Wrangler Dani

You guys all know I care deeply about politics. I’m one of these annoying people who actually still believes that my ELECTED representatives should listen to my concerns – you know – that whole “by the people, for the people” thing.

Anyways, I sent an email to all my elected representatives and senators, strongly opposing  the health care bill. This is what I got in return:

Dear Mrs. Nichols:

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for the inclusion of a public health care option in health care reform legislation. I am committed to enacting meaningful reform to expand access to the health care system.

I am delighted that you support healthcare reform, as do I. The key is to find a healthcare plan that provides coverage, as well as limits costs. My colleagues in the Senate and I have been working on this, but it is a difficult issue and must be carefully thought out. I hope that the Senate Finance Committee will propose a bill which will lay out a way in which we can accomplish these goals and can be effectively merged with the bill passed by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Other health reforms are also necessary. I strongly believe that any healthcare reform legislation should prohibit coverage denial based on preexisting conditions. Reducing healthcare costs is absolutely essential. Between 2000 and 2007, combined profits for 10 of the country’s largest publically traded insurance companies rose 428 percent. I believe that a way to control those costs is by instituting a public option, a nonprofit cooperative model, or a regulatory authority to achieve this. I am also concerned about the astronomical growth of entitlement spending, which makes up 56 percent of all federal dollars spent in 2009. Health reform must bend the healthcare cost curve, slowing the growth of entitlements in order to reduce our nation’s debt and budget deficit.

Any Senate health reform bill must improve California’s complex health care system, and please know that I am working hard with my colleagues to make health care affordable for all Americans, without adding to the federal deficit.

Again, thank you for writing. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.

Sincerely yours,Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

This is the part where I threw up on my laptop and seriously considered moving to Costa Rica. When I woke up, I typed this passive/aggressive missive:

Dear Senator Feinstein –
Despite the fact that I’m receiving a reply email, it’s clear that you did not read my email, despite the fact that my opinion and that of my neighbors should be of utmost importance to you.
I do not support health care reform. I do not support a public health care option. I think it odd that you say that “carefully thinking through” such an option is essential, when lately it seems that not reading large bills, and merely passing them to go along with the administration, is in vogue.
Listen to your people, Senator. We do not want Health Care Reform. We want to control our health insurance and be left alone by an out-of-touch government.
Thanks. Hopefully your next response will prove that you’ve actually read this email.
~Dani Nichols

Upon my sending of this email, I got an auto-response, notifying me of the unfortunate fact that this letter was not received. (And she really doesn’t want to hear you anyway, go away please, and take your guns and freedom-loving gibberish with you.)

I’m frustrated, guys. I’ve always believed in the freedoms of the First Amendment, that through communication and respect we can solve problems and come to solutions. I don’t want to go raise trouble, but trust me, this is not “manufactured anger.” I’m not getting some fat paycheck from Fox News to come out here and complain about how out of touch my senator is.

I just feel disenfranchised. Demoralized. I thought that my voice mattered for something in this Republic, but it turns out that I (and countless other concerned Americans) are not saying the right things, so we won’t be heard.