Open Letter from Tom Barksdale to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) and staffers Rob & Ashley Adkerson, Nick Petromelis, and Ashleigh Padgett:
I am writing to express my opinion that you have betrayed your country no less than Benedict Arnold. A week or so ago, when I first started mentally drafting this letter, I had rejected that statement as maybe too harsh. Headlines of the last few days disabused me of any such concern. Below are four examples. Click here for a fuller version.
Let me introduce myself. I am a native Georgian, a graduate of the University of Georgia. I joined the U.S Army in 1967 (was not drafted), and I am a Vietnam combat veteran. I spent my career in Washington, D.C. as an employee of an agency involved in national security matters. I moved back to Georgia after my retirement in 2003.
Let me set the tone for this message with a few statements.
All the above, of course, are Republican Presidents or presidential candidates. I differed with them on policy issues, sometimes sharply. But I never questioned their innate integrity, honesty, and morality. I never doubted their basic intention was to serve the interests of the citizens of the United States. I never thought that their policies were intended to serve only their own selfish or partisan interests, or stemmed from deep character flaws, narcissism, and raging immorality. I never thought that electing them president would pose a clear and present danger to the survival of American democracy under the rule of law. I never assumed that their presidency would operate more like a Mafia family.
I also admire the personal attributes of Ronald Reagan. I can’t put him quite in the same position as those other Republicans, because some of his policies, in my opinion, crossed the boundary of the acceptable. But, as with the others, I did not question his innate integrity, honesty, love of his country and respect for its basic democratic values. In my opinion, Donald Trump is to Ronald Reagan what Judas Iscariot was to Jesus Christ.
I read and heed the writings of columnist George Will, one of the few true conservatives still around. Will, of course, left the Republican Party in 2016, when it became evident that Trump would be its presidential candidate. Will’s act is one key reason I have never had second thoughts about my loathing for Donald Trump. And, of course, it shines a revealing light on those Republicans who are either Trump’s True Believers or simpering cowards too afraid to publicly differ with him.
I wanted to put the above on the record before stating my purpose for writing. Earlier this month, I mailed a letter to Rep. Loudermilk stating some facts about the damage Americans would suffer from the indiscriminate, wholesale cutbacks in federal agencies being carried out by the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, with little or no legal authority. (I sent a copy to Loudermilk’s local office in Woodstock). I specifically discussed the impact on several key agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and one of its sub-agencies, the Centers for Disease Control. I asked Rep. Loudermilk and his staffers for comments. I have received no response.
I say to Barry Loudermilk, Rob & Ashley Adkerson, Nick Petromelis, and Ashleigh Padget: with the Republican assault on the agencies protecting our health and lives, you have crossed the Rubicon and become eager participants in actions that pose a clear and present danger to my health and to my life. As Trump’s puppets, you have lost all credibility as you play sick games with the lives of your constituents—and all Americans.
My original letter provides details, and David Wallace-Wells does better in the New York Times, under the headline “The Entire Future of American Public Health Is at Risk.” Key points:
Trump and Musk have gutted the Centers for Disease Control, our principal agency for limiting the impact of epidemics and doing the research to prevent future outbreaks. Administration officials have informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce. Republicans have offered not one iota of scientific data to support their weakening of our health agencies.
In sum, Trump’s slash-and-burn government rampage has eviscerated the United States defenses against virulent epidemics and will have lasting effects on global health. See The Diseases Are Coming https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/diseases-doge-trump/681964/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-atlantic-am&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20AM
The bottom line, Congressman Loudermilk, Rob, Ashley, Nick, and Ashleigh: I have watched over the past 10 years as you have joined Donald Trump in showing flagrant contempt for:
I have watched as you embraced and endorsed:
And now, by supporting Trump’s evisceration of U.S. public health institutions, you exhibit wanton disregard for human life, mine included. I am done trying to understand you. I do not know where you are coming from. I have traveled extensively, served with honorable young men in the United States Army, had a 30-year career in a large Washington bureaucracy. I have never before dealt with people like you who seem to lack any moral conscience. People who constantly tell lies, hurl insults at other human beings and inflict pain and suffering on them—without one iota of remorse or regret.
I also note, Congressman Loudermilk, Rob, Ashley, Nick, and Ashleigh: Your indifference to the global suffering stemming from the demise of USAID plays mightily in my harsh judgment of you. Here is one example out of many: “An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment.” I have not seen a single comment by Rep. Loudermilk on the human tragedy unfolding in the wake of USAID’s demise. I am revolted to the core of my being that someone indifferent to all this is my U.S. Congressman.
You do not claim to be Christians, do you? That would add a massive dose of hypocrisy to your sins.