An open letter to Colorado Senator Mark Udall and Senator Michael Bennet:
As elected representatives of the state of Colorado, I ask you to begin to uphold your oath of office: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
The U.S. Senate is a deliberative body that crafts legislation for the good of the country. That process normally is an open procedure, where bills are introduced, read in Congress, and published in the Congressional Record. Then various committees hold open hearings on the bills, bringing in experts to testify about the implications of the proposed legislation. The committees openly discuss the legislation, then move it to the floor of the Senate for open deliberation.
The current leaders of the senate have changed the rules for the health care legislation. The bills have been discussed in secret meetings. Many of these meetings have excluded not only the public, but even senators from the minority party – even senators who are members of the committees involved.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann (a democrat-leaning commentator) asked Senator Chuck Schumer for the details of the public option for health insurance. Senator Schumer said that the details were a private matter, part of a package that the Senate majority leader sent to the Congressional Budget office.
How can the people’s legislation be a “private matter?” The people, and especially all the senators, deserve to see what the proposed legislation contains.
As our Colorado senators, you represent the people of this state in the US Senate. But the current leadership has turned the traditional open legislative process into a private matter of closed-door dealings. As our representatives, you must now stand up, uphold your oath of office, and demand an open process for healthcare. As individuals, the citizens of Colorado may or may not agree with the proposed legislation; but they certainly deserve to know what their elected representatives are proposing.
Right now, you are supporting a process that more closely resembles the Communist Party Central Committee than any normal operation of the US Senate. When the leadership uses its majority status to make “Senate rules” that conflict with the open Constitutional process, you are bound by your oath of office to reject that process. You oath requires that you resist “domestic enemies” of the Constitution, even if those enemies are now the current leaders of your party.
We, the People of Colorado and of the United States, deserve an open, legislative process that follows the Constitution. It will take political courage, the type that John F. Kennedy wrote about in Profiles in Courage, for you to stand up to the “party leadership.” But that is what your oath of office demands. You cannot stand silent when your “party leadership” acts more like Communist party than the Democrat party of JFK. Follow your oath of office to support and defend the Constitution.
Charles E. Beck is associate professor for Management and Communication at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He lives in Black Forest. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
