For the benefit of House Speaker Paul Ryan and all other Republicans who are confused or misinformed.

We have all been treated to non-stop coverage on television and in newspapers of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s condemnation of presidential candidate Donald Trump, over Mr. Trump’s statement that the United States should immediately block the all  Muslims from entering the U.S. pending an investigation of their backgrounds.  One article I read suggested that such a ban “may not even be constitutional.” 

Speaker Paul Ryan declared, “That’s not what this party stands for and more importantly, it’s not what this country stands for.”  It’s not a good sign for his career as Speaker, that Congressman Ryan’s remarks nearly parrot those of the Obama administration made earlier this week.  It doesn’t sound as if Speaker Ryan knows who we are as a people, so I wrote to inform him in the following letter:
   
Dear Mr. Speaker:

    Clearly, you do not understand “who we are as a country,” so I will tell you.  We are military veterans and the families of veterans who offered-up our lives and made numerous personal sacrifices for the freedom of these United States--sacrifices that you cannot imagine and do not honor.  We are middle-class working people whose hard-earned salaries you have wasted on worthless projects and programs.

    We are Christians and church members who have watched as one administration after another attempted to deny our right to worship the one true God, and heard them tell us that we must keep quiet because there are a few atheists around.  We are unemployed people who have lost jobs because Washington politicians like yourself have been unwilling to secure the Mexican border. 

    We are retirees whose healthcare system you have destroyed and whose Social Security System you have stolen from.  We are home-owners whose investments you decimated through reckless lending and banking practices.  We are family members who have watched you stand by silently while the U.S. Supreme Court unconstitutionally altered the make-up of our society and our nation’s families. 

    We are children whose lives you have mortgaged in order to advance your own careers.  We are students who cannot get an adequate education because you made backroom deals that advance an agenda that neglects academic learning in favor of programs that are hostile to our culture and our faith. 

    And we are law-abiding citizens whose security you have failed to protect as you posture to appear “inclusive” and “welcoming” to all--even those who come from nations that sponsor terrorism.  We are fed-up with politicians who have no integrity, neither personal or professional.  You need us, but we do not need you.

    If Republicans had done their jobs with the slightest hint of commitment to the values and needs of the people who elect and pay them, there would be no need for a candidate like Donald Trump, who refuses to dance for you like a puppet on a string.  Every one of you in Washington has failed us. 

    I don’t know, Mr. Ryan, if it’s because you come from Wisconsin or if you have just been too long in Washington that you are so woefully ignorant about who we are, and I don’t care.  Donald Trump did not call for the internment of Muslims already in the United States--that was the action of a Democrat president against Japanese citizens during World War II. 

    Mr. Trump simply stated that we should halt the flood of Muslim Syrian refugees until we can determine with some degree of certainty, who they really are.  If that troubles you, get over it.  It’s a good and sensible idea and millions of us support it.

    We want Obamacare gone, wasteful spending stopped, the Mexican border closed and guarded, illegal aliens forced to return to their homes and we want the government to get out of our businesses and our lives.  We want members of Congress, the administration and Supreme Court to honor their oaths to “uphold the U.S. Constitution and protect the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”  Those who violate their oaths should be expelled.  Members of the armed forces should not be held to a higher standard than their civilian leaders.

    That’s who we are, Mr. Speaker, and your fellow Republicans would do well to listen to us instead of the Washington elites, the leftwing belligerents and the media.  We accept and welcome all law-abiding and freedom-respecting people of the world.  But we oppose the foolish incompetence of politicians who permit the takeover of the United States by those who break-in by night or come here to rob, to kill and to destroy, and you should, too. 

I doubt that Speaker Ryan or the Republican Party will suddenly have an epiphany that causes them to reverse the dangerous course they have plotted for us all, but maybe another election-year defeat, will.  Unfortunately, that may cost all Americans four more years of misery, death and loss.