Like dictators throughout history, Trump uses fear to maintain power.
Fear of being primaried ensures a Republican Congress will blindly endorse bills he supports. Ginning up fear among voters, of people of color, immigrants, trans people, “the other,” allows people without a moral compass to get elected.
We are seeing cruelty towards immigrants and “the other,” the opposite of the ethical call to universal love and compassion. Our democracy erodes when rights we enjoy such as due process, free speech in schools, a free media, privacy rights ensured by Roe v. Wade and worker’s rights are lost.
Everyone’s rights are endangered as lack of due process for some means loss of due process for all.
When people fall for the lies about “the other,” it follows that they are prone to voting against their own interests when supporting the Republican agenda of billionaire tax breaks that are going to be paid for by cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, Social Security and Veterans’ benefits.
Fear allows them to support ICE raids resulting in innocent people being disappeared. Long fought for civil rights are being lost to make the fearful mistakenly feel safe.
A few Democrats vote for Republican sponsored bills promoting divide and conquer tactics that make possible the disgusting scenes we see when contributing members of our society are kidnapped off the streets by cowards in masks.
Our Congressional Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has voted the Republican agenda 54% of the time, when we can no longer afford to “meet in the middle” when one side is taking away our rights.
She voted yes on HR 4367 that eliminated shelter and services for immigrants, not funding USCIS application processing and grant programs designed to improve asylum processing and speed up the clearing of the immigration backlog. Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez has helped set up people trying to navigate the legal approach to attain residency to be arrested when they attend hearings to certify their status.
She voted yes on HR 2670 sending an unwelcome message to members of the military that are now “the Other.”
These patriots include people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ who serve in our military. She also voted for HR 22, a voter suppression act, and HR 29, another anti-immigrant law.
Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez has failed to represent the interests of her constituents; there is no reason to believe her future actions will differ from those of the past. It is time for a change. There is a viable contender for her seat in Congress; his name is Brent Hennrich, and you can learn about him on his Bluesky account @bhennrich.bsky.social. If you can’t help him out financially, please spread the word that we have a candidate that will do all he can to end the season of fear that is replacing “America, land of the free, home of the brave,” with “land of the fearful, home of the billionaires and peasants.”
Linda Warren
Winlock
