Monday, November 07, 2005

Message to Doug Forrester- Why You Lost My Vote

The following is an email that I sent to Doug Forrester this morning. Yes, the typos snuck through even though I checked it several times. I will leave it that way. Maybe they're too busy to care.

To whom it may concern:

I attempted to send the text below through the contact section of the campaign website, but I was met with an internal server error:

Sir, I felt that I should give you the courtesy of notifying you as to why my vote will not be cast for you tomorrow. No doubt you are very busy, but if this note contributes to your after action review I will be glad to have helped.

Prior to last Friday, the only compelling reason that I had to vote for you is the fact that you are not Senator Corzine. You really don't have any outstanding credentials as a fiscal conservative or a civil libertarian. Like all campaigns, this one has been wages along the lines of attack ads and emotionally charged yet essentially meaningless political buzzwords such as "anti-choice" "getting illegal guns off our streets".

You probably pay people a lot of money to inform you that some voters will vote Republican because they have always voted Republican. You could show up on stage the day of your election in an ugly oversized dress and praise Joseph Stalin's leadership over the USSR, and these people would still vote for you because you are a Republican. Likewise, some voters will vote Democrat for no other reason than they have always voted Democrat. I happen to be one of the few who actually takes a few minutes to study the issues and the candidates. I have long since written the RNC and told them that I do not support them any longer, yet I still lean Republican in some cases. I will not in yours, however.

On Friday, after you did a terrible job on NJ 101.5 of trying to convince listeners that you have never been unfaithful to your wife (a trivial issue anyway after the Clinton years), I saw a commercial on TV featuring your wife assuring voters that you are basically for the same campaign issues that Senator Corzine is. I suddenly realized that if I am voting against Senator Corzine, then I have absolutely no reason to vote for you as you have become a political clone of the Senator. At least Senator Corzine has the grace to be true to his position rather than pander to the other side like a child on the playground trying to prove to the popular kids that he can be one of them.

Let me take a moment to try to reasonably explain my positions on what have become the three main issues in the final days of this campaign. First, regarding abortion, I am smart enough to realize that this issue will not go away. I am, however, not of the opinion that it needs to be legitimatized, funded, and sanctioned at all levels of government. I do not appreciate my money being forcibly taken from in the form of taxes that are then distributed to abortion programs. I would not want my money taken from me by force to fund church pregnancy programs either. Let me keep my money and I'll decide which one I prefer to spend it on. Likewise, anyone who finds abortion a worthwhile contribution can fund it out of their own income. I would also like to note that I resent being called “anti-choice”, and I resent your legitimatizing of that phrase by your recent campaign commercial. I will segway into embryonic stem cell research as an extension of the same topic. Citizens who like it should certainly be able to donate to the cause, but I disagree with my money being taken by force to fund such morally and scientifically questionable research.

I will close with my position on "taking illegal guns off our streets". Sir, do you have any clue how difficult it is for a LAW ABIDING CITIZEN in New Jersey to acquire a gun? The problem is not the guns, it is the criminals. There is no evidence that "gun control" is effective, as you can see from Washington DC which has the strictest gun control in the nation and yet the highest rate of gun related crime.

I will not vote for you now or ever in the future. The Republican Party of today has completely lost its direction. George Washington was right to warn this nation against political parties, as the party line mentality causes group think rather than a climate of freedom and personal responsibility. I hope you have attracted enough of Senator Corzine's voters to make up for those of your own that you have lost. May the citizens of this blue state choose wisely, though I have little faith that they actually will.

Sincerely, Eric S. Mueller, Lindenwold, NJ.

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