Dear Senator Elizabeth Warren &
Senator Ed Markey,
In 2008, Barack Obama won the popular
vote and the electoral college. The Democrats won the House and won a
super-majority in the Senate. I don't know if popular mandates really
exist, but 2008 was awfully close to one. And how did congressional
Republicans respond to the direct endorsement of the 2008 Democratic
platform: by vowing to make President Obama a one-term president.
To do so they abused every procedural
loophole, broke decades old agreements, and ignored long-standing
decorum. They obstructed bipartisan legislation with anonymous holds.
They refused to confirm Federal appointments. They filibustered
virtually every single piece of legislation that was put forth.
Furthermore, there is ample evidence
that they never once negotiated in good faith. They never intended to
support anything President Obama proposed even when it was
essentially a Republican policy. Even when their ideas were
incorporated into legislation through compromise and consensus, as
the federally administered public option was removed from the
Affordable Care Act, they still refused to support the legislation.
They asked for everything and even when they got it, they still said
“no.” Their only goal was to deny the first African-American
President anything resembling a policy victory and if that meant
hobbling the efforts to recover after the worst recession since The
Great Depression and stoking the fires of racist resentment, so be
it.
I am not asking you to shout at
President Trump during his State of the Union address. Even though
more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton I am not asking you to
question the legal validity of his presidency. I am not asking you to
question his citizenship, to spread rumors about his faith, to accuse
him of crimes he did not and could not have committed, or to
attribute problems to him he could in no way have prevented. I'm not
asking you to stoop to their level of insulting the American people
by refusing to outwardly respect their President.
But I am asking you to block
everything. Filibuster everything. Put an anonymous hold on
everything. You were rewarded for your decency and your commitment to
longstanding procedures with the Tea Party, a vacant Supreme Court
seat, government shutdowns, a game of chicken with the debt ceiling,
and Donald Trump, a man who began his political career by questioning
Barak Obama's citizenship. Given how the districts were gerrymandered
in 2010, given how they treated you when you were in power, given
that more Americans voted for Democrats in the House in 2014, and
given that Hillary Clinton received more votes for President than
Donald Trump, they have not earned your consent or cooperation. They
have not earned the right to discriminate. They have not earned the
right to discard science. They have not earned the right to threaten
a woman's right to choose. They have not earned the right to risk the
health and well-being of our people. They have not earned the right
to govern as if they speak for all Americans. They have not earned
the respect they refused to show to you.
If the Trump administration magically
starts proposing productive thoughtful policies with meaningful
common ground, then negotiate for the best version of those policies
possible, but make no compromises for the sake of compromise. Do not
reach across the aisle to create the optics of bipartisanship. You've
tried that already and they spit in your hand.
To be the adult in this room, you need
to fight like hell.
We know exactly what they plan to do
and we know the terrible consequences if their platform is adopted. I
know you will not be able to stop everything, but you are our dam
against the flood of dangerous policies and we need you to hold
strong for at least two years.
I promise, that if you do, the voters
of America will do better in 2018.
Thank you for your time.
Signed,
Josh Cook
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