June 17, 2021
Mr. Kistner, first of all, Thank you for your service. It does take a special person to spend four years in the service of his country.
I received your letter asking for support in the 2022 election. I have some questions and some thoughts concerning the future of our nation. I do think with the voter suppression laws passed by a number of state conservative legislatures that the Republican party will not have a problem attaining a majority in the nations House and Senate. They have made it impossible to give a goodly number of citizens their right to vote. On your first point of your letter, “Destroying election integrity” you are correct. Unfortunately, that integrity is being destroyed by Republicans.
Your second point, “Massive tax and spending increases,” is truly a scare tactic. I pay taxes and consider it patriotic to do so. How else are we going to pay for the many services our nation offers?
I have yet to see any legislation that would take away gun rights. I do believe there are too many firearms out there that has been used to kill or maim many people. We are getting to the point where arguments will be settled with a quick draw contest on Main Street.
There isn’t any law that supports taxpayer- funded abortions. In fact, there is a law that would prohibit Planned Parenthood from using government funds for financing abortions. I don’t suppose you will tell your supporters that fact.
I admit we do have an illegal alien problem. But our former president has lied to everybody that most are murders and rapists. Unfortunately, most are trying to escape a society that is conducive to violence and want their children to be free. This country, at this time, offers that freedom.
I have been involved in education for many years. I served on many school districts committees involving budgets to new school construction. I also spent 28 years on the board of the 916 Education Foundation. It is my belief that if we do not educate our young, we will become a third world nation with a high level of uneducated people. Of course, our past president said, “I love the uneducated,” because they would be easier to control. Give me an example of a school that is a “Socialist indoctrination camp.”
I have found that those who are against Covid 19 masks and vaccines are very selfish people. They think more of themselves than they do their fellow neighbors and are certainly not concerned if they pass the virus off to others. Explain where government control is a liability for this action? Sometimes we have to make tough decisions in order to protect people from those who think only of themselves.
I am an 82-year-old retired newspaper publisher (Washington County Bulletin and Woodbury Bulletin) who at one time was very active in the Republican party. That changed when the so-called evangelicals took over our party. I found that the hypocrisy was more than I could agree with.
I do not agree with you that Angie Craig is an “extreme leftist.”
Let me ask you, do you think the January 6th attack on our Democracy was justifiable? If elected, would you align yourself with people like Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz and other Republican Representatives who have said it was a tourist trip gone wrong?
Do you line yourself with a former president who, I believe, couldn’t manage a two-car funeral?
I predict, if the house and the senate is taken over by the Republicans and the former president re-elected, they will suspend our Constitution and make the presidency a life time position with the same powers as Putin. All insurrectionists of the January 6th event will be pardoned and a target will be put on the backs of all liberals and anyone who objected to his “BIG LIE.”
I doubt if you will read this letter or even respond to it.
Gary Spooner
Cottage Grove, MN 55016
Spooner.gary@gmail.com (612)271-3584