Who's Asking For Your Vote?

The election is next Tuesday, November 4th, and the importance of paying  
close attention to who is asking for your vote cannot be understated.

Most families have unified values and core ideas that are instilled in each  
generation. Voting the same way as our parents and grandparents before them  
is how we integrate those values and ideals into our political preferences  
and shaping our nation as a whole.  Until recently, a person could feel  
confident that by voting the way they always have, their values would be  
shared by elected officials who then carried those values on to Washington  
DC.

Unfortunately, a single U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Citizens United) has  
uprooted any confidence we may have had in the political process by opening  
the floodgates on the amount of cash funneled into political campaigns. The  
result, we have about ten of the world’s wealthiest people and corporations  
controlling the U.S. Congress. 

The party you may have always supported and  felt you shared a set of core values and ideals with has moved way off base. For example, the idea of lower taxes and fewer regulations is now a  
Washington where Congressional leaders will readily walk this country off a  
cliff to ensure tax breaks continue for the very wealthiest while silently  
letting expire the payroll tax credits that had put much needed, hard earned  
cash into the pockets of more than 90% of working Americans. They are  
fighting against the very slightest and most widely supported firearm safety  
measures, while at the same time, nearly every state under the control of  
these billionaire funded politicians has quickly imposed strict regulations  
on voting.

Restrictions that by their own admission are aimed directly at keeping them in power by making voting more difficult for those Americans  
least likely to support them.

The party that once shared your values is now taking billions of dollars from a handful of wealthy donors who expect to get an obedient candidate dedicated to giving them exactly what they want.  As  
long as these high priced politicians keep winning elections this is going to  
be a new American reality. 

They are counting on people in this country to  continue voting for candidates of the party they and their parents have always supported, without truly paying attention to who these people are, and  
what values are being sent to Washington.

The only way we can get back to having political leaders who actually share the ideals of your family is to  
stop voting for these billionaire backed politicians.  Billionaires cloaked behind patriotic sounding groups like; The Club for Growth, American’s for Prosperity, American Crossroads, and the like.  It is the only way to send a clear message to political leaders that American families will no longer be  
ignored in favor of the business models of a very few wealthy donors who  
think our democracy is a tool to increase their bottom line.

If we do not pay attention we could end up with an America where freedom is only available  
to those who can afford it.

Jenifer L. Rhodes, Glenwood