility that does not exist, or stay in DC and be fired.
The USDA are the folks that ensure that our food is safe and that farmers have the best information and tools to grow crops efficiently. These are the people that ensure that American farmers can feed US. America once had the premier agriculture system, farmers armed with the latest information, supported by the world’s best agricultural research and technology.
That ended last night. Our farmers are being blinded by the attacks on EPA, NOAA, USDA and many others. Weather forecasting in the age of climate change has been hobbled. Critical research to increase crop yields, build and maintain markets, and protect the environment have been killed. If these programs don’t restart immediately, the gap in the data that should be gathered but isn’t, will damage the integrity of the data, making it vulnerable to attacks by the scientifically illiterate. It sets the field for opinion rather than facts.
So, where is the Democratic Leadership? Where is the urgency and outrage? Where are the people rallying in the streets? Speaker of the House Pelosi and Chairman Nadler are playing the old game, “give-him-enough-rope-to-hang-himself.” However, if they give Trump anymore rope, his feet will touch the ground. Trump knows no boundaries and will attack anything at any time. Every day we waste is one more day he can hurt us and our future.
I’ve voted Democratic my entire adult life. Not because they are perfect, they certainly are not, but because they have, during my lifetime, tried to look after average Americans. Democrats have been the staunch protectors of the American Dream.
However now, after big money has had its way with our party for the last 30 years, it’s time to get back to protecting the small money people, everyday Americans, living from paycheck to paycheck, fearing that their jobs will disappear along with their homes and dreams of a safe and secure future. We violated the public trust and now must gain it back, fast. There is little time left to save our nation and the planet.
Democratic leadership needs to pay close attention to the progressive voices in the party. The time for incremental change, under the leadership of Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar and other moderates, has long passed. It takes both parties to be bipartisan and civil, but the Republicans have shown that they can’t be trusted. They tell their Democratic colleagues how upset they are but do nothing to hold Trump and their own members to account for continuously attacking or nation and democracy.
It’s a ploy. It is dishonest and Democrats need to see it for what it is.
Now we need energetic, let’s-get-this-done, progressives to take the helm. It is time for all of us to come together behind progressives and engage in the fight of our lives. History shows that bullies and evil won’t stop until they are met with a greater force of will and persistence. Our current party leadership doesn’t seem to understand that. Rather than trying to finesse the beast, we should be barbecuing it.
Waiting for Republicans to come around is like Waiting For Godot. It is absurd.
Respectfully,
Les Phillips