One Way to Respond to the GOP’s Request for Your Help     7/23/2003

Editor’s note: Here is an actual reply from one conservative to a fund-raising missive from the Bush re-election team.

Dear Vice President Cheney,

Thank you for your kind e-mail dated June 26, 2003, and for your invitation to become a Charter Member of the Bush/Cheney 2004 grassroots team. Your letter notes that the 2004 election "could be very close." I couldn't agree more. There is much to do.

Before we go any further, though, I am compelled to ask you what kind of help you and the Bush administration stand ready to offer my home state of Virginia. Your e-mail noted that "When President Bush was elected, he came to office determined to bring dignity and honor to the White House and to change the tone in Washington." I was led to believe that states rights were a part of that change in tone. Yet, I have watched in dismay as the Bush administration turned a blind eye to the happenings in the president's own state, refusing even to file an amicus brief in the case of Lawrence v. Texas.

Now I am confronted with the deafening silence of the administration in the face of a disastrous Supreme Court ruling ¯handed down on the very day of your e-mail ¯which threatens to undermine our country. Six justices have negated the rights of the citizens of Texas to decide their standards of right and wrong and what sexual behaviors they consider to be public health hazards.

In return for my help in Virginia, do you and the Bush administration stand ready to offer me the same help you offered the citizens of Texas? It is cold comfort.

I am deeply sorry, sir. I cannot, in good conscience, lend support to a political party that will so readily turn its back on me. Until the Bush administration breaks its deafening silence on this issue, you can expect the same from me: Deafening silence from my bank account ... deafening silence in my support of this administration ... and deafening silence from me at the voting booth.

I remain sincerely,

A former Republican supporter

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