Things that concern me about the upcoming election:
1. Why are many of our elected members of Congress signing a pledge to an unelected person? That person is Grover Norquist, an ultra conservative activist and lobbyist, who according to 60 Minutes, now has 279 members of Congress as well as Mitt Romney, beholden to him by signing his pledge to not, under any circumstance, vote on any measure that would raise taxes. The thing I find objectionable about this is that it takes away the means of compromise which is something we must have in order to avoid partisan gridlock in government.
2. Obstructionism. The GOP has stood in the way of most everything the Democrats have attempted to enact regardless of how it might benefit the economy. They have done this in a concentrated effort to slow progress down in order that they might regain control of the White House and Congress in 2012. Playing politics is one thing, but not when Congress should have put differences aside and concentrated on fixing what ails the country. Needless to say, most of what is wrong is a result of eight years of George W. Bush’s policies.
3. The GOP has criticized and vilified Obama from day one. There has been an unending assault on his citizenship, his religion and his race. For crying out loud, the man is the President of the United States!
4. Romney and jobs: Mr. Romney keeps telling us that government does not create jobs, but says if we elect him he will create millions of new jobs… how does that work exactly… am I missing something here?
5. Ravalli County Commissioners: why are our county commissioners still playing “footsie” with the American Stewards of Liberty, a fringe group with questionable funding and wasting time and resources on other frivolous and unnecessary activities such as the recent sign ordinance fiasco? You have the opportunity to elect someone who will give some much needed diversity to the county this election. Dave Smith, Nancy Joy Valk or John Ormiston are candidates that can do that.
6. Senate District 45: you have already seen what kind of woes Fred Thomas can and will create in the Senate… remember the Montana Power debacle? And you now have the opportunity to see that this doesn’t happen again by voting for Dan Metully, Democrat for Senate District 45.
7. One last thing: Dave Hurtt and his outhouse… you have to give Dave credit for accomplishing something that no one else had been able to do and that was to personify the attitude of many of Ravalli County’s Republicans.
Jerry E. Shaw
Stevensville