Essay: The Choice

It doesn’t matter who the candidates for the US House of Representatives are in your district, or who the candidates for the US Senate are in your state (if one of your seats is up for election this year). It’s very easy to decide who to vote for.

Here’s a handy guide.

• If you approve of the job the US Congress has done for the last four years under Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, you should vote for Democrats for the House and Senate to keep the same leadership in charge. If you disapprove of the job the Reid-Pelosi Congress has done, you should vote for Republicans to give the Congress new leadership.

• If you believe you and the country are better off now than in 2007 when the Democrats took control of the Congress, you should vote for the Democrat candidates. If not, you should vote for the Republican candidates.

• If you support the restructuring of our healthcare system passed this year (called “Healthcare Reform” by the Democrats who voted for it and “ObamaCare” by the Republicans who opposed it) you should vote for the Democrat candidates. If you oppose the new healthcare law, you should vote for Republicans.

• If you support keeping taxes at their present level, you should vote for the Republican candidates. If you support raising taxes to their old levels, before Bush became president, you should vote for the Democrat candidates.

• If you think the record deficits of the past two years under President Obama and the Democrat Congress are a serious problem for the future of the country, you should vote for the Republican candidates. If you think record deficits and massive increases in government spending are a good thing, you should vote for the Democrat candidates.

• If you are among the 47% of Americans who pay no Federal Income Taxes, who are thus benefited by government spending and taxing other citizens more, you should vote for Democrats. If you pay taxes, you should vote for Republicans.

• If you approve of the government bailout and takeover of GM and Chrysler, you should vote for the Democrat candidates. If you think government taking over large sections of the economy is a bad idea, you should vote for the Republican candidates.

• If you think the huge “stimulus” bills have helped the economy, and the deficits are worth it, you should vote for Democrats. If not, you should vote for Republicans.

• If you believe that President Obama is a strong and experienced military leader who can win the war in Afghanistan, stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons and keep the country safe from terrorists, you should vote for Democrats. If you don’t think so, you should vote for Republicans to provide balance in Washington.

• If you think that open borders and unlimited illegal immigration are not a threat to Americans’ culture, standard of living and safety, if you approve of the US government suing Arizona over its immigration law and if you think creating incentives to give citizenship to “illegal immigrants” or “undocumented workers” (take your pick) is a good idea, you should vote for Democrats. If not, you should vote for Republicans.

• If you think that ever-larger government, growing numbers of public employees and large increases in government employees’ pay during a recession are bad for the economy and a danger to liberty, you should vote for Republicans. If you support increasing the size and cost of government every year, you should vote for Democrats.

• If you think we need more regulation on small business, you should vote for Democrats. If you think the increasing burden of regulations on small business is one of the things that are killing job growth, you should vote for Republicans.

• If you think our current economic problems, which started under President Bush and the Democrat-controlled Congress in 2007, are all Bush’s fault, you should vote for Democrats. If you think the policies followed by President Obama and the Democrat congress over the last two years have made the economy worse, you should vote for Republicans.

• If you think parents should be able to chose what school to send their kids to, you should vote Republican. If you think they should go to whatever school the government says, you should vote Democrat.

• If you think America should be more like European high-tax, high welfare countries, you should vote for Democrats. If you think America should be more like it always was, you should vote for Republicans.

• If you are for shutting down international trade through trade barriers and high tariffs, and are willing to accept the damage to the economy to support the unions in certain industries, you should vote for Democrats. If you are aware that free trade always increases economic activity, and that the passage of the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill in 1930 turned a recession with 9% unemployment into a depression by 1932 with 25% unemployment, as international trade collapsed, you should vote for Republicans. (Yes, this question is worded in a more biased manner than the others, as so many people are ignorant of basic economics. See this column by the brilliant economist, Dr. Thomas Sowell, for a fuller explanation of how killing trade kills jobs: http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/politics/taxation/4258-Unhappy-Birthday-Hawley-Smoot.html. Better yet, read his terrific books Basic Economics and Applied Economics.)

• If you thought Republican scandals in 2006 were a good reason to vote Democrat, then you may want to consider the growing list of Democrat scandals since then, including among others Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, William Jefferson Clinton, Eddie Bernice Johnson and Jesse Jackson. Jr. If you think Speaker Pelosi has done a good job of eliminating corruption and “draining the swamp,” as she promised, you should vote for Democrats. If not, you should vote for Republicans.

Of course, you may come down on different sides on different questions. No problem, just put all the “Vote Democrat” reasons on one list and all the “Vote Republican” reasons on another list. Then give each reason a value of three for “highly important,” two for “important” and one for “not important.” Add up the totals and vote for the candidates of the party with the highest score.

Don’t let local considerations or the individual candidates sway you from your course. This is a watershed election. The fundamental transformation of America into something different than it was or was intended to be, promised by President Obama and the Democrats, is well underway, and will likely be irreversible if they continue to hold all power after November. Do you think that’s a good thing, or do you want to keep the America we grew up in? That’s the choice.

Permission to forward, post or publish this piece is granted by the author. Permission to edit it to reflect your own views is not granted—write your own damn essay!


Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts state senate. He has published three books: “CYA: Protecting Yourself in the Modern Jungle,” “Chaos for Breakfast” and “The Good Bits.” He blogs at www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.