As a congressman, Cliff Bentz has one important task above all others. It’s his job to say “yes” or “no.” And he says them on your behalf.

He decides, as representative of this district, whether it is in service to his constituents to pay for war, as an example. He is one of 435 people in the House of Representatives entrusted with the awesome power to say “Americans want this war, and we will pay for it.”

The president doesn’t have that power. The courts do not have that power. Cliff Bentz has that power. Our legislature has that power. In America, this arrangement is amongst our most sacred laws. 

This is the separation of powers, which creates an open channel from the least among us to the highest echelons of government. It is the very essence of representative democracy. If you voted for Bentz, you voted for him to participate in this process — and to do so in good faith, with fair judgement.

Instead, what we have in Bentz as our representative is worse than a benchwarmer. Worse than a lapdog. Worse than yes-man. His deafening silence and pathological detachment from the role he inhabits indicates he is among the worst kind of representatives that Americans are ever made to suffer: a coward.

Nothing fancy. Nothing dressed up or packaged neatly. Just a coward. Which is why you will not receive another boilerplate email from him decrying the violation of our constitution. You will not hear him on the radio waxing on about abuse of power or lack of transparency. You will not see him on TV taking a stand for his job — or his responsibilities toward you.

Americans are already dying in this unexplained, unprovoked, and unconstitutional war. This, the war our president campaigned on never starting. The war he routinely accused political rivals of conspiring to use themselves to maintain power. The war he said would be the result of bad negotiating. Of poor business acumen.

This is his war. This is Cliff Bentz’s war. This is our war, tacitly endorsed and paid for in part by the second district — including the fine people of Medford.

The hate that this war is engendering across the world right now will last for years to come. But we are not made safer by a congressman who chooses not say anything. Complicity is a crime you can commit even while you stand still and without making a sound.

Bentz has given you what you wanted. He is your voice — the one you chose. And you chose silence. You chose a grown man to submit to  every whim of a mad king. To show his belly at every opportunity. 

Medford owns this war. Like every tax-paying, ballot-casting inch of this country does. And the angry world will not exempt us from their rage because we chose a weak leader to do weak things. Because we did not condition our choice of representation on something more than a pathetic fealty to MAGA.

Medford chose this. Each new horrific consequence of the war with Iran is an advertisement for our decision-making as a city — and as a congressional district. What we have done cannot be undone. We will be lucky if it can be stopped. But I promise you, THAT will not happen while Bentz still has his seat — or your wasted vote.





Bentz Gives Medford the War It Voted For