This is in response to Larry Rensberger's letter regarding the midterm elections.
Larry, I question the intention of your letter because as you rail mainly against democrats and simultaneously criticize and support far-right ideals, you yourself, sir, are running as a Democratic candidate in our county. Who exactly are you pandering to? While your antipathy seems to know no affiliation you neglect to make a strong enough case as to why we should ignore what you said to vote for you anyway.
Let's talk about the information in your letter. Your "reasons" are highly dubious as they seem to rely on the "This is what me and my friends believe so it must be true everywhere" poll and leaves just enough truth out to come off as intentionally deceptive.
True, Mr. Ellsworth and Mr. Donnelly both voted for the Health Care Bill as us adults refer to it as, but you say that the majority of Hoosiers didn't want it. Where did you get this statistic? And was it from an unbiased source?
Mr. Coats has, in fact, let us down as a state. He abandon it for a place which he publicly stated was better than Indiana and is now ready to come back after all these years out of a sense of what? Loyalty? Mr. Coats has none. He is a man who was a paid lobbyist for years, who lobbied on behalf of Wall Street to pass TARP, who lobbied for the passage of the Health Care.
Reform and lobbied for Climate Change Legislation. Now that he wants a cushy job in the U.S. senate he suddenly feels all those things are wrong for America.
Next you argue that you should vote against Dr. Hayhurst simply because he is a Democrat. Clearly you have no sense of either candidate, have done no research and by definition suggest that people not even vote for you due to your party affiliation. As I have met both candidates I can tell you that fiscally they are both very conservative, however between the two, Dr. Hayhurst has real "ready on day one" solutions and Mr. Stutzman has vague concepts of ideas at best.
Dr. Hayhurst did not support this Health Care Bill and has been far more active not only in the community but also the election. People that I have spoken to about the congressional race have told me they have no idea who Marlin Stutzman is. I think he believes that because he is running as a republican that his victory is in the bag. He makes very few appearances, does not show up to community events or parades and when he does show up somewhere he still passes out literature from his senate race. Don't believe me? He gave me one Tuesday.
This career candidate has run for four offices in two years and was just elected to a position in 2009 which he is already eager to give up. Since his career began he has voted to increase his salary by 78 percent, supported a $300 million cut to education and suggested that as our congressman he would abolish the U.S. Department of Education. What good could that do for our already troubled educational system? Allow liberal and conservative biased states to teach biased information? No thanks!
If we take anything away from Mr. Rensbergers' letter is that reaching across the aisle really is a great thing. But I add, when you do, do so with gravitas, honesty and selflessness. And in honor of "The Spirit" of your letter I will do so, Mr. Rensberger, by voting for your opponent.
