Recently, I read an editorial where the writer was critical of both of our political parties, claiming they have let us down and delivered us to this moment in our nation’s history.  

Certainly some of our governmental leaders have given us a dose of rigid ideology, amateurism, incompetence and a refusal to compromise as our Founding Fathers expected. But I’m not willing to pass the buck to the politicians. We own this because we vote.

As a voter, we carry a heavy responsibility to be deeply informed and to question what doesn’t make sense. In fact, many of our Founders did not trust us with the popular vote because they thought we would be vulnerable to superficial populist sentiment instead of making the effort to dig deep into important issues.

Some of us are proving them correct.

We all need to examine whether we truly understand what is going on.  Do we know the difference between national debt and a trade deficit?  At what level is national debt a concern?  Republicans contend that our increasing debt justifies drastic federal government cuts.

A study of why our debt increased shows a different picture. Over the past 25 years, the Bush and Trump administrations have implemented a trifecta of tax cuts. Were it not for these cuts to government revenue, our revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely.

Instead these tax cuts have contributed over $10 trillion to our debt, and counting.  These cuts alone are responsible for 57 percent of our debt ratio increase (similar to the ratio of your personal debt to your annual income).  Were it not for the one-time costs for COVID response and the Great Recession recovery the tax cuts account for over 90 percent of our debt ratio increase.

So what is the majority we elected in Congress doing? They’re trying to extend the Trump tax cuts.  Does this make sense to you?   

One justification for proposed new tariffs is to eliminate the trade deficit we have with some countries, arguing that other countries are looting us. What does “looting” exactly mean?  How is that measured? We are the richest country our Earth has ever seen and we have a standard of living that is the envy of the rest of the world. It makes it hard to believe we’re being looted, doesn’t it?

Another justification for tariffs is a desire to bring manufacturing back to our country. All manufacturing or just select manufacturing? Have we talked to any of the corporations we expect to build plants in the U.S.? Do you know what it costs and how long it takes to move manufacturing from one country to another? Why did companies create plants in other countries in the first place? Why are we putting tariffs on products like coffee that we don’t even grow ourselves?

We are being asked to trust that the tariffs, while raising costs and possibly causing a global recession, will ultimately be beautiful and worth it. What exactly does that look like? How will we replace the markets for our products that we’re alienating? What specifically are we rooting for?  Are tariffs the best way to get there or is there a better approach that isn’t so destructive?  

Many of us based our vote on concerns about an “open border” allowing murderers, rapists and drugs into our country.  Of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. how many are violent criminals or drug traffickers? 

I think it was Richard Nixon who declared a war on drugs… over 50 years ago. It’s not exactly a new problem.

Do you know what our asylum laws say and what the process is to seek asylum? Do you know how immigration quotas are established and does it make sense to you? What makes an immigrant “illegal”?  Does our nation have a labor shortage or a labor surplus and how does immigration impact this? 

Some of us believe illegal immigrants are leeches on our social support programs.  Recently, the Trump Administration got court approval to use IRS records to track down immigrants – which means they are working AND paying taxes.

Immigrants are working in your restaurants.  They’re stocking shelves in your grocery store. They clean your hotel room and come in early to make your free hotel breakfast. They mow grass. They climb on roofs and hammer shingles.  They build houses and haul away waste. They pick your fruits and vegetables and process your meat and fish.  

When we deport them, who is going to do this work?

Our recovery from the COVID economic shutdown has been faster and stronger than any other nation. It was achieved on the backs of millions of immigrants that supposedly “invaded” our country.

It’s obvious I have a lot of questions about what is going on in our government. So should you. It needs to make sense, and if it doesn’t, we need to let our representatives know they are not meeting our expectations for competent governance.

We have an active and vibrant editorial section in this newspaper. It is an asset to our community, a way we challenge each other to dig deeper and meet our responsibility to completely understand the issues upon which we select our leaders.

Some letter writers have asked why others persist in writing since the election is over. Our critique of what our leaders do needs to be constant and our voice needs to be continuous.  

Polls are constantly taken to learn what we think right now. We can change our mind, even though we have a president who says he never changes his mind.  We can write to our representatives in Congress.  We can ask questions at town halls if our representatives have the courage to conduct them.

Most importantly, we can further educate ourselves to make the best choices in the upcoming mid-term election because, as citizens, we own what we elect.