An Open Letter Delivered to Representative Lynn Jenkins on Elections and Investigations
7 March 2017
Dear Representative Jenkins,
If our republic is to be a democracy, to represent the will
of the people, to effect the sovereignty of the citizenry, then elections must be
carried out in the most fair, reliable, and transparent way possible.
Ensuring that votes cast are counted reliably (much more
important to have a clear result and a verifiable paper trail than to have answers
quickly), and that citizens have easy access to the ballot, are critical civil
rights issues that the Sessions-led Department of Justice must not be allowed
to let fall by the wayside.
Regulation of political expenditures is clearly necessary,
well beyond our current system that allows money to flow into local, state, and
national campaigns without being accounted for or accountable. Contribution
limits have clearly failed to keep the wealthiest people and corporations from
leveraging their resources into outsized influence, but that doesn't mean that
abandoning the idea of a level playing field makes any sense: rather what's needed
is greater transparency, a relatively easy fix in the age of internet access,
so that all donations are accounted for and credited.
And, needless to say, while it's not at all unusual for the
international community to take an interest in US politics, the intersection of
interests and careers between the Trump campaign and Vladimir Putin's Russia
and his kleptocratic oligarch associates is bizarre. While the idea that the
Obama administration wiretapped the Trump campaign without proper warrants and
protections is absurd (and if they had, why wouldn't they release any of the
information they gatherered?!), a careful examination of how overseas computer
intrusions were coordinated with domestic political actors, a proper audit of
voting results, and a serious discussion of how US policy is being reshaped are
absolutely necessary.
Conflict of interest laws are supposed to protect the
citizens of this country from leaders who put their own interests and their
family interests ahead of the common welfare. Nepotism, self-dealing, personal
enrichment are violations of the public trust and need to be consistently and
coherently punished. Congress has a critical role to play in making sure that
the executive branch is living up to the standards which the American people
have historically expected and deserve; for the last eight years, at least,
Congress has taken that role somewhat seriously, and there is no reason for
that to change.
Respectfully,
....