Your Voice: Readers comment on politics, the election
Congress holds real power in legislation
In what cave is Wille Thompson of Newton living? In his letter published in Friday’s HDR, he blames the current financial crisis on Patrick McHenry. First of all, McHenry is so far down on the seniority list that he does not have the influence of position in Congress to affect anything of real importance.
Secondly, the Democratic leaders in Congress, in particular Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, almost single-handedly created the financial crisis by not allowing legislation, pushed by Sen. John McCain, on the floor that would have restrained Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s reckless lending policies.
I cannot believe that so many of the American public buy into the thought that the person sitting in the White House, from either party, has much control over what goes on in the country.
It’s Congress. No matter what Obama or McCain say they are going to do if elected, if the handful of leaders of the majority party in Congress does not support proposed legislation, it is not going to pass. And you can take that to the bankrupt bank.
Edgar Stillings
Rhodhiss
Change needed in governor’s office
North Carolina voters have a great opportunity to make some much-needed changes to state government this year.
Pat McCrory and Beverly Perdue are the candidates for governor. For the past 16 years, Democrats have been in charge, Mike Easley and Jim Hunt before him, as governors. During this time, taxes, fees and other income has ballooned by billions. North Carolina now has greater taxes per person than Virginia, Georgia, Florida or Texas — all of which have higher incomes per person than North Carolina.
At the same time, our expenditures for public school education is less per student than all the states in the Southeast, except Alabama and Mississippi.
Where is all the money going? It certainly isn’t going to highways in the western part of the state. We have been short-shifted for years. Go to northeast North Carolina if you want to see highways or go to South Carolina or Georgia or Virginia. And this in spite of the fact that the state is richer than most states in the Southeast. Poor administration is the only answer. It is time for a change.
There is a candidate who fits the bill, a man who can get things done. Pat McCrory has been mayor of Charlotte for several terms. He has been a prime mover in relations with the business community, as well as the education field. Have you been to uptown Charlotte lately? It is a booming place.
Much of the gains in business has taken place because of Pat’s abilities to cultivate the business world. At the same time, the pay structure for teachers in Charlotte is the highest in the state. He has worked with the education system on innovative improvements.
Pat is running against Beverly Perdue, who is a quintessential member of the Democrat Establishment, the same one where the state Senate has been controlled by them since the year 1900. That’s right, 108 years!
It’s the same one mentioned above — the one guilty of partiality, poor administration and lack of vision. Where were they when BMW, Mercedes, Saturn and Toyota were locating in other Southeastern states?
We have a chance to elect a person who is a member of the Republican Party, a person who can make some changes in state government and our future, and Pat McCrory is that man.
Grady Peterson
Hickory
Society’s cornerstone is Christian faith
Those of us who support the idea that the cornerstone of our society was laid on the Christian faith can feel confident in our knowledge. Walk through Washington and seek out the “old” buildings of our capital. See what is carved in their stone. Read of Patrick Henry, Richard Stockton, Benjamin Rush, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and George Washington. See the evidence of what shaped their ideas.
So why is this foundation under attack? Because an idea is at war with it. The modern, self-described, intellectual wishes to proclaim, “Man did this great work on our own. Humanity accomplished these wonderful things.” “We are the Enlightened ones.” Ideas are important, because they shape our world views. Hitler’s world view was shaped by Friedrich Nietzsche’s atheistic writings and Darwinism. Hitler reduced man to livestock. But it was not Hitler that was the source of these ideas.
Who shaped the ideas of our government? This three branch tree? Does it not seem like an echo from Isaiah,“The Lord is our Judge,...our Lawgiver,...our King, He will save us.”
G.K. Chesterton once said, “God is like the sun. You cannot look at Him, but without Him you cannot look at anything.”
Our Constitution, Declaration, even the Mayflower Compact are only “sunbeams.” They radiate from another source. Step outside our own time and follow them. They will lead us to a garden in Gethsemane, a hill called Golgotha, and to an empty tomb. Anyone on the side of Truth will be drawn to this source; who boldly announced that He was not “a” truth, He is “the” Truth.
