On February 11, 2021, two days before the vote on Donald Trump’s impeachment, I sent the following email to my two national senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. For reasons to be explained, this is not an exact transcript of the letters, but the flavor remains.
Dear Senator _____,
I am writing to urge you to place country before politics and vote to convict at the conclusion of the impeachment trial.
Please be an American first and foremost.
Sincerely,
Just the act of sending the email turned out to be an education. I expected to look the senators up online and dig out their addresses. No problem if I wanted to employ snail mail. But email turned out to be more difficult. I suspect those more familiar with contacting politicians will find me inept. It’s true, inept me could find nothing.
EXCEPT—each of their websites had a built-in form via which I could send an email. I was encouraged to write them on any subject I wished.
EXCEPT—I had to select a subject from a list deemed appropriate.
On Rubio’s site, one of those subjects was “Impeachment.” I cleverly concluded that’s the one I should pick.
Scott’s site had no such possibility. He would have been charmed to hear my views on the problems of old age, but the bad old impeachment was not mentioned. No problem, I thought, I’ll just type the word in the box listing the subject.
EXCEPT—such treacherous action was not permitted; I had to pick one of the pre-ordained categories. I decided on “Congressional Issues” as being the closest.
I typed my emails into the comments sections and sent them off. I should have kept a copy but did not, and the two sites swallowed them without an electron remaining; hence their imperfect rendering given above.
I didn’t expect to hear anything meaningful in return and I can report my expectations were met in full.
Rubio didn’t respond at all. Not too surprising because he has a long history of problem avoidance. Whenever he makes the mistake of endorsing a good policy, such as reasonable immigration reform, he soon comes to his senses and flips to the approved position of his party of crazies.
But, then, he wants to be president.
Scott, on the other hand, responded within a day with a lengthy carefully constructed email. There was what I considered a major problem with it. It neither mentioned explicitly nor alluded in the slightest way to the subject of impeachment. It was full of unwanted paragraphs each espousing an equally unwanted defense of his brilliant stand on an issue, many with an unwanted photograph of the senator. All very wonderful.
EXCEPT—I was repulsed by every one of his stands.
But, then, he wants to be president.
I have to admit, though, a couple of days ago I did receive a pertinent response from Scott, pertinent in the sense it mentioned the word ‘impeachment.” But most of it was on other subjects: “the lawless thugs responsible for the disgusting violence we saw” and “I came to Washington to get something done.” The reference to the impeachment was “For weeks, instead of addressing the serious issues facing our nation, Democrats in Congress put our work for the American people on hold and pushed forward with an unconstitutional impeachment trial.” I didn’t realize he was a constitutional scholar.
Still haven’t heard word one from Rubio.
When it came time to vote, of course, both Rubio and Scott proclaimed, “Not Guilty!”
They have a lot to answer for, and I don’t mean properly responding to my contact.
Dear Senator _____,
I am writing to urge you to place country before politics and vote to convict at the conclusion of the impeachment trial.
Please be an American first and foremost.
Sincerely,
Just the act of sending the email turned out to be an education. I expected to look the senators up online and dig out their addresses. No problem if I wanted to employ snail mail. But email turned out to be more difficult. I suspect those more familiar with contacting politicians will find me inept. It’s true, inept me could find nothing.
EXCEPT—each of their websites had a built-in form via which I could send an email. I was encouraged to write them on any subject I wished.
EXCEPT—I had to select a subject from a list deemed appropriate.
On Rubio’s site, one of those subjects was “Impeachment.” I cleverly concluded that’s the one I should pick.
Scott’s site had no such possibility. He would have been charmed to hear my views on the problems of old age, but the bad old impeachment was not mentioned. No problem, I thought, I’ll just type the word in the box listing the subject.
EXCEPT—such treacherous action was not permitted; I had to pick one of the pre-ordained categories. I decided on “Congressional Issues” as being the closest.
I typed my emails into the comments sections and sent them off. I should have kept a copy but did not, and the two sites swallowed them without an electron remaining; hence their imperfect rendering given above.
I didn’t expect to hear anything meaningful in return and I can report my expectations were met in full.
Rubio didn’t respond at all. Not too surprising because he has a long history of problem avoidance. Whenever he makes the mistake of endorsing a good policy, such as reasonable immigration reform, he soon comes to his senses and flips to the approved position of his party of crazies.
But, then, he wants to be president.
Scott, on the other hand, responded within a day with a lengthy carefully constructed email. There was what I considered a major problem with it. It neither mentioned explicitly nor alluded in the slightest way to the subject of impeachment. It was full of unwanted paragraphs each espousing an equally unwanted defense of his brilliant stand on an issue, many with an unwanted photograph of the senator. All very wonderful.
EXCEPT—I was repulsed by every one of his stands.
But, then, he wants to be president.
I have to admit, though, a couple of days ago I did receive a pertinent response from Scott, pertinent in the sense it mentioned the word ‘impeachment.” But most of it was on other subjects: “the lawless thugs responsible for the disgusting violence we saw” and “I came to Washington to get something done.” The reference to the impeachment was “For weeks, instead of addressing the serious issues facing our nation, Democrats in Congress put our work for the American people on hold and pushed forward with an unconstitutional impeachment trial.” I didn’t realize he was a constitutional scholar.
Still haven’t heard word one from Rubio.
When it came time to vote, of course, both Rubio and Scott proclaimed, “Not Guilty!”
They have a lot to answer for, and I don’t mean properly responding to my contact.
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