Repair the ACA

Here is the text of a fax and email I sent to one of my Senators today. At some point people of good will are the only persons that can bridge the chasm that exists in State and Federal government. Hyper individualism is breaking the social contract we all signed as citizens of this Nation. Oligarchs and open corruption exist in other countries of the world and it seems that with this President and the supporting cast dominating government right now, that style of governing, oligarchy, is what a minority of loud voice are willing to endure to ensure their dominance, white patriarchy, even when these citizens will suffer the most under the tax, health, energy, and industrial military complex policies to which the current GOP leaders swear allegiance; and look the other way as the President enriches himself, his family, and other political leaders by using the government for their own financial means.

Senator James Lankford,

Sir,

Thank you for serving the public in this anxious and conflicted time in our Nation’s history. I keep you and your family in my meditations. It cannot be easy balancing what you think your constituents desire, what data may tell you constituents want, educating yourself broadly in the issues that effect the Nation and Oklahomans, dealing with lobbyists telling you what their interests desire, and managing your own ambitions.

I email today to encourage you to repair, rather than repeal, the ACA. The GOP at the State and Federal level are making life, free as it is, harder for Oklahomans and our Nation’s citizens by intentionally sabotaging the exchanges & subsidies designed to assist persons to get healthcare. Your participation with the GOP sabotage places you in a challenging moral position to recalibrate your moral compass and find it within your self to do what I know, you know, to be right, equitable, and above all honorable.

I know you profess faith and I often ponder how you balance that discipleship of following Jesus with the policies and politics of our Nation. I know your faith places a high value on belief in Christ for an afterlife in heaven. I urge you to read the parables of Jesus again. Those parables and the Sermon on the Mount are not describing a theocratic Nation evangelizing the world for Christ, but a counter-cultural kingdom of heaven where the first are last and the last first. By the way, you and I are the first.

So, I offer prayers of intercession that you will find some Democratic and Republican colleagues that will set an example and do the hard work of governing for all our citizens by fixing the ACA with the same urgency as you support more military spending, more gun ownership, and more drilling.

Oklahomans and our Nation’s citizens need you to demonstrate consistently that you are not supporting the President for your own gain, political spoils, or ambition. President Trump’s actions are divergent with the faith you proclaim and his ‘Christian’ belief appears tied to keeping his approval rating high with white evangelicals. Are you certain you want your political legacy intertwined with that kind of political leader?

Repeal of the ACA will make life harder for Oklahomans in rural areas as well as urban areas. Be a repairer of the breach rather than a cause of it.

I would be happy to speak with you anytime about this or other topics that address the common good of our Nation and the world.