Dear Editor:

So, it seems to me that folks on the west side of the river have a difficult decision to make.

Clearly, in many regards, Charlie Wilson has good intentions. Charlie is, by and large, a personable guy who has used his office to help out a variety of people in a variety of ways. It is indisputable. And, if that were all that is required of a congressman, Charlie would be our guy. Unfortunately, Charlie is blind to the destructive social agenda of his party’s leadership.

Charlie, like Reid and Pelosi, appears to have bought into some wild inversion of the Constitution that suggests that those in power know what is best for the rest of us. Charlie thinks that he is in Washington to represent his perception of our best interests rather than representing us.

I can no longer vote for Charlie and, it has far more to do with philosophical issues than political issues. Last summer, as I sat in a hot field, drinking warm water, with 43,000 Boy Scouts at their Centennial Jamboree, I was, at first, miffed that Barrack Obama had chosen to appear on “The View” rather than deliver a message to a crowd of Scouts who had gathered just a stone’s throw from Washington.

Then, a revelation, President Obama would be outrageously out of place at a celebration of individual responsibility promoting an oath of honor that espouses duty to God and Country. He sent a video recording. And, his pre-recorded, transparent message that promoted only the service aspects of Scouting fell miserably flat and treated Scouting like just another group to be manipulated by a community organizer.

So, what’s this got to do with Charlie? Everything. Like President Obama, many politicians increasingly see individual people as members of collectives that can then be manipulated and played to. Charlie has repeatedly refused to dialogue with individual citizens in town hall meetings.

He prefers radio raids to dump his message in-mass and then move on. He angles for meaningless newspaper photo ops standing next to other political cutouts in safe, innocuous settings.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the Treasury’s printing money and another 5,000-page bailout is in the works.

It only stops when we, as individuals, stop it at the ballot box.

Brett Merryman

Bellaire