The Letter Not Sent

THE LETTER NOT SENT 2025/01/13
Dear Senator Klobuchar
I was at a meeting sometime in 2006 with Mike Hatch. I think it was at the Ole Mexico restaurant on Lexington and Dale. He came to talk, as Attorney General, and as he often did, to a group of chiropractors, about 20 of us, about what was coming up in the Minnesota legislature. He was asked what kind of support would need to get re-elected in the upcoming election.
He said he wasn’t going to run again. Why? Because the new people elected to office were not interested in getting a bill through, a bill that would help Minnesotans, they were more interested in counting coup, in getting their way. He said he could not trust them to keep their word, that he would negotiate with them, come to an agreement about how a bill would be passed, and then, when on the floor, they would turn around and vote against it.
This is what I see you having to deal with; the opposition breaks promises; they ask for the absurd; they make weird, inaccurate and inflammatory statements; they dismiss your concerns; they deflect and re-define as did Brett Kavanaugh 2 when you asked him questions.
I remember when he was up for confirmation and you, referencing your father’s struggles with alcoholism, asked Kavanaugh about his drinking issues. His response was to argue with you, to attack you. And because of the rules, which you adhered to, your time ran out. But, and this is a big but, no-one else took up the issues. No-one else supported you. Your question disappeared, was put out of sight, under the table, as were any questions about his sexual proclivities.
Isn’t that what we do as women? We make it okay for people to belittle us. And I see you doing that a lot, making nice as a way to navigate a difficult work environment. I do vote for you, but really wish I could vote for someone else, for instance an AOC, a Crockett, a Porter, a someone who doesn’t prevaricate, doesn’t harp on being non-partisan, on being able to cross the aisle, a someone who doesn’t think it a triumph to get the bald eagle listed as the designated bird of the United States, who doesn’t boast about that on her website.
Taking the high road, as Michelle Obama once said, might feel good, righteous, but if you listen to that 18th century Scottish song, The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond, you would be reminded that taking the high road when others are taking the low road, means you will never meet.
For instance, you like to follow the rules, decent rules, rules designed to make life easier, rules designed to keep people safe, fed, housed, taught, loved, honored. Your opposition has a different agenda; they are playing a different game, on a different court.
Please, out-maneuver them; out-strategise them; out-think them; use their rules to get what you, I, millions of other Minnesotans and Americans, really want. Please!
1 https://swansonhatch.com/mike_hatch
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Kavanaugh
3 https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/01/politics/amy-klobuchar-brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court/index.html
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez
5 https://time.com/5459984/michelle-obama-go-high
6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Banks_o%27_Loch_Lomond