Oct 28, 2013 By Jim Caroll 4 min read

Congressman Shuster, once more I find myself needing to respond to one of your guest columns.

I am referring to the one from Sunday, Oct. 20, in the Herald-Standard. At first glance, your letter seemed innocuous enough, but something did not sit well with me. So, as I reread it, it became clear to me that you were once again not acting as someone who represents a mix of constituents but someone trying to advance the Republican agenda.

I was angry with you before but am even more so now. You said with some pride that you voted to “end the dysfunction in Washington,” but my question to you is, why did the shutdown happen in the first place? It was because the tea party had been threatening to hold the economy hostage for months and its members finally got their way.

It’s another example of the tail wagging the dog. I disagree with you that “It took the Democrats two weeks of government shutdown and a run-up to the debt ceiling in order to agree to talk about doing their job.” In fact, it was Republicans who seemed to take pride in creating hardship to the American people. Just look at any of the absurd comments from the brain-dead U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

With an impending shutdown imminent and the default of the U.S. debt just days away, the Republicans thought it was more important to try to stop Obamacare than to deal with the priorities of shutdown and debt default. This is an embarrassment for me and for our country. You said again that Obamacare is bad, but I am still waiting for an answer to the question, “Why is it bad?” Am I supposed to just take your word because I am the typical stupid constituent whom you think you can overwhelm with weak rhetoric and logical fallacy?

You obviously have no interest in the constituents of your district but are solely interested in furthering your own party’s agenda, and I am weary of it and ask that you finally start doing what you were voted in office to do and that is work for betterment of your constituents and not for the betterment of your party.

It may appear that I am hostile to the Republican party, and, at this juncture, I can agree with that. Why? Well, here are a few reasons for you to consider: I used to admire Republicans for their common sense realities and the ideal of personal responsibility. Now to be a Republican, apparently, one must have to ignore facts, think poor people are getting a free ride, fear education and intelligence and think that science is a waste of money.

Now they stand for (and what’s worse, spent valuable time defending these absurdities) “Rape can’t make babies,” “Obama is a Kenyan Muslim socialist,” “Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs,” “Guns don’t kill people,” “Voter fraud is everywhere,” “Death panels live,” “Trickle down works” and the most absurd of all, “Global warming is bunk.”

I cannot write this one without citing U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas, who said of using windmills, “Wind is a finite resource, and harnessing it would slow the winds down which would make the temperature go up.” Are you kidding me? And this moron is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee?

This is the new image of the Republican Party. Are you sure you want to align yourself with that?

There are important issues in our country like the lingering sequester issues, the infrastructure and the budget, to name a few, and it is time for you to take them on and stop the political game playing.

Jim Carroll is a resident of Brownsville.