So, it is almost over, thankfully. Election years can be trying times for friendships and families. Often, by the first week in November partners are sleeping in separate bedrooms or only feigning interest in the other’s opinions so as not to cause another battle. I used to know a wife who told her husband she was voting Republican almost every year just to keep him quiet, and then in the booth she almost always chose the Democrat. I always found that amusing.

    Everyone here knows my opinions, too well by now. I need you all to know that I am only so passionate because I truly believe that real good or real harm can come from who we choose to lead. I always thought George W. Bush was a great guy, but he was a terrible leader, who made terrifying decisions and assumptions that are going to haunt our country and economy for a generation, if not more.

    I am a liberal yes, but mainly because I put a higher premium on social issues than I do on my tax burden. And I believe that the idea of rugged individualism was an idea more appropriate to the age of the cowboy than the age of the internet. I believe we are going to go morally bankrupt as a country if we continue to allow our daughters to be treated less equally than our sons, or if we continue to argue that who someone else marries or sleeps with has any real impact on our own lives or society, or if we begin to assert that our own faith must take precedence over another person’s, or if we continue to ignore the glaring injustice and giant cancer of racism that continues to hold us in it’s thrall. If we as a nation decide that we want to truly move forward together, as Americans, then we need to realize that we are going to have to invest in ourselves a lot more. We need healthy, educated citizens who are capable of going into the world really ready to compete on a global scale. To stay the most powerful and free nation on Earth we are going to have to throw aside some old notions or we will fail. We can do that by providing a more level playing field where access to education and healthcare are assumed. We can do that by bringing everyone fully into the American circle: Women, gay, lesbian and transgender persons, all races and all creeds, fully in. Some of our greatest moments as a nation have been almost forced upon us by tragedy in recent decades and I think that is pathetic. After 9/11 we were all Americans: race and economic status were erased for just a moment, and we were the better nation for it.

I believe that today’s Republican Party has been highjacked and they frighten me more and more as each election cycle progresses. Ronald Reagen and George H.W. Bush used to piss me off a lot, but I was never frightened of them or their ideas. Whether we can force them back into the mainstream through continual electoral defeat remains the hope of many.

   So yes, I care about society and I care about you. I want you to keep your guns, your church, and your values, but I challenge you to rise up and see the fact that you can have all of those things and allow others their space too. The ideas that this is all about money and taxes is also abhorrent to me. Those who care more about a 1% increase to their tax burden than whether the kids in their neighborhood get a good education flummoxes me, truly. You do know those kids are going to grow up right? And that if they are not educated they are more likely to stay where they are, less likely to be employed, and more likely in engage in behaviors most people do not want in their neighborhoods? You do get that right? I find it rally hard to care about five or ten percent if that means I get clean streets, educated children ready to compete in the coming decades, police and fire protection, an effective and stable political system, etc.

    People seem to believe that a ten percent income tax cut is somehow going to make them ten percent happier. Yeah, probably not. What it IS going get you are fewer police officers, more pot holes, longer lines at the post office and continually high enforcement of other revenue raising activities like speed and parking citations. There is absolutely no positive correlation between a high level of happiness and a low tax burden, in fact the opposite is true. In survey after survey the most happy people are on Earth are also the most highly taxed. Why? Because they know that they can go to work, work hard, and not worry about whether their kids will get the best education or if their mother gets sick whether she has insurance. Removing burdens and worries like that frees people up to actually pursue happiness.

    For all of these reasons and more I will be voting tomorrow for Barack Obama as President of the United States. I pray you will join me.

    I know why I am supporting my candidate. I hope you know why you are supporting yours.

PEACE!

Robert Sandy

November 2012