Letter to my conservative friends and relatives

Dear friends and relatives,

I hope this crazy election season finds you in good spirits and able to still laugh and smile with people of every political persuasion. I must confess that I am feeling very grave concerns about this election, which are hampering my natural tendency toward light-heartedness. Because my fears for our wonderful nation are so great, I am feeling compelled to share them in the most urgent terms with everyone that I can.

While I have some conservative values, on the whole I am fairly liberal in my political outlook. Having said that, I do strongly believe that a healthy government needs a mixture of conservative and liberal voices within it in order to govern with balance, and our two party system can potentially provide a mechanism for that. I think that it is natural for anyone to want to believe the best about their elected officials who represent the ideology with which they feel most closely aligned. When a bad apple does show up, it is typically going to be the opposition party who sees that clearly first. This goes both ways.

In the current election I have never been more certain in my life that the Bush administration has gotten way off track and represents a very real threat to the fabric of our democracy. I know that may sound overwrought, and you may believe I’ve been hoodwinked by the talking points of Democratic partisans, but before you rush to that conclusion please refer to the enclosures with this letter. There is the very eloquent endorsement of John Kerry by John Eisenhower, son of the late President Eisenhower, and a lifelong Republican. There is the analysis of the Bush team’s handling of the Middle East by foreign affairs correspondent, Thomas Friedman. Consider that on the eve of invading Iraq, in spite of his trepidation about it, Friedman was hopeful that the bold move would be well handled and bring a true positive change to the region. Finally I am enclosing a graphic based on data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which clearly demonstrates that there is no basis for believing that fiscal responsibility is the purview of the Republican party.

Many who may be troubled by some of Bush’s policies, take solace from the apparent deep religious convictions that he holds. I cannot claim to know what is in George W. Bush’s heart. I can observe the policies of his administration, and what both Bush and his spokespeople have had to say in their defense. What troubles me most deeply is the level of deception which has been used in those statements. Deceit is certainly not one of the Christian values which I learned growing up in Sunday school in Georgia. Now I recognize that some deception comes with the territory of American politics, and that there is plenty of it to go around in both parties. But let me point out just two examples, which I find simply unconscionable.

The first was the suggestion which was made repeatedly that Saddam was somehow linked to the planning of the September 11 attacks. Whatever one believes to be the case about the intelligence suggesting that Iraq was harboring WMD, no reputable analysts from either party truly believed that Saddam played a role in planning the attack. People in the administration knew that Saddam was despised as a secular infidel by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Nurturing a public perception that one knows to be false, as a means of garnering support for a military action which will cost many lives, is just not forgivable in my view.

The other was when the bill including the prescription drug benefit was on the table, and headed for a tough fight in Congress. Richard Foster, chief actuary for the Medicare program, had new estimates that the bill would be $150 billion more costly than the previous estimate, and later revealed he was threatened with firing if he revealed that before the vote. Two months after the vote the higher cost of the bill was revealed.

I do not relish being so negative about our leadership here on the eve of our election, but I love my country and feel it is my patriotic duty to call it as I see it. John Kerry may not be your cup of tea, but I believe the Republican party will be well served to lose this time around. A Bush loss will cause more reasonable voices can rise to the fore within the Republican party, and we can return to a healthy balance with many perspectives and ideologies represented in our government. Rest assured that conservative values will continue to be represented in Washington, D.C., even if Kerry wins and Democrats regain a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. John Kerry understands that it would be unwise to govern without the moderation demanded by the closely split electorate we have seen over the last several elections.

I continue to have great hope for the future of this great nation and the world in which my child will grow up. However you decide to vote in this election, please understand the earnestness with which I believe a change of leadership is a necessary step in healing the wounds of partisanship, which are so apparent today. I am not going to give up on our country if Bush wins this election, but I do feel I owe it to myself, and to future generations to do what I can to set a new course. Thank you for considering my earnest plea!

Sincerely yours,
Walker

The foregoing is pasted from a letter I actually wrote today, but haven't yet sent, to a relative back in my home state of Georgia. Now given that most of my relatives are in Georgia, a state Kerry doesn't really need, I need to judge whether the letter will do more to upset than to sway. There's no point in upsetting 'Aunt Hilda' in her last days, or wasting the effort on 'Uncle Milton' who I know would only roll his eyes in mockery. If my conservative friends and relatives were in swing states, that would move the bar toward sending it. But like the protagonist of Alice's Restaurant, I just gotta wonder: suppose every reasonable conservative in the country received one or two such heartfelt letters from friends or relatives they don't ordinarily talk politics with? Even if it didn't sway the election, it might change the way we relate to each other. And that ain't all bad.