To the Editor:

The column Presidential contest a hoot’ does what Democrats always do, it shifts the focus away from a president that can boast only of negative accomplishments. I should know, I was a Democrat for nearly 40 years. Before I could even vote, I was working for Senator Robert F. Kennedy. I helped Barney Frank first get elected. I learned up close and personal how candidates avoid taking responsibility for their words and actions, and quite frankly, it made me sick. It still does.

Not that Republicans are much different. Maybe it’s time we stopped dividing our elected officials into Democrat or Republican, and started paying attention to what they believe in. If people want to have a European style Social-Democrat in office, if you value more governmental spending, higher taxes, a larger percentage of permanently unemployed, greater governmental control over your everyday choices, less personal responsibility for the poor and needy, less personal responsibility for the environment, less personal responsibility for almost everything, then Obama is your man. This is not guesswork, its all been done in Europe, by many countries, and always with the same result.

On the other hand, if you’re a person who sees a problem and wants to personally get involved in the process of fixing it, then Obama and the Democrats are NOT going to appeal to you. Unfortunately, neither are most Republicans, who simply prefer a different tack to more governmental control. The problem is not what politicians label themselves, the problem is that so few of them display core values in keeping with the long and inspiring tradition of American freedom. Less government means more personal responsibility. It also means more choice.

I also have watched the Republican debates, but I have seen something far different than that voiced in John McColgan’s column. I see a number of family-oriented, freedom-oriented candidates, ones who give voice to new solutions, who ask our help in seeing those solutions come to fruition. They do not ask me to believe that government is the answer to everything, that all my problems can be solved by edict and legislation. They do not wish me to sign away my God-given rights and responsibilities in return for a government handout.

I would like to see less government spending, less regulation, less taxation. Several of the Republican candidates represent this. President Obama does not.

Bruce Wetter

Enterprise