Dear Congressman Cantor,
When I first became aware of you on the national political stage, I was delighted that the Republican Party had embraced as one of its stars a personable Jewish man who had the potential for becoming the first Jewish president. Sadly, your current behavior in kneeling subserviently to the yahoos of the far right to solidify what you think is your political base, has caused me to rethink your ability to represent the American People fairly and with compassion. Based on your mishandling of your high position in order to curry political favor with this Tea Party fringe group that has taken over the GOP, and your intransigence in negotiating any raising of revenues from the wealthiest American and corporations, I’ve decided that I shall have to give very serious thought to any future support for you in any national election.
As an American Jew who takes my faith seriously, I am guided by both the laws of the Constitution, the spirit contained in the Declaration of Independence, and the laws and spirit of the Torah in deciding my personal and public behavior. To that end, I know that “the poor will never depart from the land,” and that the laws of tzadakah are incumbent upon us all to the level of our ability to share what we have with the less fortunate. In the current fiasco that you and your colleagues have created because you are more committed to maintaining the savings and life styles of the very rich at the expense of the middle class workers and the poor, you have revealed that pledges to Grover Norquist and his PAC have more sway over your actions than do our sacred and secular documents which call for fairness, compassion, and empathy. Your current behavior is evidence that you demonstrate none of these qualities, and that you have abdicated your responsibility to protect the welfare of the majority of the American people. You have become a “pawn” in this ugly partisan game when you should have emerged as the “king.”
Indeed, the GOP has become the party of “no,” and you and it have revealed yourselves to be a group of vindictive, partisan lackeys whose lack of compassion for the “guy in the street” has revealed itself to be at its core. You have become inextricably bound to this core image, and your intransigence and your adherence to a political group whose implacable stance is as firm and lethal as that of Hamas’ to the existence of Israel. That is what you have come to be in my eyes, and I profoundly regret that you have moved away from a heritage that demands righteousness and compassion of its adherents.
And if you think you are going to be rewarded for your behavior by the extreme Right and the bulk of the Tea Party that makes it up, you are in for a rude shock. In most elections, people revert to their comfort zones and many people in this country did not vote for candidate Obama more because of his color than for his liberal views. These same people will bring their religious bigotries into the national voting booth and not vote for you because, in the final analysis, you are a Jew and having a Jewish president might be as bad to them as having a black man as president. Already people are pledging not to vote for Romney because he is a Mormon. Those same people will not want to see a Jew in the White House. You have squandered your political potential by throwing in with people who will turn away from you and throw you “under the bus” once the current financial fiasco you and your friends have created is over. Someone is always to blame, and this time it is going to be you if we go into default and the dire predictions come true.
Your future in politics rests or rested with the ever increasing group of independents who are made up of men and women who became alienated from both the Democratic and Republican Parties because of their antics and inability to work together. Congress is an embarrassment to the American people, and you have become an embarrassment to us as well and a liability to mainstream Republicans. I am leaving the Republican party to become an Independent. Thanks for being the last straw.
When I first became aware of you on the national political stage, I was delighted that the Republican Party had embraced as one of its stars a personable Jewish man who had the potential for becoming the first Jewish president. Sadly, your current behavior in kneeling subserviently to the yahoos of the far right to solidify what you think is your political base, has caused me to rethink your ability to represent the American People fairly and with compassion. Based on your mishandling of your high position in order to curry political favor with this Tea Party fringe group that has taken over the GOP, and your intransigence in negotiating any raising of revenues from the wealthiest American and corporations, I’ve decided that I shall have to give very serious thought to any future support for you in any national election.
As an American Jew who takes my faith seriously, I am guided by both the laws of the Constitution, the spirit contained in the Declaration of Independence, and the laws and spirit of the Torah in deciding my personal and public behavior. To that end, I know that “the poor will never depart from the land,” and that the laws of tzadakah are incumbent upon us all to the level of our ability to share what we have with the less fortunate. In the current fiasco that you and your colleagues have created because you are more committed to maintaining the savings and life styles of the very rich at the expense of the middle class workers and the poor, you have revealed that pledges to Grover Norquist and his PAC have more sway over your actions than do our sacred and secular documents which call for fairness, compassion, and empathy. Your current behavior is evidence that you demonstrate none of these qualities, and that you have abdicated your responsibility to protect the welfare of the majority of the American people. You have become a “pawn” in this ugly partisan game when you should have emerged as the “king.”
Indeed, the GOP has become the party of “no,” and you and it have revealed yourselves to be a group of vindictive, partisan lackeys whose lack of compassion for the “guy in the street” has revealed itself to be at its core. You have become inextricably bound to this core image, and your intransigence and your adherence to a political group whose implacable stance is as firm and lethal as that of Hamas’ to the existence of Israel. That is what you have come to be in my eyes, and I profoundly regret that you have moved away from a heritage that demands righteousness and compassion of its adherents.
And if you think you are going to be rewarded for your behavior by the extreme Right and the bulk of the Tea Party that makes it up, you are in for a rude shock. In most elections, people revert to their comfort zones and many people in this country did not vote for candidate Obama more because of his color than for his liberal views. These same people will bring their religious bigotries into the national voting booth and not vote for you because, in the final analysis, you are a Jew and having a Jewish president might be as bad to them as having a black man as president. Already people are pledging not to vote for Romney because he is a Mormon. Those same people will not want to see a Jew in the White House. You have squandered your political potential by throwing in with people who will turn away from you and throw you “under the bus” once the current financial fiasco you and your friends have created is over. Someone is always to blame, and this time it is going to be you if we go into default and the dire predictions come true.
Your future in politics rests or rested with the ever increasing group of independents who are made up of men and women who became alienated from both the Democratic and Republican Parties because of their antics and inability to work together. Congress is an embarrassment to the American people, and you have become an embarrassment to us as well and a liability to mainstream Republicans. I am leaving the Republican party to become an Independent. Thanks for being the last straw.