Trump signs an executive order banning voting by mail.
Does he support vote by mail?Oregon has had vote by mail for three decades. Both Democratic and Republican election officials in the state say that it is working well. It is popular with voters. Yet President Trump is attacking it. Democratic officeholders in Oregon are defending Oregon's vote by mail system. Not Bentz, a Republican. He doesn't dare disagree with Trump.
What is he to do? Hide.
Bentz's website makes no mention whatever of this hot topic affecting Oregon directly, so I called Bentz's Medford office, 541-776-4646. Here is how it went, verbatim, as recorded, with all the raggedness of real conversation:
"BENTZ'S OFFICE: Good afternoon, Congressman Cliff Bentz's office. This is Chris.
ME: Hi, Chris, this is Peter Sage. I'm calling to see if the Congressman Bentz has a position on vote by mail.
BENTZ'S OFFICE: I believe you can check congress dot gov. It has all the voting records and everything on there. I just don't have access to the information at this time.
ME: You don't have access to whether your boss supports vote by mail?
BENTZ'S OFFICE: Well, I don't have it here in front of me, sir.
ME: All right. Am I the first person to have called you asking about vote by mail? President Trump said he wants to ban it, and it's how Congressman Bentz got elected. I was wondering if he supported the president on this.
BENTZ'S OFFICE: Uh, you can check on congress dot gov.
ME: Well, that would tell his votes. The question is, uh, you're telling me to go to congress dot gov?
BENTZ'S OFFICE: Uh, hum. There are voting records there. And it'll tell you exactly what the congressman, uh, any congressman, senators, all kinds of bills they put forward, it's got all that information.
ME: And you can't just tell me whether he's supporting vote by mail?
BENTZ'S OFFICE: I don't just have that information in front of me.
ME: Is there someone there in the office that would know the congressman's position on vote by mail? You know, it's how we vote in Oregon. It's how he got elected.
BENTZ'S OFFICE: Hmm.
ME: Could you connect me with somebody who's kind of up on what the congressman's position is on the, uh, thing that President Trump is--
BENTZ'S OFFICE: Um, I'll direct you to the same because we don't speak on behalf of the congressman.
ME: I bet you there's a statement that he has, that this is his position on vote by mail, no?
BENTZ'S OFFICE: Congress dot gov. [Silence.]
ME: I will go there. Thank you so much.
It will surprise nobody to learn that congress.gov has nothing about Bentz's position on vote by mail. Not votes, not position statements, nothing. Bentz's system is to send voters to a dead end. It's the screw-you-pound-sand-get-lost approach.
Bentz has turned his voice and vote over to Trump. He cannot take independent action to defend our District's interests lest Trump notice and endorse a primary opponent. Bentz isn't defending the district's voters on vote by mail, on health insurance exchanges, rural hospitals, tariffs, the Epstein cover-up, or tax cuts for billionaires.
Bentz had two bad choices. Either disagree with Trump and admit publicly that vote by mail is working well and Oregonians like it and want to keep it, or tell Oregonians that he agrees with Trump and now opposes the popular voting system.
His solution is to hide.
[Note: I have been a congressional aide. I feel sorry for Chris to have to work for such a bad boss. I worked in the district office of Congressman Jim Weaver (D) from 1977-1980. When there was a highly public visible issue -- abortion, timber harvest, oil prices, that had been in the news for any length of time -- there was an official statement from the congressman that we could read and share. Much of the work of a district office is getting calls from constituents with an opinion they wanted to congressman to hear, and to hear from the congressman's office what his position is. Sometimes the constituent likes the congressman's view. Sometimes not. "We won't tell you" is an unacceptable approach, unworthy of the job of representation. If a congressman's office won't tell you his position on a matter of high visibility and interest, why should taxpayers pay for the office?]
[Note: To get daily delivery of this blog by email go to Https://petersage.substack.com. Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]
4 comments:
Luckily, he can't tell the states what to do in their elections. So, don't worry. His executive action is meaningless. When asked why he voted by mail in Florida, he said "because I'm President." Good answer. Good answer.
As my wife recently said, GOP Congress has the collective “battered wife” syndrome. They slowly accepted being abused until it’s “normal”. They feel trapped but can’t admit it and try to pretend everything is fine. Of course they could just walk away but that would be admitting gullibility of having been deceived or merely being Trump’s sycophant and enabler. Hopefully voters will do an intervention and relieve many of them of their misery. Our misery.
Absolutely brilliant! OF COURSE HE DOES. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to vote at all.
Imagine being someone who has to follow Trump because your voters insist on it. I almost feel sorry for him and others in the same boat. Justifying, minimizing, changing the focus are typical criminal actions that seems to be the playbook for these guys. What a miserable job they have.
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