Mimi Walters: An Appeal To Grace & Decency

“Tell me why the ones who have so much make the ones who don’t go mad…” — Drive By Truckers, ‘Where the Devil Won’t Stay’

Facebook Memories reminds me every day that my wife and I were, in the first years of Barrack Obama’s presidency, scraping to get by. We had more debt than income and received more calls from creditors than recruiters. We lived in a small apartment in Lake Forest and ate everything out of the microwave.

We didn’t come from Orange County. We didn’t have means. We moved here from lesser zip codes, but we chose Orange County because it was the dream. Expansive beaches. Great parks. Clean air and water. What more can you ask for?

For six years we saved and sacrificed until we could afford a home. Not here. It was too expensive. We purchased a home in Corona and spent years flipping a house that would afford us purchase into what we believe is one of the best districts in Southern California. The 45th. Mimi Walters’ district.

The first night in our house felt like a burden of fear had been lifted. Charlie would have access to school programs we could never have imagined in our last home. He would have consistent therapists. He would have activities that could broaden his opportunities to find skills, like swimming and hiking. Finally, we had a future as a family. It was a blessing.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve lived in some less desirable parts of the country that I believed that anyone fortunate to have “million dollar parks” and houses the size of mansions would be filled with the kind of grateful Christian grace that would encourage them to pursue service of their fellow man and use every decision as an opportunity to help people have the same advantages they’ve had.

I wanted to believe this was the case with Mimi. I see the pictures she posts online of her travels, always smiling in her meetings with famous and interesting people, and certainly proud when she’s attending events that few of us could get into. I see pictures she posts of her beautiful family. She has four children who appear able bodied and healthy (they don’t look like they might need assistance using the bathroom the rest of their lives like my son).

And I know from the numerous posts in the Indivisible threads that she has vast means and lives a lifestyle most Americans would describe as comfortable. If there is a burden she has suffered under Obamacare (or Obama anything) I can’t figure out what it is.

What makes a person who has been blessed with so much committed to making those with less suffer? There are thousands in her district who would stand to lose under the actions of her vote for the ACHA, and to treat them as though they were lepers for the purpose of party-line spite is an extension of disconnected privilege so cruel, so zealous, and so mean-spirited it borders on villainy.

The ACHA is not a bill intended to fix anything. It’s a bill without purpose or substance, and achieves no fiscal benefit. The CBO score has proven that. The radical House Freedom Caucus has managed to further eliminate provisions which cover prescription drugs, autism, mental health, and numerous other primary health services. This bill is simply cultural revenge, a kind of Sherman’s March intended to suffer the liberals who have supported it, and treat the millions tossed off their insurance plans as human collateral.

I want Mimi Walters to know one thing. If her intention, and the intention of her party, is to break this liberal’s heart because we dared to extend the blessings we had to others then congratulations. I can assure you that my wife and I have had many sleepless nights as we agonize over how we’ll provide care for our son should you vote to eliminate it, be it moving out of state or out of country. If my humility provides you the satisfaction of feeling like you’ve scratched that itch then so be it.

But I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that the moment you vote “Yea” our fates are going to most definitely be aligned going forward. This vote is an irreversible allegiance to a presidency that does not appear to have a happy ending in sight and a populace who is not going to go quietly. Likewise, the path you choose will hold pain as intense for you as it will for any of us, and if you decide to play the devil, then upon our might we will most certainly show you the way to hell.