GOP: A different view of 2 camps

I took umbrage with your editorial regarding the Republican candidates’ forum that took place on April 7 at NIC, and appeared in the April 11 edition under the title, “GOP Voters Pick Your Camp.”

I found it interesting that you labeled “Camp A” as the “Against” camp. Here you have a group of candidates that, in essence, stand for:

Individual freedom (oppose Obamacare and similar government programs); Fiscal responsibility (reducing the size of government, curbing spending and reducing the state and national debt); Defending the Constitution of the United States (supporting the first, second, fourth, and tenth amendments specifically); and reducing the influence of the federal government in our daily lives (a centralized education plan under common core, federal spying and data collection, etc.); and somehow these candidates are “against” everything.

Yet, your editorial defines the Republican candidates that are in line with continuing the failed policies that we are currently living under, which are destined to bring about a financial collapse that will cause suffering the likes of which this nation has never seen, as the “For” camp.

How can you characterize individuals that are dedicated to preserving the principles upon which this nation was founded as being against anything? Somehow, this seems a little backwards to me.

What, ironically, really urged me to write though, was your editorial in the April 13th edition entitled, “Accountability anyone?” It opens with, “There is no greater threat to our national security than the economic iceberg we’ve collectively built and guided our country toward at ever-increasing speeds. Out-of-control federal spending must be reined in, or a bleak future awaits our children and grandchildren.”

While I strongly disagree with your assertion that we have “collectively ... guided our country” on this path to destruction, I completely agree that we certainly are on that path, and the only way to change its course is to elect representatives of your so-called “Against Camp” to put the brakes on the progressive, statist elements within both parties in order save what can still be the greatest nation on God’s green earth.

JD GAINES

Coeur d’Alene