Channel voters’ anger to help the majority

Terri David, Princeton
So many New Jerseyans are said to be angry this year and will be voting for the party out of power. However, a vote cast in blind, angry reaction is a vote wasted.
   This is especially true here in the 12th Congressional District, in which Rush Holt is up for re-election. Most people cannot name any aspect of Mr. Holt’s platform that upsets them. Yet, they are ready to deprive him of his voice in Congress by voting for Scott Siprelle.
   It’s as if this one act can magically erase the pernicious effects of the years of Republican control, when we went from budget surplus to huge deficits, entered one war under false pretenses while ignoring the real war, created the conditions under which the rich prospered while everyone else languished, supported the interests of big business rather than those of the average citizens, and used fear to turn people away from real health care improvements.
   A vote for Mr. Siprelle, a Wall Street millionaire who now denounces Wall Street, instead of Mr. Holt, may be a temporary vent for that anger, but it does not represent a logical policy choice. We need to vote for the candidate that best represents the interests of most people, rather than those of large corporate entities.
   Yet this is exactly what Mr. Siprelle is about. He is against regulating the corporations that caused the meltdown, he is against assistance for the unemployed, and he is against realistically improving health care except through individual savings accounts, which only the richest of us can afford.
   Mr. Siprelle, along with most Republicans, casts the government as the enemy to be minimized. It is Mr. Holt who sees government as the protector the average person against the demands of the corporations and the wealthy. It was government who passed the GI Bill, who built the interstate highways, who created Medicare and Social Security, and who allowed unions to form to protect workers against inhumane conditions.
   Therefore, it is vital to channel our anger effectively, using our vote to support only those candidates who will stand up for the majority of citizens, and that is Rush Holt.
Terri David
Princeton