I recently sent an email to United States Congressman Rob Bishop, representing Utah's 1st congressional district. The subject of the message was illegal immigration. I hope you'll find what I wrote reasonable, even if you don't agree.
We can't catch all speeders, but we haven't stopped ticketing the ones we can. We can't solve all crimes, but we still have police out there trying to catch criminals. Why then do so many of our federal politicians throw their hands in the air and just give up on the enforcement of immigration law, specifically the deportation of people in the country illegally?
If we assume for a moment that those people are right, we can't send all illegal immigrants home, why can't we also make a determination that we will enforce the law to the best of our ability? How difficult is it to put 55 people on a bus and send them back where they came from? If we can do that, why not two buses? If that, why not four, or eight, or sixteen? So we can't send back every offender; let's send back the ones we can.
We can stop cars at interstate border crossings to ensure ag products aren't smuggled in that might result in economic ruin to a region. Why can't we ensure people seeking government benefits are in the country legally (either a citizen or on a visa)? So many of our government institutions have policies that they won't confirm eligibility for benefits or that employees can't act on knowledge of illegal immigrants.
I'd really like to know exactly where you stand on this issue and if you would sponsor or support legislation to amend where necessary and require enforcement of our immigration laws.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Scott Dale Robison
I sent this email on August 27, and within 15 minutes of clicking send, I had received an automated response:
from Congressman Rob Bishopdate Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 12:40 PMsubject Thanks for writingI appreciate you contacting my office. Your opinion is important to me and I will respond directly to your concerns as soon as possible.
Today when I checked my mailbox (not my email, but my actual physical United States Postal Service snail mailbox) I had received a response from Congressman Bishop's office! How exciting! Allow me to share with you the first little bit of it, okay?
September 9, 2009
Dear Scott:
Thank you for your letter regarding universal health coverage. ...
What the <expletive deleted>?!? In no way shape or form was my message about universal health coverage! Imagine, a politician that doesn't listen to what you have to say. What are the odds?
I realize that our congressmen are very busy people, and they don't personally read every piece of correspondence that crosses their desks. I realize my email was quickly glanced at (if that) by some staffer whose job it is to organize correspondence into categories for form letter responses. I realize in that sort of environment, mistakes will be made.
All that being said, I'd like to offer my services to the Congress of the United States. It seems to me that rather than having staffers reading messages and putting them in the wrong response pile, it would be much more efficient, at least for the messages which are delivered via email, to have a computer program classify them. It has the potential to be far more efficient and cost effective for the American people, and even if it incorrectly classifies a message, how is that any worse than what just happened to me, and has happened to countless others?
We are tired of not being listened to. This is not about Republicans, it's not about Democrats, it's about the status quo. Something must change, and it must change soon. Here are some suggestions:
- We need a mandate that political parties do not have access to the ballot. By this I mean that people are free to join political parties, and parties are welcome to nominate and support candidates, but at no point should a person's party affiliation appear on the ballot. We are electing candidates to office, not political parties.
- In like fashion, there should be no option on any ballot for a straight ticket vote for all candidates of a single party. A voter should know who they are voting for before entering the voting booth, or at least know the candidates and their stance on issues. Why should those of us who cast considered votes for any candidate have our votes diluted by others that don't think about what or who they are voting for?
- A different apportionment of electoral votes to cut down on the winner take all system that focuses so much attention on swing states with relatively large electoral vote counts. If we had a system that awarded one elector for each congressional district won, plus two for the state at large vote, the system would be considered more reasonable by many who currently are calling for it to be abolished. Note: I realize the presidential election is actually a vote for electors, and those are state by state votes, so a change like this mandating how electors are to be apportioned would require an amendment.
- While we're at it, we all need to focus less on the president. The real power lies with the legislative branch through which all legislation flows. The president certainly has a lot of influence, but he gets too much blame when things go wrong and too much credit when things go right.
- Term limits of some sort, though I'm somewhat fuzzier on this concept. I was thinking of perhaps a single term limit for any office, followed by at least one term out of that office. Professional politicians are going to be the ruination of this country. Well, professional politicians and an electorate that is always looking to feed at the government trough.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of reforms we should implement. Just a few things off the top of my head.
I have nothing personal against Rob Bishop. I think he's an okay guy, and I don't have any huge policy complaints with him. What I am is tired. I'm tired of not being heard. This last weekends rally in Washington shows that I am not alone. It is something all politicians need to think about.
Note: When I have a chance, I'll have the letter scanned and post a copy of it. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow.
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