This Is Our November Imperative

To The Editor:
Fifty-five years ago, as an idealistic freshman in college, I confronted my sociology professor with this question:
“Why is there so much strife and conflict in the world?” To which he replied, “Young man, as you mature and acquire more insight into human nature, you will cease to wonder why there is so much and question instead why there’s so little.”
Over the decades I saw his point. Amazingly, despite all the flaws intrinsic to the human condition we humans have managed to prevail so far over stuff we do to ourselves like wars, threats of nuclear annihilation, abuse to the environment or despots, tyrants and other power types who either seize control or are elected somehow…a real-life performance of Wilder’s play “Skin of Our Teeth.”
How many times have we “shot ourselves in the foot” and stumbled on? That we haven’t flamed out by now is a marvel. Our capacity for mischief is huge. We Americans, face an existential threat from terrorists (foreign and home-grown) and destruction of our way of life. We also see our way of life endangered from a non-violent more subtle (or not so subtle) source. Our own government.
In Washington the party in power with their majorities in Congress and the White House, seem bent on destroying our way of life. Rife with the corrupting influence of power itself and its handmaidens, special interests, they drone on. Chasing an arrogant Progressive agenda, aimed at controlling our lives via entitlements, regulation and tax policy. What the Administration seeks is bad for innovation, investment, freedom of choice and jobs. Those in power seem not to like our country as it is, with our proud achievements, traditions and free enterprise.
Political power is usually exercised in the name of a better life for citizens; purporting to solve the problems people care about. It’s questionable whether the federal government is an effective problem solver or that those who run it truly care about us except as pathways to power.
Abuse of power is tumbling out of control as politicians spin facts to woo our votes. They’re often out of touch with us in the real world outside the Beltway, even deaf to the national sentiment e.g., Obamacare, bailouts, finance regulations, deficits and taxes, open or hidden, avoiding constitutional standards when it suits. They’re spending and borrowing like crazy, while redistributing our incomes through tax laws and social programs. Some of what they have shoved down our throats the past 20 months may take years to reverse, if at all.
November’s election is an opportunity to slow the juggernaut of power running loose in Washington, as they cast new laws and policies most of the people do not want. It’s not that Republicans will make everything right, but they may restore some balance of power in Congress.
The issues are but pieces in a huge chess game. This game needs referees. That’s us, the voters and it’s past time to make the right call. Otherwise the chessboard (which we own) won’t be ours for long.
Dems call the GOP the party of NO. But can you imagine what would happen if there were zero challenges to the party in power? Beware the tyranny of the majority.
Against these heady power games, we have power ourselves. We must use it against the abuses of Washington this Nov. 2 to restore some balance in Congress and tamp-down the White House excesses. This is our November Imperative to start the long process of saving the Republic from damage done by the current regime so far. With more to come, it is time to say “enough.”
BOB LOVELL
Court House