I've seen diaries recently implicitly or explicitly asking what can be done to help tip the balance in the next 2 weeks. One idea: write a letter to your local paper. Guaranteed that an undecided voter will glance at it. Maybe you help push one more voter over to our side. Maybe you make someone think twice. Maybe you energize an existing supporter!
It's very easy to get a letter published. I've written hundreds of letters in my life. The publish rate is probably over 50%. Give it a shot. Here's some examples. Feel free to copy paste.
Here's some tips: the shorter the better since editors have very limited space. Don't be rude in the letter (don't call Romney a rich jackass). Use facts. Send in your town and phone with the email.
As Commander In Chief, President Obama has ended combat operations in Iraq, has developed a clear plan to do the same in Afghanistan, and has decimated al qaeda leadership throughout the world. At the same time, we have isolated Iran with strong sanctions and have pragmatically dealt with the Arab revolutions, simply by refusing to interject our own military into high risk situations. The lone exception was in Libya where we joined an international coalition to remove Ghaddafi once and for all.
Domestically, in the face of massive domestic and international economic headwinds, President Obama has provided pragmatic and effective leadership for our country. The results are tangible today. In 2009, we were losing over 700,000 jobs every month. Now we have had 31 consecutive months of job growth. The unemployment rate is 2.5% lower than its peak, the stock market is soaring and the auto industry is thriving. This is in stark contrast to much of the industrial world, still mired in a deep hole.
It's clear that President Obama deserves a second term. We need a strong leader to finish cleaning up the mess he was handed. We do not need go back to the Republican policies that caused the mess to begin with.
Governor Romney has worked relentlessly over the past year to be everything to everyone in his campaign to become President.
Romney's economic plan gives everyone, including millionaires, a tax cut. It does so while reducing the deficit and while cutting no government funding anywhere. In fact, Romney supposedly has plans to raise government funding in many cases. Romney does not make sense and his plans do not pass the sniff test. It is impossible to do all of these things in combination. This is the plan of a political con man, not those of a man serious about running the United States of America. Last time we trusted our economy to a Republican President, chaos erupted. I have no interest in giving the Republican Party another shot.
Governor Romney has made a unique tax proposal during the Presidential campaign. He wants to eliminate capital gains investment taxes, taxes on earned interest and taxes on dividends for middle class and lower class Americans. There's two problems with this idea. First, most middle and lower class Americans have limited or no dealings with investment income. So this would be a meaningless tax cut for the vast majority.
The second problem is more significant. Were these taxes to eventually be eliminated on all Americans, such as wealthy people like Governor Romney, the loss in revenue would be crushing for the federal government. And eventually, the loss in revenue would be paid for in the same way as the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy were paid for: either not at all or by laying off large numbers government employees.
Romney is clearly setting the stage here for the complete elimination of these taxes for all Americans, most importantly those as wealthy as himself. If that weren't true, then why not just lower payroll tax rates on middle income brackets? His plan is only being proposed to make the blanket elimination of these, already low, tax rates acceptable to the voting public. In reality though, the only people who will ever benefit are those as well off as himself.