Letter to the Editor: Offensively done

We’ve done it again; Representative Dunwell is offended. We really do need to cease being offensive and making rude comments about our duly elected State Representative. It’s untoward at a minimum. Christopher Braunschweig of the Newton News has done some investigative journalism and he is reporting on our elected representatives as all good journalists should.

Who knew? Who knew that Dunwell was on the payroll of Bob Vander Plaats, our famous or infamous, as the case may be, leader of “The Family Leader” — the notoriously anti-everything guy. Now this doesn’t mean that Dunwell doesn’t have his own views on things. He insists that his views “have nothing to do with Family Leader.” Simply because he is hired to “advance the group’s mission and fundraising” should not be considered an endorsement of that mission, now should it?

Representative Dunwell declined to comment on the amount of remuneration he is receiving from The Family Leader. Although there is no requirement that a state representative not engage in paid employment, it does make one question whether he does or does not endorse the positions of Vander Plaats. As I have commented previously, Mr. Dunwell does not represent the people of his district; he represents Governor Reynolds and Bob Vander Plaats. There is little that can be said otherwise; he has been properly paid for and Representative Dunwell knows how to take orders whether spoken or unspoken.

From every aspect, it would appear that Representative Dunwell is not alone. Our legislature truly is not filled with independently minded people — they show no evidence of it. Whatever our governor wants, she gets. Now we all know from civics 101 that our representatives are to represent the people who elect them: Isn’t that what elections are for? When our representatives come home to meet with their constituents, they explain to them why they voted the way they did. They do not ask their constituents what they can do for them; they tell them what they have already done to them in the last legislative session and expect acquiescence. Good old American democracy at work.

Richard E. H. Phelps II

Mingo