Need change
The Democrat Convention is over.
Self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders may have failed to get the nomination, but his influence was significant as the Clinton-Kaine platform is the most liberal ever. It promises more spending and more handouts, but solutions to our country’s problems are not achieved through more spending and new government programs.
To the contrary, when our government expands, problems and waste often increase while individual liberties often decrease.
The choice this November is to continue along the direction President Obama has led us or alter the course. President Obama promised hope and change, but the hope became despair and frustration and his changes have not been for the better.
During the last nearly eight years, America has become much more divisive, the economy and the average family have struggled, the level of poverty has increased, the deficit has ballooned, traditional values have progressively been devalued, and our national security has gotten weaker.
Sadly, nothing we have heard from Hillary Clinton suggests anything will be different.
At the convention, the Democrats looked at the country with rose-colored glasses and high-sounding platitudes instead of visual clarity and intellectual honesty, and Clinton is essentially campaigning as an Obama third term.
Neither party is perfect, but the Republican alternative is the only one that focuses on strengthening the traditional values that made America great, helping American’s job creators, instilling restraint in the federal budget, controlling our borders, returning to a position of strength in our national security posture and policies, and reforming welfare so that those in poverty can get a hand up and not merely a hand out.
It is time to give the Republican Party the opportunity to demonstrate the viability of its agenda by putting a Republican in the White House and preserving the majorities it has in the Congress.
I encourage you to get behind the Republican slate in this election. Get active, contribute to candidates; this is too important an election to sit by and watch.
Joe Cornelison, Maryville