In our time it is hard to follow the sunbeam. The eye is the lamp of the body and people now will shut their eyes to keep the light out. Not satisfied with that, now they are shutting doors and drawing curtains. They feel safer in the dark, but I have news for all the modern intellectuals. The Sun is still shining.
Jamie D. Clements
Newton
Can’t support Palin, Dole and McCrory
I like John McCain and wanted to vote for him, but I could not because of two words, Sarah Palin.His choice for running mate leaves me with serious doubts concerning his decision making processes and abilities.
Gov. Palin brings little to the political table besides a winning smile, huge glasses, and the ability to deliver speeches that fire up the partisan crowd with phrases such as “drill, baby, drill.”
I cannot vote for Elizabeth Dole because of two words, George Bush. Dole has been lockstep in time with the policies of the Bush administration, mainly because of loyalty to her party. We must change this way of thinking if we want to break the chain of bad government in Washington. Time to retire to Kansas with Bob.
I cannot vote for Patrick McHenry because of two words, Iraq war. Our diminutive representative from Cherryville, hopped a flight to Iraq for a brief visit to the war zone, at the taxpayers’ expense, then got into trouble by reporting the location of incoming mortar rounds on the Internet while “on the way to the gym” at 3 am.
Finally, I cannot vote for Pat McCrory for governor because of two words, Charlotte mayor. McCrory presided over unprecedented years of growth and expansion in that city that has resulted in sprawl, congestion,crime and gridlock that has made the journey to that maddening maize in Mecklenberg something to be dreaded like the plague.
He seems to want this type of progress for the rest of us. How much sewage from strip malls and chain restaurants can the Catawba River support? Exercise your right to choose who represents you, but please, do consider what your choices believe in and what they stand for.
David H. Robertson
Hickory
Obama promises socialism with redistribution
Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.
The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.
Maybe someone in your vast reading area could tell me why they are voting for this kind of government leadership. Obama has promised us this very thing. I feel the public schools system has failed us, for they did not do a good enough job in teaching history. We were founded on the very principle that we worked, and we lived a free life. Now it is all about what can the government do for me.
Even now, the wheels are turning towards this very thing with the federal government using our money to invest in the baking institution. Not sure about the est of you but I got no say in the matter.
I am not happy with either candidate, and but know a king in who I trust. It’s funny how in His word it says the same, If you don’t work, you don’t eat. But instructed us to help the needy. Never did it say give all to government, and let them dole out rewards.
I do hope that your readers well take to heart what is about to happen, this was a government elected by the people, for the people, now it seems the ones elected have lost their way.
Jeffrey Spangler
Hickory
Our country is headed for a sad state
Don’t be fooled by Obama. He is a socialist who wants nothing more than to redistribute the wealth. Our country was founded on capitalism, but is moving more and more towards socialism every day.
Two points. First, I’ll grant you that McCain’s plan is a pretty normal progressive tax plan. But Obama’a plan goes beyond that to include refundable tax credits — i.e., checks — to the lowest rung of taxpayers.
Second, Obama is playing the usual political shell game when he talks about his tax plan. He never mentions that his first priority is to roll back the Bush tax cuts — which means a tax increase is in store for all of us. Then he will raise the taxes on “the rich” even further, while sending the poor those juicy rebate checks. It may seem like a fine point to you, but it is clearly income redistribution.
Interestingly, as it stands today, almost 40 percent of those who file end up paying zero taxes. Under Obama’s plan, that number will exceed 50 percent. If you add in the other social benefits he has proposed, the pool of people either paying zero or nominal taxes, and receiving increased government benefits, will be almost 60 percent.
Think about that. Sixty percent of Americans will now be in a position to ensure that the benefit gravy-train never stops by voting for those who promise them more. And more. There is a tipping point beyond which the ’conservative vs. liberal’ debate is forever tilted towards the liberal, and that point is when a majority of the population is on the government dole.
