Monday, August 14, 2006

The Republican View

The Republican View- written by Jan Anderson and printed in the Kenosha News on Saturday, August 12th.

All around America, Wisconsin is famous for a few things. Cheese and brats, for example, come to mind. And now as election season heats up, so do politicians.

Our Congressional representative, Paul Ryan, is running for reelection. We need to reelect him. Policy differences aside for a moment, it’s hard to imagine a better representative-from anywhere in the country. Let’s look at why.

Paul is hard-working. There are few representatives who contribute as much to the deliberations of Congress as Paul, all the while he is accessible to you here in Wisconsin. He is somewhere in the District often, very often. He recognizes the importance of your opinion and is eager and available to hear it.

Unlike many members of Congress, Paul understands, as Edmund Burke said, that “government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment, and not of inclination…” He recognizes that governing by sentiments or feelings is a rickety and short-lived endeavor, and will hurt more than help. In other words, he is intelligent and deliberate.

He has given a Herculean effort to save what can be saved of Social Security and provide a framework for long term fiscal sanity for younger taxpayers in this country. This is a big deal. Social Security, if left alone, will become a crushing burden, impossible to maintain in its present form. It must be changed, and Paul has been a keen and persuasive force in getting people to realize the need for change and he has provided a sensible plan, not just words of warning.

Paul understands, more than most Representatives, that Congress should not be a club of “ambassadors” from various and hostile interests, competing with each other for their share of the public’s tribute. He recognizes that it should be instead the deliberative assembly of America, interested in the good of the entire nation, and not the individual intrigues of the representatives or their districts. Amid hostility and indifference, he has persevered in the passage of his legislation to rein in some of the wild misappropriations of your tax dollars. He wants to save your money.

He doesn’t listen to the bleating voices of those who would gut the defense of America, nor to those whose fanfare is retreat and narcissistic cowardice. He is proud to be an American.

You may disagree with him on policy issues, but you cannot deny his earnest service to this District and to all of America.

Besides, who is running against him? The five candidates vying in the Democrat primary are nowhere to be seen. These aspirants are highly inexperienced but haven’t countered with persuasive rhetoric, either for themselves or against Mr Ryan. They offer nothing but partisan pap, hoping voters will suppose that their mere distinctions will be sufficient substance.

It isn’t.

We tend to think that our representative is “ours”, there to serve our needs or desires. While that’s true, we also send our representative to Washington to serve America. Let’s send Paul Ryan back to serve all of us, all of America. There are none more qualified or able, and in the important things, he beats cheese and brats by a mile.

3 comments:

BBG said...

Right on Jan.

jeff said...

I agree with what was said about Paul also. My only problem is that for all the understanding and compassion he has as a Representative, Paul fails to see the hurt he causes by not recognizing the aspirations of the gay and lesbian communities in their quest to obtain their full rights under the law. Specifically, Paul fails to understand that as a representative of ALL the people of the 1st Congressional District, he would deny a portion of competent, consenting adults their right to marry the person of their choice. I understand as a fellow Catholic that the Church, any church for that matter, has the right to set its own guidelines for marriage. The government does not have that luxury. It can only deny a person a right if it has a compelling reason. In the case of marriage, Paul cannot articulate a compelling reason, no politico can.

The Republican Party stands for equal treatment of everyone yet would treat gays and lesbians different when it comes to marriage for no sensible reason. "Yes," the Party would say, "you cant discriminate against them in housing, employment, access to government services, etc.; yet, hold the phone when it comes to marriage or even the dubious institution of civil unions."

There is no nobility in denying decent, hard working, responsible couples their rights.

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