Dear "Local Business Leaders"

"Stand up for each other."

Pete Buttegieg recently did a Town Hall, hosted by Vote Vets, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At one point he says that he's not an elected official and he's not (he says) running for anything, but he's there. Then he notes that, in most cases, Republican representatives are not showing up because they are afraid to take ownership of what their party is doing to veterans, children, sick people, rural communities, small business owners, and the rule of law. 

At the start of his talk, Buttegieg described the lack of interest in constituents' concerns by those Republican Representatives. 

"If this is a country where the government, or the head of the government, or very wealthy men who advise and/or instruct the head of our government with no accountability, that means that if you're a farmer caught up in the useless trade war, the answer is 'too bad.'  If you're a small business owner who doesn't know what you can order or what you're going to be charging, the answer is, 'Mmmm, we don't really have to answer to you.' If you're one of the ten million Americans who, we just learned, stand to be knocked off of Medicaid if this Republican budget goes through Congress, the answer is, 'Go pound sand.' That is unacceptable in a democracy."

He concludes this segment with, "But I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe that America will meet that test and show itself to be that freedom-loving people and stand up, not just for some lofty principle, but, most importantly, as every veteran knows how to do, stand up for each other."

This reminded me of a couple of recent events in our area with our own fearful, dishonest Representative, Van Orden, who has never held an in-person town hall in La Crosse open to all constituents.

Van Orden, a belligerent Trumpophant, uses every opportunity to demean and smear his constituents, calling them paid agitators, accusing them of being violent, and threatening to have them arrested. A 2020 election denier, he used campaign funds to participate in the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol. He has verbally attacked students and women' rights, insisted on the arrest of a young person who bumped into him when he cut in front of her in a line. He has vociferously defended cuts to programs that help the most vulnerable among us. He's helping to push the dangerous, anti-democratic narrative that "rogue judges" are standing in the way of the divine rights of Trump. He has consistently lied about legislation he supports, including the coming cuts to health care and veterans' services. 

And he uses private events with "local business leaders" to give the impression that he is reasonable, available and listening. He is not.

Dear local business leaders, wake up. He is not listening to you. He is using you to make it look like he is listening. He is using you to emphasize that the rest of us--veterans, teachers, retired people, parents, citizens with disabilities, workers, students--are not worth even pretending to listen to. He is telling us, "Go pound sand," and using your megaphone.

Dear local business leaders, when you arrange a meeting with Van Orden with secret, members-only invitations, or when you move a meeting location or disinvite participants to protect him from facing his constituents, or when you don't push back on his refusal to meet with voters, you are helping him. And he is helping to dismantle our country. Stop it.

Dear local business leaders, please read even a summary of Timothy Snyder's book, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. 

Lesson 5. Remember professional ethics. "When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become important."

Lesson 8. Stand out. "The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow."

Lesson 19. "Be a patriot. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come."

+++

After a plea for local business leaders to quit being props for DVO was brought to a meeting of environmentalists, we heard that a local person had gotten a magical meeting, along with four other friends, with caring Derrick who took notes and seemed interested in their issues. The meeting - no notes or recordings allowed - was held behind closed doors and guarded by police because of threats he's received. (Unfortunately almost every politician is seeing increasing threats as are judges, attorneys, and election officials. This has not seemed to stop many of them from meeting with constituents and doing their jobs. In some cases, the threats against Republicans seem to be coming from the President. But, for Van Orden, they are another great excuse to not hold town halls.)

Apparently, the lesson is that if only we are patient and spend two months begging, a few constituents might have the chance to meet with our U.S. Representative in a private room, with no notes or recordings allowed, where he doesn't have to deal with people who think he's supporting a coup or selling out our country to fascists. If we are just nice and politely organize our screams into exact, detailed requests, he might listen, he might read our letter, he might care.

Or, he might not. How will we know?

Please, local business leaders and polite retired people, use your privilege not to get a private, unreported meeting, but to push for public, in-person town halls where Van Orden will have to meet the voters and justify his support for Donald Trump's illegal acts, and for cuts to Medicaid, science, research, foreign aid, farmers, veterans, education, health care and more.

Stand up for each other.