I decided to send her an email letting her know what I thought of her first year, which I believe consisted of six weeks of open session. She sent a brief reply, and today I wrote back.
Full transcript below.
>>On Mar 14, 2014, at 1:43 AM, "Jay DeKing"wrote:
>> I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your Tea Party
compatriots for showing us all just what you stand for, and what you
will do when you are allowed to hold the reins of power.
>> I thank you because now we know why you were denied a majority for over
a century. At first it was because you were the Party of Lincoln, hated
in the South. Nowadays it is because you are extremists who do
everything you can to benefit the rich and the corporations at the
expense of the poor and (what used to be) the middle class.
>>To read your newsletters and your website, one would think that all was
well and that the noxious legislation you passed during the last session
was all sweetness and light, good for everybody. Too bad your
communications don't reflect reality.
>> You are, like the vast majority of your legislative "accomplishments", a
noxious and toxic group, you Republicans of the 21st Century. You wear a
smile while you slide the knife in the public's collective back.
>> Thank you again for showing us just what and who you stand for, so that
we can defeat you in 2014 and take our state back for the people.
>> Regards,
>> Jay DeKing
On 03/14/2014 05:12 PM, Rep. Michele Presnell wrote:
>Jay,> So you like to pay more taxes, you think it is ok to have our elections
with fraud involved, you like many undue regulations , and killing babies
is ok with you.
> We just don't agree. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in sending an email
to me. Michele
[My reply:]
On this we can agree: We certainly don't agree about much of anything.
1) You didn't lower my taxes, at least not the state income tax. You lowered it for the wealthy and well-to-do. My tax rate is unchanged. And, since you asked, yes I do like to pay taxes. I use my taxes to buy civilization. Currently, taxes in the U.S. are at a historic low. You probably don't believe that, but it's true. Our budget problems are not primarily caused by overspending, we are presently undertaxed. Yes, really. It's a Republican problem. Cut taxes but put things like wars on the credit card. I was furious at George W. Bush when he cut my taxes in 2001; I was earning decent money then, about $100k that year. I didn't need a tax cut. And Bush went on to tank the economy with tax cuts and wars. We've been getting tax cuts for over a dozen years now, and once taxes are this low, cutting them further helps nobody but the wealthy and actively hurts everybody else. I don't expect you to understand. This is a little deep for a Tea Partier to grasp.
2) What voter fraud? Provide concrete examples (other than Republicans who got caught trying to prove that on-site voter fraud is possible).
What you really need to look at in the area of potential fraud is the software and hardware companies who provide voting services; I don't recall any mention of that in your unconstitutional abridgement-of-rights bill.
In-person fraud is so rare as to be considered non-existent. All your new voting regulations did is make it harder for honest citizens to cast their ballots. You represent a remote, primarily rural district that is home to a lot of elderly and disabled individuals, many of whom live many miles away from their voting precincts. Your new regulations (I thought you didn't like those pesky things?) make it harder on those disadvantaged folks, many of whom doubtless voted for you in the last election.
3) Regulations are necessary because people are prone to do the wrong thing far too often (especially when they think nobody will catch them) and corporations are run by people. In fact, Mitt Romney claimed that "corporations are people, my friend," and therefore, logically, corporations - or "corporate people" - are just as infallible as "human people".
Were you around during the 1960's, when pollution of the air, land and water was so bad? I was. Do you think that the hand of God came down and cleaned up that mess, and curtailed the production of more of a mess? Sorry, no, that was actually Richard Nixon and the EPA that got the ball rolling on cleaning up our great Nation. No more burning rivers.
The Dan [River, site of a recent coal ash spill] looks pretty nasty though. Might want to talk to the Governor about his buddies at Duke [Energy]. Oh, but wait, we don't want to hamper their business model with excessive regulations, do we?
Perhaps a slap on the wrist and a stern word will correct all of the polluting corporate "people".
4) You are a fanatic on the subject of abortion. You ignore real medical need and impose unreasonable restrictions in the guise of compassion, attached (in a most cowardly manner) to completely unrelated legislation rather than on their own.
5) You didn't mention this, but I thought I would: you actually passed a bill that made it illegal to raise the minimum wage above the Federal level. There is no moral basis for that ridiculous slap in the face of the working class - the majority of your constituency. But they don't give you as much money as the Tea Party, do they? And the Tea Partiers who really are working class have no idea that they are voting against their own interests. They are lied to by Fox and Beck and Rush and refuse to believe the truth.
Representative Presnell, I will concede one thing to you. You really are following the agenda that you promised prior to the election. And those promises were precisely why I have always opposed you.
On a personal level, I wish you well. As a citizen, I pray for North Carolina if you are re-elected.
Good day,
Jay DeKing
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