The article was written by Russell Tocqueville, a twenty-something from the NY23rd District.

 As you read this, Congressman Tom Reed is sitting in DC, with the consultants he’s paying for through Wall Street funded donations, figuring out with those consultants how to tell you he’s not voting to give away Medicare and other programs to Wall Street. He is asking his hedge fund manager funded consultants how to justify closing down more public schools, and he is trying to figure out a way to tell himself, why he thinks its ok to agree to a ban on refugees and folks from certain countries, or applying a religious test, when a large group of doctors at Guthrie, Corning Hospital, St Joseph’s in Elmira are Muslim.

The conversations our congressman is having is not just with us, but also with himself, because everything he does is calculated to give of the demeanor of a friendly elected official who heeds the words of his constituents.

With that in mind, it is time for every single person in our district who has become involved due to the recent elections, or like me you’ve been involved for a while to unite and become a militant opposition to the niceties of corporatism sold to us by Trump branded talking points meant to divide us. It is time to raise as much hell, in Allegany County, as in Ithaca, and it is time that we take our populist movement and apply it to our home by running for Town supervisor, School board, county legislature etc…..

The fact is Tom is now scared to host town halls in his own hometown, or even anywhere near his hometown.

While Reed shells out thousands in consulting fees, to sell us the people of the Southern Tier a gift wrapped box of nothing but lies. It is up to us to tell every Medicare recipient what Reed wants to do. That being about 48% of the population of the district, this is an issue that will affect our elections, and no matter what Tom says, he always does something different in DC.

So go out and be vocal.

Let us make sure that Tom has to defend every single rotten piece of legislation that Paul Ryan dreams up, and every single rotten thing Trump says and does.

Get loud and fight like we’re fighting to protect the best of America, not just for us but for our friends and family. For my senior neighbors who might have voted for Trump but didn’t expect that losing a retirement with dignity was what Trump and Reed had in mind. Do it for our brothers and sisters in labor some of which voted for Trump because he promised to bring jobs back, but didn’t expect that Reed would now have to hold Paul Ryan’s water on a national right to work bill. Do it for the thousands of young folks like me, who are struggling to find jobs in our Southern Tier, and suffer a break up of families all across our finger lakes due to Republican inaction on population loss and economic stimulus. Do it for the thousands of strong southern tier women who marched on Inauguration day in Ithaca and Seneca falls to say no to a rollback on women’s rights and healthcare choices. Do it for our way of life, get vocal, question our elected officials. Celebrate our democracy by participating in it.