Proud to support President Obama

To the editor:

Every time I turn on the news, I end up doing yet another “doh” slap to my forehead.

After being dragged into an unjustified war with Iraq that cost us more than $1 trillion, many thousands of lives and countless wounded, and the Bush tax cuts that farther ran up the deficit, we now have a country that is deeply in debt and needs to claw its way out of a recession.

One would think that everyone in Washington, D.C., would be doing their part to row that boat — but no, the Republicans just killed another 400,000 jobs and are once again toying with regressive flat taxes that would benefit the rich and hurt the middle and lower classes. Some of them are still threatening Medicare and Social Security as well — the only lifeline many older Americans have and younger Americans can look forward to.

And then there is this preoccupation with mostly older, conservative, white males wanting to tell all the women in this country what they can and cannot do with their bodies, while at the same time throwing out the barrier between church and state. I’m not even going to get into the attacks on collective bargaining and union bashing.

In case you haven’t noticed, there is an alternative. We don’t have to be a nation of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations. We can actually move forward with the Affordable Health Care Act, the American Jobs Act, protecting free choice and empowering the individual American middle class citizen. Instead of thumbing our noses at the rest of the world, we can actually work with our allies for a more peaceful planet.

The president, who took care of Bin Laden and Qadaffi with no American losses, wants to get this country back to work and reduce the deficit. The only obstacle is the Republican unified party of “no” that seems to have tossed aside any love of country or patriotism in its quest for power and corporate donations.

For many years I was a declared nonpartisan and voted for the person, not the party. No more! Things have gone way too far, and I’m now proud to support the Democratic Party and President Obama.

Dan Heynen

Palmer