OPINION: Questions for Republicans

The drastic measures being orchestrated by Elon Musk and his DOGE operators are a coup attempt.

Senator Raphael Warnock (D, Georgia) accurately called them the “administrative equivalent of the January 6th insurrection.”

The Musk DOGE measures are a crisis of national proportions, even international proportions.

Their depth and scale are overwhelming. At best they will damage our democracy, at worst they could destroy it.

I reached out for consolation to one of my mentors, an attorney and sage. He picked up the phone and before even saying ‘hello,” he floored me with the following cheery observation.

“It’s not often that you get a chance to save your entire Nation,” he chuckled.

There followed a long pause while I absorbed his words and their meaning.

My mentor is correct, of course. A crisis is an opportunity to better our world. And a crisis of this significance has not happened for quite a while. John Brown’s insurrection at Harper’s Ferry comes to mind. It set off the Civil War.

None of us can handle this crisis alone.

But each one of us can take a small action that together could indeed save an entire Nation. Speak out. That is what Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln did. We can too.

Ask questions of your Republican and Independent friends and of Senators Crapo & Risch and Representative Fulcher.

Here is their contact information:

Senator Mike Crapo 202-224-6142

Senator James Risch 202-224-2752

Congressman Russ Fulcher 202-225-6611

Please be courteous to their blameless staffers. But demand answers from the legislators on such legitimate matters as:

Did you ever intend for Elon Musk to have access and control over the National Treasury, or the Centers for Disease Control?

Did you suspect that administrative chaos and executive overreach were Trump's intentions all along?

Did you have any idea that Trump, after campaigning for the votes of working people, would have a cabinet whose members have a combined net worth of over $340 Billion?

Did you anticipate that every federal worker would be pressured to quit, or to take a “buyout?” Or that payments legislated by Congress for the Department of Agriculture, Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security would be stalled or frozen all together?

There are many more questions. Here is the one that gets to the core of our crisis.

Did you think that this Trump/Musk Blitzkrieg would face no opposition from the party in power? None what-so-ever?

Don’t stop after making one phone call. Fortunately, you won’t be a lone caller. The telephone lines to Congress are jammed because millions of Americans share your concerns.

We are all in the same sinking boat.

None of us, not even the most anti-Trump voters, thought such a thorough upheaval within our own government could ever take place, or that it would go unopposed.

The Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives can stop this administrative coup. They have the votes. But they have done nothing. 

Fortunately, a small but increasing number of local Republicans see the light.

They call me to share their concerns.

Some are even attending our 2025 Democracy Dinner Gala this coming Saturday.

They faced up to the reality that they won’t be able to reclaim their grand old party any time soon.

And that we all share 90% of our values in common: honesty, idealism, energy, and a determination to never surrender our Nation to the richest man on earth.

You too can become a part of the solution to this crisis.

We are not helpless or defenseless, despite what Trumpers would like us to believe. We joyfully cling to what we care about and fight like hell for it. We uphold the Constitutional guardrails that have protected our Nation for centuries. We dance, we sing, we laugh, and we gather as Democrats. 

Take action with us, and the Kootenai Democrats will stand beside you every step of the way.

Through all of these acts of resistance, we loudly declare that America will stand. We relentlessly, and joyfully, keep pressing forward toward a More Perfect Union.

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Evan Koch is chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats.