Calling is great, but I know some of my introverts have a tough time with that. Sending letters is also great — and why not do both, if you can?
So I’m putting this here where it’s easily copy and paste-able for your own modification:
Senator Rand Paul
1029 State Street
Bowling Green, KY 42101
Dear Senator Paul:
As a constituent from Lexington, I’m writing to ask you to oppose the appointment of Stephen Bannon to the new president’s administration. While I know this appointment does not require senate confirmation, I encourage you to voice your opposition publicly, with your own party leadership, and in any communications you may have with the president-elect’s transition team.
Why? A few reasons, courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center:
- Bannon presided over a news empire where he, according to former staffers, “aggressively pushed stories against immigrants, and supported linking minorities to terrorism and crime.”
- “We’re the platform for the alt-right,” Bannon said in July, using a term that is really just a rebranding of traditional white nationalism.
- Under Bannon, Breitbart published a call to “hoist [the Confederate flag] high and fly it with pride” only two weeks after the Charleston massacre when the country was still reeling from the horrors of the murders.
- Under Bannon, Breitbart published an extremist anti-Muslim tract where the author wrote that “rape culture” is “integral” to Islam.
There are plenty more reasons I could list. My grandfather, who hailed from Eastern Kentucky, did not fight in World War II so a wealthy antisemite could be installed in an important White House role. History has its eyes on you, and so does this constituent.
Regards,
Gwenda Bond
Your address
Letter #2
Senator Mitch McConnell
771 Corporate Drive, Suite 108
Lexington, KY 40503
Dear Senator McConnell:
As a constituent from Lexington, I’m writing to express my concern over recently announced appointments to the new president’s administration and proposals being floated to end the filibuster in order to push appointments and legislative measures through the Senate.
To date, the president-elect has proposed or reportedly proposed appointing: Stephen Bannon, a man with ties to neo-nazi groups and with a history of domestic violence who many feel could not even pass a White House background check without the president-elect’s override; Jeff Sessions, who could not be confirmed to a federal judgship in the 1980s because of racist rhetoric; and General Flynn, a dangerously Islamophobic choice for national security advisor.
I don’t ask you to object to these appointments on moral grounds, though I could, because if that would be effective you would already have done so. But consider the strategy here: Do you truly believe your party will have a future if it tries to regress our country to some concept of greatness that never existed? America has often struggled to live the ideals we claim to hold dear — being the great melting pot, with equality for all people, prizing justice and our first amendment rights of free speech and religion — but if we don’t continue to try, if we actively trample on these, then it won’t be Republicans winning and Democrats losing. It will be all of us losing. It will be America losing.
Do you want that to be your legacy? Your office assisted my grandfather with his VA pension for his service in World War II and I know has helped many others among your constituents. I would ask you to consider those people who fought against the exact kind of hateful views that the president-elect now proposes to invite into our government.
Unlike Bannon, most other appointees will face the confirmation process. If you won’t stand up against these appointments, as I strongly urge, please do not remove the means for those with the will to do so.
Regards,
Gwenda Bond
YOUR ADDRESS
