I’m appalled that Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have voted for the pharmaceutical companies and against their constituents. If both parties take money from special interests, then you get the kind of apathy that lets a bomb like Trump take office.

Other laws have been enacted federally and locally. It’s illegal for Medicare to collectively bargain drug prices like the VA does. States are unable to pass GMO labeling laws (Congress called an emergency session to ram that through before they recessed, but made us wait till they got back to deal with the Zika virus). States cannot stop fracking.

It’s illegal to take pictures of factory farms. We are forced to fluoridate our water systems. It’s illegal to ban GMOs. In some localities, it’s illegal to collect rain water.

Oh, and they quietly passed a new ethics tweak that makes all records of their personal property off limits. I think there should be a law that all bills passed in the dead of night should see the light of day and full press coverage.

The Democrats need to stand for something again. We were the ones that gave this country clean air and water regulation, workplace safety standards, and a minimum wage. Social Security and Medicare was placed into effect after it was realized that the elderly were dying because of lack of food and medicine. Thank you, Democrats.

Did I mention unemployment insurance, child labor laws, Education, and the Veterans Administration? These social safety nets effect all of us indirectly.

My family is comfortable, thanks largely to livable-wage union jobs. But without those safeguards in place, my mother and sisters would not be able to keep above water. My situation would have rapidly disintegrated providing for all of them as well.

Hallette Salazar

Kingston