Election Day Letter

A few days ago, my daughter's friend asked me to give her a short  list of reasons why she should vote for Mitt Romney today. I failed on the short part. Here's the text of the letter, I hope it's useful!

Dear Amber,

It’s Election Day, and I couldn’t sleep. How’s that for nerdy? This is like Christmas for me!

First, I’ll apologize for failing the simple task you set for me: Trishie may have mentioned my ability to turn a simple answer to an honest question into a dissertation into the history of honest questions and simple answers; the mind-numbing time-warp where seconds turn into minutes, minutes to hours- would explain why asking me for clear and concise is like asking Justin Bieber to strike out that Panda guy on the Giants.

I tried to choose from all my reasons to cancel Mr. Obama’s contract: Failed stimulus programs, doubled deficit, more debt in 4 years than our first 43 presidents, combined, the ‘Affordable Care Act, increasing yearly healthcare and Health insurance costs by $4600 per person, $672 for families, respectively, 7.9% unemployment –and a deeply divided country along gender, racial and class lines, I believe by design.

So, stumped, I gave up. Then I woke up this morning, with 4 words on my mind:

“You didn’t build that.”

In a campaign speech, the president gave his understanding of our country. His point: Were it not for the roads , infrastructure and public services we all use- business would not be possible: “Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

The fundamental split between Conservatives and Liberals, lies in the answer to the question: Where does wealth originate, and who makes the best decisions on its use?

Liberal ideology to which Obama subscribes says wealth comes from the federal government, which is also best equipped to make the big (and small) decisions on how wealth is spent. We’ve seen the results, and they’re not pretty: Stimulus spending costing possibly over $4 million per job. An ‘Affordable Healthcare Act’ which has accomplished the opposite of the law’s own title. Skyrocketing energy costs, rippling through the rest of our economy, from groceries to computers to furniture.

Contrast the authoritarian nature of the above, with this: The Republican-sponsored GI bill, which resulted in the best educated country in the world, and made us an economic superpower. Reagan’s Historically Black Colleges Executive order, providing funding to increase university opportunities for Black students, and The No Child Left Behind Act, designed to eliminate the achievement gap between minority and White students.

See the difference? Government control vs. opportunity.

Conservatives such as Mitt Romney believe that wealth is created by people, free to make their own informed decisions – not government. The fundamental function of government is to do only those things that we cannot do for ourselves, and are necessary for our common safety and equal opportunity.

Our Constitution was designed specifically to limit the power of the government. That’s why, after the blueprints are laid out – the first 10 amendments -are The Bill Of Rights. Driving that point home, is the 10^th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

I hope you have the chance to take a look at this before you head to the polls, Amber – if this was useful to you, that makes me happy, no matter which decision you make. The important thing is to vote!

Trishie’s Dad

P.S. If you this is a long-winded letter, you should see the rough draft! I promised to keep it under 1 page.