Dear Mitch: An open letter to Washington’s most powerful politician from a Ky. constituent

An Open Letter to Senator Mitch McConnell:

As a Kentuckian, I’m really worried about how things are going in our country. Your fellow Kentuckians need some honest, straightforward answers from you to the following questions:

1. You’ve made many promises about making the lives of our Kentucky coal miners and their families a lot better. Can you explain exactly what measures you’ve taken to fulfill those promises in the last four years?

2. I recall your ardent support of Matt Bevin in the last election. Do you think Matt Bevin, had he been reelected, would have handled the COVID-19 crisis better than our Democratic Governor? For example, maybe he would have opened churches and bars much earlier and we could be like Texas, Florida, South Carolina, and Arizona.

3. If Donald Trump, as he boasted he could, happened to go out and randomly shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, would you still vote for him in November? Just how loyal are you?

4. What about this business of Vladimir Putin setting bounties on the lives of American service men and women in Afghanistan? Is that just another hoax? What do you think?

5. Oh, and what about this whole coronavirus business? Is that another hoax cooked up by the so-called fake news and spread by radical liberals to make our country look bad?

6. That reminds me. I’m a Democrat, like a lot of other Kentuckians. Does that make us bad, evil people?

7. That’s a pretty neat campaign ad Team Mitch posted recently. It pictures our streets invaded by the forces of evil. Did you really personally approve it? Do you think Kentuckians will fall for that kind of fearing-mongering campaign ad? The last time I looked, I didn’t see any violent gangs trying to set our towns ablaze. Maybe you need to come back to Kentucky and take a look for yourself. You know perfectly well that the vast majority of the Americans marching for racial justice have been peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

8. I’m proud to be an American and I honor great Americans and what they’ve done to make our country truly great. Would you include among great Americans Nathan Bedford Forest, Jefferson Davis, George Wallace, Andrew Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon, General Bragg, and General Flynn?

9. Statues are important testimonies to a nation’s history and character. Should we as a nation celebrate public figures who were (are) outright racists? Is white power what made America great? And why focus all your concern in this time of crises on bronze statues? What about the many millions of African Americans who have suffered criminal injustice for hundreds of years and still suffer gross social injustice today? Senator, what exactly are your priorities?

10. What about face masks and social distancing? Do you think that discouraging Americans from wearing face masks and practicing social distancing is the best way to restart the economy?

11. Do you take your oath of office to defend the Constitution seriously? Or is your bottom line partisan Republican Party politics, right or wrong? How do you define “patriot”?

12. What happened to the Grand Old Party?

13. Why are you locking bills in your desk and not letting them come up for a vote? We clearly can’t look to you for leadership in facing the great challenges ahead.

14. A lot of people of both parties think you are the oldest and most fearsome creature of the Washington swamp. Do you answer to big donors or to Kentuckians like me?

15. On a personal note, most Kentuckians have a hard time imaging what it’s like to be a multimillionaire. Can you describe to us what it’s like being one of the richest elected officials in the US Congress?

Thanks, Senator. I expect honest answers to these important questions. Please stop asking your DC staff to send out canned responses to your constituents’ letters.

John Svarlien teaches Classics at Transylvania University.