RESPECTFULLY, TO REPUBLICAN VOTERS

I say "Republican voters" because to say "Republicans," these days, to is start out with division and antagonism. I talk a lot to people who think and vote like me, and it's past time we started talking to each other.

I want to talk to Republican voters in my district (CA 48) and of my generation. I'm 82, but I'm thinking anywhere between 65 and 85--and on up from there!

I'm guessing that we have a lot in common. I'm guessing that, like myself, you have pretty much always voted as your parents did--in your case "conservative," in mine "liberal"--well, back in the old country, "socialist."

I'm guessing that you are decent, good-hearted, hard-working people who share my values: in family, in the equality of opportunity for all, in the freedom to follow one's own beliefs and pursue one's goals and mission in life, in mutual respect and tolerance, in compassion for one's fellow human (and other!) beings.

I'm guessing that, living in Orange County, California, you are (like myself) somewhere between comfortably affluent and relatively wealthy.

I'm guessing that you were seduced, in the early 70s, by the California tax revolt, feeling unfairly burdened with taxes and wishing for a smaller, more efficient government. We parted ways a bit then, because I believe in the necessity of government to provide for a social structure that can assure our mutual security and the pursuit of our common interests. It is "big" because we are big, as a country, and our needs are infinitely complex.

I'm guessing that you were further seduced by the affable, affluent Ronald Reagan, who promised us that shining city on the hill--but without the burden of taxes or mutual responsibility.

And I'm guessing, perhaps wrongly, that you are as uncomfortable as I am with how things have deteriorated to where we stand in political America today. I'm guessing, perhaps wrongly, that you are uncomfortable with a president who talks and acts too often like a spoiled child, who must get his way at any cost. Who talks and acts too often like a mob boss. Who talks and acts like a boor in the community of world leaders. Who misrepresents our country and distorts its values.

And I'm guessing, again perhaps wrongly, that you are as uncomfortable as I am with a legislature (currently dominated and controlled by Republicans) that turns a blind eye to malfeasance, that tolerates what appears increasingly to be corruption, that refuses to take action against those who wish us ill, that seems to reject all ethical, social and economic responsibility; a legislature that thrives only on antagonism and vilification and fails significantly to take care of the business of this country.

In view of which I am presuming to ask you to take a different view, to change your mind in the face of a radically altered political landscape, to listen to the growing chorus of conservative intellectuals who are insisting that, to serve the interests of country rather than of party, it is time to cast your vote for a Democrat.

If not your inherited political inclination, if not the ingrained habit of voting for a particular party, if not the kind of loyalty that is in every other circumstance entirely admirable, then reason alone dictates an (even reluctant!) vote for Harley Rouda.