Dear Mr. Bentz,

I am a Democrat, so I didn’t vote for you, but because I believe we live in a democracy, I accept the results of the election. But I hate what Elon Musk is doing to the federal government. I can accept that there is waste and bureaucracy that should be removed from government, but I know, based on the results that my friends and family are reporting to me, that taking an axe to federal programs with no regard for their downstream consequences, is not the way to do this. Good people are getting hurt unnecessarily.  

However, your party won the election and if this is what you want to do then you have all the power to do it. So please, do it legally and lawfully. Your party holds all three branches of government. There are few levers of power that my party holds to stop you from enacting your agenda. So please don’t trash democracy in service of that agenda when you have no reason to. Mr. Musk was not elected or appointed. He is not accountable to any voter. He should not have the power to hack away at government programs that Congress has already approved and allotted the funds to carry out. That’s your job. You were elected to hold the power of the purse and to enact legislation. Please don’t abdicate your authority and ruin this grand 250-year project that has produced the most stable and prosperous democracy in human history.  

You took a sacred oath to protect and defend the Constitution, not to pledge your loyalty to one man or one party. There’s nearly nothing that me or my party can do to stop this slide into authoritarianism. Your party holds all levers of power, so I am beholden to you to do your sacred duty. You and I may not agree on much, but please, I beg you, let’s agree that we will protect remain faithful to our founding ideals, maintain the power vested in us by the Constitution, and hold people accountable when they attempt to break it.

Sharon Dohrmann

Ashland