Allow me to introduce myself.
You see, four months ago, when you spoke at a fundraiser in Boca Raton, FL, you referred to a certain group of people who want the US government to feed them, house them, provide them with health care, etc., etc., etc.
You labeled them as Americans who don't pay their taxes.
You said that these people make up 47% of this country's population.
And you stated that they're going to vote to keep Barack Obama in the White House.
What's more, Mr. Romney, you made it clear that you're giving up on trying to reach them (in spite of your recent claim in Miami, FL, that you were going to be the President of 100% of the nation's population).
Yes, I'm one of the country's low-income wage earners; and yes, I voted for Obama in 2008...one of 69.5 million to do that on 11-4-2008 (out of 131.3 million who voted that day...when the United States had 225.5 million eligible to cast ballots).
That's actually less than 31% of this land's eligible electors four years back...not 47%.
And as a matter of fact, I actually DO pay my taxes.
Okay, Mr. Romney, I've received money back from the State of Nebraska every year since I moved back here in 1997 from my birth state of Iowa...but it's been years since I got a refund from the Internal Revenue Service. (Okay, all right...for tax year 2011, I received a tax refund check of $109 from our state's Department of Revenue...while paying the United States Treasury $62.)
And I didn't go for the one-time US senator from Illinois because I wanted to be a freeloader.
I filled in the oval next to Obama's and Joe Biden's names because I thought the 2008 Democratic ticket could help more Americans than that year's Republican ticket...you know, John McCain and Sarah Palin.
By the way, when you gave that speech to 25 of your fellow bluebloods down in Boca Raton this past spring, you said you couldn't convince the so-called forty-seven-percenters to take responsibility for their lives.
Well, guess what?
I most certainly DO take responsibility for myself AND for my own life.
I know you're some kind of busy right now, but if you get a chance to read this blog (or its predecessor on http://www.freeblogit.com), you'll find that I've been at the same place of work (a factory) since 1-26-2004, and that I'm also an independent performer (old-time piano- check out http://r2rfestival.webs.com).
Last time I checked, that DIDN'T sound like someone not taking self-responsibility.
I remember when you made a campaign appearance late last year (at the height of the Occupy movement); a man attending the rally identified you as one of America's 300,000 wealthiest people. (Okay...he called you a one-percenter.)
I remember you calling him a divider.
As far as I'm concerned, the remarks you made this past May in that fast-growing Sunshine State city (86,445 lived there in 2009, up from a 2000 total of 74,764) are totally divisive.
If telling folks that Hispanic people giving their 2012 votes to the one-time Illinois state senator would ruin this nation isn't divisive, then...you were never governor of Massachusetts!
One more thing...I feel that this presidential election cycle, the way the Republicans have been running it, is the culmination of 48 years of- let's not kid ourselves- your party courting and attracting proven racists and sexists (in response to Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964).
By the way...every schoolboy and schoolgirl knows (or is about to learn) that America's government works best when all three branches- executive, legislative, and judicial- actually participate in decisions. And that goes for BOTH major political parties!
Your GOP buddies in the US House and the US Senate made it clear, right from the start of the current administration, that they were going to block every piece of legislation that BHO proposed...even if previous Republican lawmakers (or the current ones themselves) championed that legislation before.
The Republicans took back control of this country's House loudly proclaiming that jobs would be what they'd be working on.
It hasn't happened.
IN FACT, THIS STRATEGY HAS HELD THIS COUNTRY'S RANK-AND-FILE CITIZENS HOSTAGE!!
You knew darn good and well that if you refused to work to bring America's economy back up to snuff, you'd get enough sympathy from citizens at large to get The Prize back.
Speaking of economy...if the trickle-down economic philosophy Republicans have espoused since 1980 is so darn great...why hasn't the money trickled all the way down to us rank-and-file Americans?
After all, CEO pay here in America has skyrocketed since 1981 (and the pay for middle-income and low-income Americans has flatlined or, at times, even gone down).
That's not jive. That's research from Mother Jones.
To wrap it up, I'm going to vote the exact same way I did on 11-4-2008. (The Democrats- and independents- not only, as a whole, are talking the talk when it comes to putting America back on its feet. They're walking the walk.)
Barack Obama knows what and who he is.
Now, if you can just puh-leez figure out who you are...
Thank you for this opportunity to address you.
Sincerely, Jim Boston
