Rohrabacher must respond to MoveOn

As a local MoveOn member, I would like to address Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s callous and belligerent dismissal of our organization’s most recent attempt to have democratic petitions and grievances addressed. In the Independent’s March 30 article “Activist protest doesn’t move on,” Rohrabacher not only dismisses our legitimate complaints on the current federal budget proposal as “total leftist nonsense” and “liberal hogwash,” but in doing so he also takes the opportunity to divert attention away from this key issue by scapegoating illegal immigrants.

Rohrabacher apparently doesn’t feel that he is under any obligation as our elected representative to respond to us in a professional and courteous way, regardless of his position on these issues. Whether we represent 10%, 50% or only 1% of his constituency is not the point; the ability to engage constituents of dissenting opinion with a minimum level of rational dialogue is. Representatives who claim to serve the people should understand this.

As for the content of his remarks, the majority of people in his district would hardly consider the defense of Medicaid, Social Security, education and child care as “nonsense” or “hogwash.”

And one could only hope that in the 21st Century our society would no longer tolerate the xenophobic and divisive rhetoric that he employs to attack “illegal” immigrants in his attempt to pit “us” against “them”.