Writing to Senators and Representatives

I'm convinced that legislative aides and interns are the only ones who see most of the messages the American people send to the Congress, but there is some value in the informal enthusiasm poll. In the next two years it may be more important than ever for things like repealing the healthcare bill, halting government regulatory growth, and cutting (actually cutting, not just slowing the increase of) spending, to have your congressmen know what you think and where you stand, and what you'll think of their actions. It may not always help, but writing these people can never hurt. Below is a letter I sent to my cogresswoman, Shelley Berkley about the upcoming effort to repeal last year's healthcare bill. I have also provided the links to finding your representatives and writing them electronic letters.


4 January 2011

Dear Congresswoman Berkley,

I wrote to you last year to plead, on behalf of your constituents and the lessons of history, for you to take a bold stand against the entirely unnecessary, utterly unconstitutional, and completely amoral bill to allegedly “fix” the world’s premiere healthcare system. You ignored my plea and, residing in one of the country’s safest congressional districts, were re-elected. I do not begrudge you this. But certainly you noticed that a few of your colleagues are gone. More than just a few. Your fellow Nevada Democratic colleague, Congresswoman Dina Titus has been sent packing, and her support of things like the corrupt healthcare bill certainly contributed to her ouster.

The point of my letter to you today is not to refight the previous election. That is over, and now the people are represented by a new congress more attuned to their continuing opposition to the healthcare bill. A repeal bill is going to be proposed in the coming days. You have an opportunity to fix your previous egregious error. I do not mean to insult you. But there was and is no justification on any grounds whatsoever familiar to Americans that could allow the bill you passed last year to be countenanced. It was built upon the collectivist notion that we are our brother’s keepers and that we have an obligation to pay for his healthcare. WE ARE NOT! WE DO NOT! That sort of statist and collectivist non-sense is the reserve of our worst enemies from the last 100 years. It is not progressive—it is a vestige of the most primitive and barbaric tribalism the world knows.

Now you have a chance to change course. You can join the majority of the American people and declare for liberty and freedom. To repeal regulations and onerous laws, not pile them on top of us. History is replete with moments of choice when one can follow the path of greatness—a path which has never been paved with growing the government to gargantuan proportions—or fall into the pit of power and collectivism. You chose poorly last year. Now you’re in a new year and a new congress. You have an opportunity for not just bi-partisanship, but for being with the majority of the American people who do not want their freedoms trampled in the name of giving healthcare to those of us, myself among them, who choose to not buy health insurance. I did not ask for this bill, and even if I had, your job is not to placate all the clamoring whims of your constituents for the subsidized services of other citizens. I do not ask you to do anything other than uphold your oath to the Constitution of the United States of America. Instead, you voted to make my choice to not deploy my scarce resources for health insurance a cause for the government, in 2014, to fine me. That is a lot of things, but do not dare to tell me that it is moral, or constitutional or much else than the despicable and lousy thing that it is.

You are now presented with the rare opportunity to correct a mistake. Please take it, there is likely not going to be many more chances to do the right thing on this subject.

Thanks for your consideration,

Your constituent,

Alexander Marriott

 
For the House of Representatives:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
 
For the Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/
 
You can also try writing to the President, but I'm not sure that's of much use:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact