I am Joe the Plumber. Not really, I'm an attorney by training and an entrepreneur by choice and my name isn't Joe. I'm a product of public schools. I've served in our military (11 years In the U.S. Air Force with service in a foreign military conflict--Operation Just Cause). I put myself through college and then law school. I am a registered Republican. I have supported Republican candidates for President since Gerald Ford in 1976 (with one exception, I voted against George W. Bush in 2004) and I have always considered myself a conservative, that is the kind of conservative who believes in small government, low taxes, unintrusive policies, freedom of and from religion. I supported Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. I manned phone banks, canvassed the streets of the West Grove in Miami, volunteered as a poll observer on election day and proudly cast my vote for Barack H. Obama on November 4, 2008.
I cheered as you won the election by an electoral landslide and the Democrats won greater control of both houses of Congress. While the current Congressional leadership has done nothing to warrant retention of their jobs or their leadership posts (approval ratings are practically subterranean), it seems likely that Representative Pelosi and Senator Reid will continue in their present posts. What is important for you and all of our elected officials to understand is that this is not a mandate for liberal partisan politics to replace conservative partisan politics, or liberal political realignment.
We, the Joe the Plumbers (and Josie the Plumbers) of the country, are fed up with the petty, partisan politics that has crippled Washington DC for the past 8 years, and probably longer. We want solutions to serious problems. We want leaders who lead. We want elected officials to repair our ailing economy, shore up our financial system, and return to capitalistic principles (our government shouldn't own our banks or our businesses) as soon as possible. We want an energy policy that is sustainable, respects the planet, and rids us of dependence on foreign oil. We want the United States to be the most respected country in the World, not the most reviled. We want to return the balance of power from an overly powerful administrative branch to the legislative and judicial branches. Most importantly, we want to stop the divisive rhetoric that inflames the far right or the far left base because it is politically expedient. The solutions to our nation's problems likely lie outside the "box" but are not on either extreme. Be mindful, there is nothing you can do that will make the twenty percent on the far right admire you and there is very little you can do to make the twenty percent on the far left abandon you. It is time to govern for the sixty percent in the middle.
This is the mandate that I supported with my volunteer work and my vote for Barack Obama. The silent majority of Joe the Plumbers across the country have similar expectations. I expect no less (in fact, I expect far more). I will accept no less. This is the mandate. We will continue to fight for these basic principles until our elected officials listen to us and start governing with honesty, dignity, and integrity with the single goal to solve problems that make America great rather than appease their base or perpetuate petty partisan bickering. I believe that you, Mr. Obama, have the intelligence, judgment, and temperament to rise above the status quo and truly effect change, but I know that you cannot do this alone. You will need the help of great Americans. Not great partisan political advisors, but great Americans. We must begin to separate the two and only elect and empower great Americans.
God speed Mr. Obama. This is not a religious endorsement, just a very nostalgic phrase from a time when America's greatness wasn't in doubt.
"Joe the Plumber"
aka Curtis Wolfe, an Obama Republican (Obamacan!, you read it here first)
Miami, FL
