Report on visit to Sen. Baldwin's La Crosse office

From Barbara:

On Monday, February 24, 2025 twelve concerned citizens met with an aide to Senator Tammy Baldwin, Gregg Wavrunek, at Baldwin's La Crosse Office. We were all welcomed into his office space which was quite small compared to the multiple room office where we had met with Van Orden’s staff the Friday before.  

Our concerns for those harmed by actions of the current administration in Washington, D.C. included veteran’s services, security of government employees’ positions, Medicaid/ Medicare, local transportation, U.S.AID, farmers: the many whose positions as well as services are threatened. Especially noted is the emotional stress such actions by this administration have caused.

Our concern for the damage done to the Constitutional structure of the United States generated much discussion. I compared the actions of Musk and the Muskovites to the Watergate Scandal. There a burglary in the dark of night was exposed by the Nixon tapes as a plan originating in the Oval Office and resulted in several members of that administration going to jail and Nixon being forced to resign. Now we have a broad daylight burglary of multiple U.S. Government offices over a whole month’s time. The cloud of mystery around these heinous acts veils the perpetrators from responsibility. This is part of the “Shock and Awe” strategy that is dismantling our Democracy.

I recalled that in 2010 Wisconsin Democratic legislators went over the state line in an attempt to halt the destruction of public workers’ unions – except fire and police who supported Republican initiatives. The Minnesota legislature has had a similar experience. I urge all Democratic Senators and Representatives to vacate the halls of Congress, where their every parliamentary maneuver is met with Republican blocks. I urge them to attend/hold Town Hall meetings in every Red and Blue and Purple town in their district. Let the voices of We the People enriched by the media-drawing presence of electeds drown out the Shock and Awe media deluge.

Here I must interject that a recent Heather Cox Richardson talk mentioned that the Congressional Republicans are trying to blame the inability to move the budget process forward on the Democrats. I am not sure how that information affects the willingness of Democratic legislators to abandon a fruitless process in a world where the Constitution, the balance of powers, the rule of law, and judicial orders are disemboweled. The executive branch is relying on a cloud of confusion to shield themselves from responsibility.

We the people are the only ones with power.  We must find ways to unite our individual pains across red and blue and make our collective voice louder than the daily bombshells exploding our Democracy.