In response to Terry Downs’s Letter to the Editor (see after the jump):
To the Editor:
Terry Downs’ letter to the Laconia Daily Sun on October 12 mostly seems right, but his conclusion is baffling. Most Americans probably share the three key values he identifies, personal freedom, equitable tax code with no one getting a “free ride at the expense of others”, and reasonable and prudent personal and government expenditures. Add “rule of law” and strict interpretation of the US Constitution and you would have the major planks in a Tea Party Platform, if there were one.
However, Downs’ conclusion that therefore people should vote for democrats is ludicrous. Contrary to their promises and claims, the evidence of their actions shows that progressives (people learned what liberals stand for, so liberals now want to be called “progressives”) such as Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Steny Hoyer, Harry Reid and their followers like Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes prioritize these values, if they share them at all, way below their progressive big government agenda.
Some examples showing that progressives do NOT cherish personal freedoms follow. Both Shea-Porter and Hodes supported the Cap and Trade bill that will not only increase your energy costs, it will, despite the wishes of both buyer and seller, restrict the ability to sell your house unless it meets new bureaucrat established environmental standards. Also, both Shea-Porter and Hodes are co-sponsors of the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check) which allows a workplace to be unionized without a secret vote by the workers. These stomp on personal freedom.
Remember the promises that Americans can keep their health insurance under Obamacare supported by Shea-Porter and Hodes? About 7 million …
…people will lose their Medicare Advantage coverage. Obamacare is causing many companies to drop employee health insurance coverage and others are getting one year waivers from complying with the Obamacare so that millions more employees won’t lose their health insurance just before the election. Some insurance companies are being driven out of the business which reduces consumer choices.
Progressives made it illegal to sell cheap, reliable, safe, and often American made incandescent light bulbs. Compact florescent alternatives (foreign made) are expensive, don’t work well in some applications, and contain mercury, a known carcinogen. Progressives make parents choose darkness or the risk of poisoning their children with mercury. How’s that for personal freedom!
Cars are becoming smaller and lighter to meet increased mileage requirements set by progressives. Did they tell you that government statistics indicate each mpg increase results in approximately 7000 more highway deaths because cars are lighter and structurally weaker? Some freedom! (Of course the rich can afford larger, heavier, and safer cars.)
Are you familiar with the (misnamed) “Fairness Doctrine“, “Net Neutrality”, and college speech codes promoted by progressives? All are attempts to limit the free speech of people who disagree with progressives, to prevent people from pointing out progressives’ voting records and the consequences of progressive policies.
It is also the progressives that want to limit the ability of law abiding citizens to own guns. Is it a co-incidence that progressives want to let felons vote?
Since President Obama smokes, progressives have postponed their attacks on smokers. Now they want to control what Americans can eat. So much for progressives love of personal freedom!
Second. There is little evidence that progressives agree that there should be “shared and equitable responsibility when it comes to taxes.” And, that “We don’t want anyone given a free ride at the expense of the others….” Americans don’t want people who can’t take care of themselves to suffer, but able bodied people should take care of themselves. However, progressive politicians try to buy votes by transferring the wealth of hard working productive Americans to others. This, along with excessive regulations, are major reasons why our economy is not recovering and creating jobs.
Third, most Americans do want “reasonable and prudent expenditures at all levels, from our personal budgets to town budgets to the Federal budget.” They are disgusted when they see the ways politicians dish out people’s hard earned money to political supporters, wasted on unnecessary projects and bailouts of irresponsible people and businesses. Voters recognized that republicans under Bush spent too much money and voted them out because democrats promised more responsible spending.
But progressives increased wasteful spending once they were in control. President Obama’s deficit is four to five times Bush’s worst deficit, and it continues at about that level every year for ten years. It is not “reasonable and prudent” to borrow $3 billion every day to match spending, to create a system where government jobs increase when private jobs decrease, or to create a system where Federal employees average income including benefits is twice that of the average private employee. This deficit spending will lead us to bankruptcy or hyper-inflation.
Terry Downs has accurately described three nearly universal American values. When the republicans ignored some of these values, they were rightly thrown out of office. Now incumbent progressives such as Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes have demonstrated that they do not support any of these values, and they must be thrown out of office too.
We, the people, must keep throwing politicians out of office until they legislate and govern consistent with the values of the American people.
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From the Laconia Daily Sun, Oct 12, 2010, P7
To the editor,
There are those in our society who are trying to divide us and cause us to dislike one another. They would have us believe that we have irreconcilable differences with nothing in common. But this is not true. We all share three values. We all rest upon the same three values. We see them in our personal lives, in town meetings and at larger governmental policy levels, both state and national.
These three common values are:
1. We believe in personal freedom. It may vary from person to person, but the premise, the first leg of the stool, is the same. Freedom to conduct our personal lives without interference, providing we don’t harm others is a shared value;
2. We believe in a shared and equitable responsibility when it comes to taxes. We don’t want anyone given a free ride at the expense of others, whether it be the very rich or those who struggle to make a living. This extends from our local real estate taxes to the federal income tax. We all want fairness in tax responsibility. This is the second leg of the stool;
3. We all want reasonable and prudent expenditures at all levels, from our personal budgets to town budgets to the federal budget. All we all ask is spend money wisely. That may differ once again from one person’s interpretation to another but the premise is the same, wise spending. This is the third leg.
Now, ask yourself, who is it that is deliberately trying to divide us and why? What do they stand to gain? And at whose expense will they gain it? They are very skillful at manipulating emotions. This can cause poor judgment in the voting booth in November. I urge you to vote for the candidates that will help the entire society, not just the wealthy few. Vote for Hodes, Kuster, Shea-Porter and the rest of the Democrats. This is the same Three Legged Stool we all rest upon….together.
Terry Downs
Rumney
