This letter was submitted to LebTown. Read LebTown’s submission policy here.
Dear Rep. Meuser,
At 12:00 noon on Monday, March 24, a group of about 60 of your constituents gathered in front of the Lebanon County courthouse to protest your ignoring of our request for an in-person meeting or a town hall-style meeting, so that we your constituents might express to you our concerns about your actions as our congressional representative.
Asked to comment, your office put out a statement filled with lies. It called our locally organized protest “yet another example of a national, left-wing organization attempting to spread falsehoods and create disruption rather than engage in constructive dialogue. These protests, backed by outside interests like the ‘Indivisible’ movement and financially supported by George Soros, are not about voicing genuine local concerns, but rather about advancing a partisan agenda.”
Rep. Meuser, this is a flat-out lie. We are local people mobilized by local networks. We have received no outside support from any person or organization, financial or otherwise. We connected by virtue of our families and friends and neighbors and co-workers who talk to each other and share the same deep concerns about your enabling of what we and many legal experts consider to be the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).
As Katie Knol’s March 25 story in LebTown and Matthew Toth’s March 25 story in the Lebanon Daily News reported, my immediate response in the context of Monday’s protest was to laugh at the absurdity of the allegation. Paid by George Soros? You’ve got to be kidding.
But on reflection, it’s no laughing matter. Instead it’s a calculated and timeworn strategy to smear, discredit, delegitimize, and demonize by association – part of a longer pattern in US history going back more than a century to the red-baiting and Red Scares against “communists” post-WWI and WWII.
Fact is, our group of local protesters is non-partisan and includes members of both political parties. Republicans were among our speakers at Monday’s protest. So were Democrats and independents. We are not partisans. We are not paid. Instead, we are a local group of American patriots and your constituents who are deeply concerned about your wholesale embrace of the actions of the Trump-Musk regime.
What brings us together is our insistence on keeping our beloved nation to its foundational promises of a constitutional democratic republic marked by equality under the law, equal justice for all, and the rule of law. In Lincoln’s words, a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Rep. Meuser, the statement issued by your office was a baldfaced lie. It was offensive and wrong and we, your constituents, ask for and deserve an apology and a retraction.
On behalf of our group of your constituents, I also once again cordially invite you to an in-person town hall here in Lebanon County or anywhere else in your district. Radio host Laura LeBeau at WLBR AM 1270 has promised to cover the event live. Or, a smaller delegation of us can meet with you in Washington. Meeting with groups of your constituents is an important part of your job. So too is adhering to your oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Rep. Meuser: Do your job. Protect and defend the Constitution. Meet with us. And stop lying about us.
Respectfully,
Michael Schroeder
South Annville Township
Lebanon County, PA
Michael Schroeder is Professor Emeritus of History at Lebanon Valley College.
