Letter to the Editors of the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times on Illinois's 10th District U.S. House Race

Written on October 6^th, 2016

Published on October 7^th, 2016

Dear Editor,
      After following the race for U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 10^th District for a full year, I am still not convinced that either candidate is preferable to the other, nor that either candidate shares a majority of my views.

      While I share many of Congressman Dold's positions on trade, and many of Mr. Schneider's positions on marriage, their similarity regarding most other issues is troubling. Both candidates' voting records have contributed to increased taxes and spending, and to the growth of the size and scope of the federal government. There is no reason to expect that either one of them will not continue these patterns if elected.

      Both candidates support the same disastrous foreign policy towards the Middle East which has weakened our credibility and leadership abroad over the last several decades. Both support expansions of domestic surveillance which undermine due process and which are destructive of privacy. Both candidates have supported measures that interfere with the right to keep and bear arms; measures which diminish our abilities to defend ourselves from violent crime.

      On health, both candidates have opposed efforts to defund and repeal Obamacare, the bailout of the health insurance industry which has increased health spending, while subjecting the medical sector to unnecessary new taxes and regulations. Both support continued federal funding for organizations that provide abortions, an extremely contentious policy which in no way promotes the general welfare.

     On immigration, both have praised the executive-penned DREAM Act, which would contravene congressional authority on naturalization policy. Both candidates have voted to oppose the personalization of Social Security, and have been reticent about taking steps toward a reasonable drug policy.

     Most importantly, in this “year of the outsider” election, neither candidate has stuck his neck out to support new proposals to help solve problems that have persisted in our country for decades. Neither has said anything original or refreshing about labor policy; nor has either of them demonstrated a unique way of understanding the relationship between taxation, economic productivity, and ecology.

     Moreover, they do not seem to subscribe to the notion that our freedoms and rights (including the freedoms to marry, travel, work, buy and sell, drink, smoke, vote, and defend oneself) are natural, fundamental, and inalienable; that they cannot be voted away by legislatures, nor turned into privileges to be sold or revoked at the whim of government.

     The 10^th District needs another choice in this election.

- Joseph W. Kopsick

Lake Bluff, Illinois
Write-In Candidate for U.S. House (IL-10)