I have no republican representative (since I live in Maryland), so I found a nearby one. I’ve sent this to him, my Rep (Sarbanes, a dem), and to Paul Ryan. Here’s the letter:
Rep Bartlett,
As a Maryland resident, it is difficult to find a Republican ear – though you represent a neighboring district, you’re the closest thing I’ve got. It is a difficult time to be a member of the Republican party in general – I would know, I am one. A hardline group of radicals have ridden a surge of populist support into the House. These supposed “Tea Party” members tell people what they want to hear – does anyone, after all, want to pay MORE taxes? Of course not. They have drafted a plan to pigeon hole other Republicans into an inflexible “I will never raise taxes” statement, questioning your very legitimacy as a red-blooded American should you back away from this pledge.I admit that I do not know your personal record. All I have to say to you is that it is your job to do the right thing for this country, not to win a marketing battle or prove that you’re a “real republican”. People have used such pressure to force all varieties of political and religious leaders into all sorts of reprehensible activities over the course of human history. Tea party members represent a modern day McCarthyism, and are running a budgetary witch trial.
Your job is not to fit in with this mob – though a year ago it looked like this was the only way to win an election. Your job is to do the right thing. I am not a politician. As a reasonable human being, I understand that there is an exception to every rule, that reasonable people can have reasonable disagreements without either side being evil, and that compromise if impossible if one side has adopted a stance that is inflexible in every scenario.
There’s an exception to every rule. Now is the time for BOTH sides to compromise. Now is the time to listen to the voices of reason. The Tea Party members have been the most vocal in the past year or two, but remember that the mob is fickle and those same people that swept them into office will turn against them when their very way of life is threatened by our politicians actions. In the process, you will have alienated another group – the educated and reasonable Americans whose country is being hijacked by the outer fringe.
Good luck, do the right thing, be brave,
Eric Furst
For Paul Ryan’s, I apologized up front for lying to his email pre-screen:
I apologize for lying about my home state. If you were in the Wisconsin state legislature, and not pulling puppet strings for the rest of the country, I would not be contacting you. The truth is, your actions from your corner of Wisconsin impact the rest of us, across the country. Me, I don’t have any Republican representation – I’m from Maryland, between Baltimore and DC – the bluest of the blue.
Then pasted most of the same letter, and ended:
Good luck, do the right thing, be brave – remember that you’ll be running for president some day, and then you really will have to answer to all of us.
Words 
This letter is well-written and I believe it conveys what most Americans are thinking. I’m a Democrat, but I will look across party lines and vote for someone who is doing (what I believe) is the best for everyone. I am in agreement that the “Tea Party” is terribly radical and detrimental to the government’s decision making. I’m glad you wrote this.
Glad you liked it. I’m only moderately social media savvy, but if you think it’s worth reading, retweet it or something.
Meanwhile, if this falls through, I’d like to start some kind of “vote against incumbents” movement. Sure, in the end Republicans and Dems would just be swapping House and Senate, but at least we’d have some fresh blood in there…and they’d realize that they answer to the moderate population in the middle of the political spectrum as much as they do to the lunatic fringes.
I will certainly try and retweet this, once I figure out how to!
As heretical as it is to say…I really don’t like Twitter. I get easily confused in it.
Young people these days (Baahhh!) think in fundamentally different ways than we thought when we were kids. And apparently twitter falls right into their wheelhouse, while half the time I can’t figure out how to disentangle the @’s and #’s.
Good thoughts. Once these guys get over themselves and start to do what our country needs, then they can tackle the major issue. The major issue in America is NOT the deficit as huge as it is. The biggest issue is jobs. It’s the function of goverment to improve the lives of the people. So lets sart creating jobs. Its been done before and President Obama should have been doing this since day one instead of forcing through a promise that we can’t afford just yet. And you can’t create jobs if you set limits on the budget. A balanced budget is desireable but we can’t balance the budget without revenue and we can’t get revenue without jobs. So job one is come together and create jobs no matter how much it costs to start. Cutting taxes to the rich has been tried and you would be hard pressed to actually find a time in our history when it worked. Giving wealthy people more money only encourages greed. If the 3 trillion dollars,and counting, of tax cuts from the Bush era were supposed to create jobs then why did we lose 9.2 million of them? Just asking. No we need to take back those tax cuts and dollar for dollar invest in our own infrastructure and rebiuld America piece by piece. Each new job will pay back the investment in revenue from new tax payers and we will all gain. Private companies create private communities behind gates. They are slowly separating themselves from the majority of America. So cut the tax cut which has been creating private police forces and lots of fences and lets invest in America.
This last thought is just a rant. Sorry