Letter to Pat Toomey - Feb. 4, 2017

Senator Pat Toomey

248 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Toomey,

Donald Trump was elected by the working, disenfranchised middle class. I have a unique perspective because I saw where my Berks- and Leigh-County-based family was in 2008, 2012 and 2016. It’s not what you would think.

My family is evenly divided between Blue Dog Democrats and middle class, Catholic Republicans.  In 2008, nearly everyone voted for Obama. In 2012, a token few went to Romney, but most still had faith that Obama would bring some kind of change to places like Reading and Allentown. In 2016, about half voted for Trump. At least a dozen former Obama supporters who I know intimately voted Trump into office, reaching for the most outlandish option in the hopes that he would “shake up” Washington.

If you want to survive Trump’s four years as a politician, distance yourself from him now. He’s appointing billionaires and deregulating Wall Street, and you’d better believe that we’re paying attention.

On Friday, Trump threatened the fiduciary rule, which protects people like me and my family from self-interested brokers. The fiduciary rule requires that brokers must make decisions in the best interest of their clients, not in the interest of their own portfolios.

We need Dodd-Frank and the Volcker Rule intact, to protect the American people from another runaway financial crisis. We don’t want to bail out the banks with our tax dollars any more.

P.S. Betsy DeVos is still a terrible idea. Come to the right side of history. She’s a terrible idea for Pennsylvania, and the nation. I know because I’ve been doing the work of education – and paying attention to the politics of it – for 15 years longer than she has.

~~~~~

To learn more about how YOU, reader, can fight back against Republican extremism, check out the Indivisible Guide. It was written by Obama White House staffers, and modeled after the ways in which the Tea Party worked against him throughout his Presidency. It's our turn. 

Letter to Pat Toomey - Feb. 1, 2017

Senator Pat Toomey

100 W. Station Square Dr.

Suite 225Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Dear Senator Toomey,

Your voicemail box is full, so I’m writing instead. This is a dire time for America, and you will be hearing from me for four years if that is how long this presidency lasts.

Please consider changing your position on the unconstitutional Muslim ban. It legitimizes religious discrimination by the executive branch of the government, and we have to stand up and refuse to let America go back in time. It also endangers America’s position in the world, threatening our troops by breaking promises to citizens of other countries who helped them in the battlefield as translators and fixers. Finally, it creates a cultural climate that condones xenophobia, exacerbates racial tension and escalates hate crime.

Secondly, the citizens of the United States have not forgotten about Donald Trump’s tax return. I have at least a dozen relatives from the middle of PA (mostly Berks Co.) who voted for him, but still believe that he should release his tax returns. They bought the audit story for a while, but now they’re catching on.

This is an historic time in the United States. Many of us believe that Donald Trump’s days in office are numbered, but the outstanding question is: how long it will take our representatives in government to act on behalf of the American people? Will we have a democracy left when it is all over?

Please, be on the right side of history. Oppose Donald Trump and his dangerous policies.

Sincerely,

Educator & Concerned Citizen

P.S. I love my sanctuary city, and we were much safer before Jan. 20. Hands off!

~~~~~

To learn more about how YOU, reader, can fight back against Republican extremism, check out the Indivisible Guide. It was written by Obama White House staffers, and modeled after the ways in which the Tea Party worked against him throughout his Presidency. It's our turn.