Letter: Getting back on course with Graves

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, September 19, 2012

In the words of Clint Eastwood, “We own this country.” Politicians work for us. They are our employees. They are stewards of the people’s trust, not rulers of the people. We, we the people, are the owners of this ship, and we entrust individuals to help navigate her on our behalf. Our destination is a future. A future embodied in the hope that our children will inherit this American experiment in better condition than the way we found it.

Unfortunately, in Obama’s America, less than half of Americans believe that our children will inherit a better future, according to a Gallup poll. Obama’s America feels more like we are drowning in a sea of debt than sailing on freedom’s tide. A majority of Americans have good reason to feel that way. In an August editorial in The Washington Times our own congressman in Georgia’s 9th district, Tom Graves, wrote, “The problem with the president’s vision is a death spiral: Taxes have to keep going up to pay for the ever-increasing costs of the welfare state. There will come a point where nothing is left in the taxpayers’ pocket to take.”

Charting a new course for this country, a course back toward a brighter, freer future, is simply a matter of going back to the basics. Individual and economic freedom will take us there. Here are five simple principles for evaluating policies that will guide our course: 1) Adherence to the Constitution, 2) Lessen the tax burden, 3) Reduce the size of government, 4) Promote personal responsibility, 5) Promote liberty and justice for all. We need more politicians who will use these principles as their guide. We need men and women who will lead this charge, not as elites but as stewards.

The five principles mentioned above are Congressman Graves’ 5-Way Conservative Test. Congressman Graves is leading this charge. These principles have been his compass all along, and his voting record is proof. America needs to get back on course. We need to sail toward a brighter future.

It is going to take strong leaders to get us there. Leaders like Tom Graves.

Zach Hubbs

Ringgold