It looks like that tipping point may happen in the next few years.
What a said state our country is headed for!
Russ Meade
Hickory
Democratic tax plan penalizes workers
In your Oct. 26 edition of Your Voice, a writer went after Joe the Plumber with the standard lie and attack tactics of the Obama campaign. Joe is a working plumber; he is not a union member. They used unlawful, Marxist-like methods to gather confidential information endeavoring to destroy this average, hard-working citizen.
Many liberals are in favor of giving away everyone’s money except their own. Prime examples are Sen. Biden’s few hundred dollars of charity out of $2.5 million in income and Massachusetts having the lowest contributions in the nation.
In 2006, the top 50 percent of earners paid 97.01 percent of federal income taxes, the top 10 percent paid 70.79 percent and the top 1 percent paid 39.89 percent. This means the bottom 50 percent pay only 2.99 percent of our federal income taxes. Forty percent of the nation’s workers pay no federal income tax. Obama wants to confiscate more of peoples’ hard-earned income and then have his government spend in their usual wasteful and corrupt ways and to use this money to garner additional votes.
Remember, poor people never offer jobs, government doesn’t create wealth, companies pass their taxes on to the consumer and companies will relocate if taxes are prohibitive.
A. L. Spizzo
Conover
Obama and Biden strongly anti-gun
Obama and Biden make up the most anti-gun ticket ever to run for the White House.
Obama
• supported a complete ban on handguns
• opposes right-to-carry
• supports gun registration
• voted for one-gun-a-month handgun purchase limits
• voted against confirming pro-Second Amendment justices to the U.S. Supreme Court
• supports local and state gun bands
• supports bans on standard capacity magazines
• increasing the excise tax on firearms by a whopping 500 percent
• supports laws mandating the use of “micro-stamping“
• supports mandatory waiting periods
• served on the board of directors for the Joyce Foundation, the leading source of funds for anti-gun organizations.
Biden has 35 years experience in the Senate attacking our right to keep and bear arms.
Biden likes to boast that he’s the guy who originally wrote the assault weapons ban.
Even Hillary Clinton knew Obama couldn’t be trusted with our guns. In an April 2008 mailer, Clinton warned voters about Obama’s radical record against guns and gun owners.
Think about it. Not much has been in the news about the issue of guns during this presidential campaign. Ever wonder why?
Sheila Williams
Granite Falls
A working man’s request to the candidates
As America approaches Election Day, I felt compelled to publicly express a working man’s request to the candidates throughout our nation.
To our presidential candidates: Please clearly define a practical plan of leadership for this country. This country desperately needs a bold leader with a clear vision of where this nation needs to go and the means to get there. Our country does not need a TV-created character serving as a political party puppet.
Remember, this nation is not a socialist society. America is the home of free, independent minded,hard working people. Do not tax us into burdensome submission so that the government can reward incompetence as clearly demonstrated by some of our financial leaders, congressional leaders and keep up with the Joneses homebuyers.
In addition, understand that war is an absolute last resort. The cost of human lives and to the public treasury is beyond what would be called responsible governance.
To our congressional and gubernatorial candidates: The public trust is in your hands. Please demonstrate the moral and ethical decency we expect in the character of our representatives. You carry with you to Washington or to your capitals the hopes, dreams and the identity of our region. We do not want to be represented or identified by a godless,vain,greedy bag of empty promises. Listen to the needs of your region and act. I assure you the voters of this area will be watching and evaluating.
To our local candidates: Even though the election at this level tends to be more of a popularity contest, your responsibility to the citizens of this region is no less than those elected to higher levels of government. Please show up to the meetings and stay awake, come talk to the various civic groups and hear our voice.
God has truly blessed America as the greatest nation the world has ever witnessed. With this greatness goes the huge responsibility of each citizen to be a good steward of what the Almighty has entrusted us with. Please vote with this in your heart .
Lanny Huffman
Hickory
