Senator Shelby's response to open letter

A staff member at Senator Shelby's office in Washington DC called me and made a telephonic response to me to the  "open letter" to the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington that I had transmitted to Senator Shelby via his U.S. Senate website contact form, as described in the entry  Open letter to Alabama delegation in Washington.

This entry describes the telephonic response of Senator Shelby's office.

To do this calls for quoting what my "open letter" asked.  My "open letter" said:

My campaign platform is that I think that, in Washington DC, there is NOT government of the people by the people, and for the people. I further think that the causes of that condition are also causes of Congress being dysfunctional and not being able to do its job properly for the American people.  I think this should have primacy and urgency for the American people, because, until these conditions are corrected, there will continue to be great failures to act by Congress and/or great errors in actions that are taken by Congress. A fuller statement of my platform can be found here.
I am doing my best to instigate debate about my platform among the 6th Congressional district candidates.
The alleged conditions that form the basis of my platform, if they exist, affect voters everywhere in the country, and not just in the 6th Congressional district. 
Also, as I discuss in the above linked statement of my platform, incumbent lawmakers who have Washington experience are the most knowledgeable about critical matters that are the basis of my platform.
I do not want to waste the time of the other 6th district candidates and of voters in the district if my platform does not have substantial validity in fact.
If the collective wisdom of the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington is that my platform does not have substantial validity in fact, and that voters in the 6th Congressional district need not have significant concern about what I am trying to put forth in my platform, being advised about that could be  helpful for the conduct of the election campaign in the 6th district by myself and the other candidates.
Accordingly, your views about my platform are respectfully solicited for consideration by the 6th district candidates (including myself) and voters.

The staff member from Senator Shelby's office said that Senator Shelby did not (or could not) endorse candidates, that Senator Shelby believed in following and upholding the Constitution, and that Senator Shelby always voted for what was best for Alabama. From the telephonic response I got, I could not discern whether Senator Shelby thought there was or was not substantial validity to foregoing contentions my platform makes or whether he thought the candidates and voters in the 6th Congressional district should or should not spend time debating my contentions.  In the conversation, I basically read the first four paragraphs quoted above, including incumbent lawmakers having superior knowledge about critical matters that are the basis of my platform.  The staff member did not refer to the matter of Senator Shelby having (or not having) superior knowledge.

[To follow up on Senator Shelby's above response, I have sent the below email to the other 6th Congressional district candidates.]

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 9:02 AM
Subject: Senator Shelby's response to open letter
To: campaign@pauldemarco.org, campaign@drmathisforcongress.com, will@votewillforcongress.com, garyp <garyp@alabamapolicy.org>, tomv@tomisforyou.com
Cc: "Mountz, John" <JohnMountz@clearchannel.com>

Dear Fellow 6th Congressional District Candidates (except Scott Beason, who has not provided me an email address):

Senator Shelby's Washington office called me and provided me a telelphonic response to my "open letter" to the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington. I have memorialized Senator Shelby's response in this blog entry Senator Shelby's response to open letter.

Senator Shelby's response to the open letter, it seems to me, provides no help in deciding whether my campaign platform has substantial validity for 6th district voters and whether debate about my campaign platform should or should not be considered important by the candidates and voters in the 6th district.

It remains to be seen whether Senator Sessions or Representative Bachus will respond and help the 6th district candidates and voters in trying to decide whether my campaign platform is important to debate.

Our lawmakers in Washington have the greatest knowledge and understanding about how the political system and Congress work in Washington, but if they are not forthcoming, the 6th district candidates and voters will need to try to understand and decide on their own, as best they can.

I am continuing to develop in my blog my diagnosis and explication of why there is not government "of, by and for" the people in Washington and why Congress is dysfunctional and unable to do its job properly for the American people.

I continue to urge that this should have primacy, because, until these conditions are improved, a dsyfunctional Congress will continue impaired and unable to act on good ideas for addressing the country's pressing problems. The country does not lack for good ideas, including good ideas that some of you began to present at the two candidate events that have taken place thus far. The problem is not lack of ideas, but rather a dysfunctional Congress.

"Dysfunctionality" of Congress is not a brand new thing. Congress has been failing to do its job properly for the American people for more than a decade, and the failure is getting worse. In the vernacular, "cans" have been "kicked down the road" too long (i.e., Congress has failed to do its job properly to proactively manage pressing problems confronting the country), and there comes a point of abrupt and shocking externally driven developments (e.g., the rest of the world becoming unwilling to buy U.S. debt except at sky high interest rates, and the Federal budget becoming an ultimate nightmare), that largely dictate "solutions," and "management" of the problems is no longer in the hands of Congress.

I continue to press the 6th district candidates to react to my campaign platform. Thus far, there seems to be only silence on your part. If I am overlooking something in your campaign that I can put on my blog as your view or position, please let me know.

I have been strenuously exerting myself to publicize my platform to 6th district voters and will continue to do so. I hope you will express yourself at some point for the benefit of the voters.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck