Dissenting View on My Representative

Haven't been writing on the blog or to the Post Star much. Let's kill two birds. Mark Westcott wrote to the local paper today lavishing praise on Rep. Stefanik. God knows I can't let that pass. So here's a first draft anyway.

     I’m responding to Mark Westcott’s letter commending Rep. Stefanik’s performance. He touts her bi-partisanship by listing different pieces of legislation she has supported. I think it’s great that she’s not aligned with the extreme positions of the Freedom Caucus. Of course, I’d also be curious how often she votes in line with them. I’m fairly sure everything he mentioned would have been supported by a hypothetical Democratic representative. That Democrat likely wouldn’t have voted to send the flawed AHCA to the Senate in the vain hope that it would be mended there. They would, God willing, be working to make real fixes to the existing policy, the ACA. I suspect that the “repeal and replace” she ran on twice is more important than making changes to improve the existing policy.

     There’s a bill making silencers easier to acquire that has been postponed twice. The first time it was put off by the shooting of Rep. Scalise and the second time by the Las Vegas tragedy. Having fully made her bones with the NRA, I have no doubt how she’ll vote on that and the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act if it comes up. I’m hopeful that if we get a Democratic rep who’s not hypothetical it will lead to gun policy not dictated by the gun industry. They’re maybe going to allow bump stocks to be outlawed. Wonderful. What does that do for the 20,000 suicides in a given year? They’re not going to allow the repeal of the Dickey Amendment that would send some money toward researching how to cut gun deaths. And neither is Rep. Stefanik. 

And here's an actual writer, David Frum at The Atlantic, writing on my favorite hobby horse.