I hope that plenty of people got to meet Congressman Ron Paul when he visited Portsmouth last Friday.

June 13 — To the Editor:



I hope that plenty of people got to meet Congressman Ron Paul when he visited Portsmouth last Friday.



I'm writing today to make an appeal to reason and sense to my fellow New Hampshire citizens.



It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. The very real truth is that we cannot afford endless, expansive federal government. We need to scale back, on both war and welfare, and give money and control back to our local communities.



To my Republican friends: it is pointless to beat Obama in 2012 if we are just going to replace him with a Republican version of himself — a Republican version who would advocate the same policies that both parties have been advocating for the last 20 years. All of the other candidates are too actively a part of (or too weak to stand up to) the existing Washington establishment to offer any real change (especially Romney, and, yes, even Herman Cain, who was an ex-Fed chairman and advocated for TARP). To those of you who think Ron Paul can't win, the more you say so, the more it becomes true. Stand up and make it happen, if you truly want it. Romney is not your answer, and it saddens me that the recent University of New Hampshire poll showed so much support for him by Republican voters in our state.



To my Democrat friends: Stop voting for hypocrites, and stand up for yourselves. The same people who promised you change are just as beholden to special and corporate interests as any Republican. You want out of the Middle East; you want to end corporate welfare; you want to make sure that people at home are taken care of. I hope it is apparent by now that big government solutions only make these problems worse, and are in some cases the cause of the very things you are passionate about fixing. What we need is more economic freedom, more social freedom and more control given back to our states and communities to live in the democracy that we want to live in.



Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who will bring us back an America that recognizes the greatness of freedom. He is the only candidate who has a real plan to save Social Security and Medicare while allowing those who will never get any benefit from them to get out of the system. He is the only candidate who recognizes that the Bush Doctrine is just plain bad military strategy, and it is bankrupting our country. He is the only candidate who preaches sound fiscal and monetary policy.



I encourage you to really, really look into your hearts and your minds, read and listen to what Paul says about what he can do, and what he will do, as president. Then, at the New Hampshire primary, register as a Republican if you haven't done so already, and let's elect a president who will actually have some integrity for a change.



Jason Walls



Portsmouth