Where Have You Gone, Ciscomani? Our District Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You

With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel, this parody can be applied amid a rapidly growing crisis in the life of our Republic. After 200 days, it should be clear to even the most ignorant of my fellow citizens that the crisis is deepening due to the actions of the President and his enablers in the executive branch.

We also have a Legislative Branch controlled by the thinnest margin by his serf-like followers in Congress. We are watched over by a Judicial Branch deeply divided between conservative enablers and protectors of the constitutional order.

Trump is damaging our national reputation

Speaking as an aging ex-bureaucrat and one-time Republican, it is apparent the Trump machine is proceeding on a variety of fronts with:

• Disabling important federal government services.
• Conducting international affairs away from strengthening our allies and cutting aid to nations and people far less fortunate.
• Failing to maintain a defense establishment capable of protecting our interests and our nation from countries and non-state actors who do not wish us well.

Oh, and not the least, Trump is damaging our national reputation to the point that our one-time friends across the world do not trust our word, and will not cooperate with us by sharing information or intelligence data.

As a sign of the broadening of this crisis is the overt attempt by the President and his sycophants to prevent a loss of their close margin of seats in the House by extraordinary mid-decade redistricting of House seats to create more seats favorable to Republican voters and less favorable to Democrats.

This effort started in Texas but is rapidly spreading to other Republican-led states. This is happening because Trump and his henchmen can see the growing likelihood that their continuing efforts to dismantle the Federal Republic will be thwarted if Congress regains life under Democratic leadership in 2026.

Ciscomani must halt the rush to authoritarian government

In the meantime, it may be possible to slow down the headlong rush to authoritarian government if several Republican incumbents from districts like Tucson’s Congressional District 6 agreed to work with the Democratic near-majority on efforts to block the President’s attacks on the Constitution (read your oath of office, for God’s sake!)

Rep. Ciscomani has not held a public forum or town hall with constituents since taking office in 2023, despite numerous calls from his constituents.

Meanwhile, he has voted for $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, defunding Planned Parenthood, and attacking LGBTQ rights.

Ciscomani voted to kick 10 million people off Medicaid, voted for $75 billion in additional funding for the ICE secret police, and exploded the national debt to $3.08 trillion. He voted for less clean energy, more pollution, job loss, and tax cuts for billionaires. 

He deserves to be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail.