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To the Editor:
Happy New Year and best wishes for a prosperous 2023 to my readers. This upcoming legislative session, like all others, I encourage you all to pay close attention to how those that you’ve sent to Hartford vote on your behalf. We are all certainly busy with work, family, and the stresses of daily life. However, I encourage you to take note as best you can. What happens at the Capitol will dictate the future course of this state and, to a degree, our nation. Your attention and understanding are key to reclaiming our representative system of government and putting us back on a proper course.
We are at a significant crossroads in our country. Connecticut has been on the wrong path for quite a while now. While there remain red and blue states, the overall trend is not a good one.
Our great country was founded on important key values that exist in few, if any other, places on earth and which have led to our tremendous quality of life, and the abundance our society has sadly been steadily taking more and more for granted.
The great battle in politics matches the great divide in the country. Will we continue to be a country of free people that embrace liberty and the responsibility that goes with it to fly to great heights and unparalleled success? Or will we allow freedom and personal choice to wither as government power grows, stifling accomplishment and empowering itself to create more and more dependence? This shift to socialism has played out many times throughout history but we cannot let it happen here.
My personal frustration is that the party of freedom and capitalism continues to lose its way and its nerve in our state. It has never been more important for Republicans to honor our platform and distinguish themselves from the majority Democrats who, because of their dominance, own every problem we face in Connecticut.
This past November’s special session put everything I’ve just outlined on full display. The passage of the four-part emergency measure showed us, in clear terms, the cost of Democrat policy in Connecticut – back-breaking inflation and energy costs driving us all to the poorhouse – even potentially life-threatening situations because of insurmountable heating bills, more transfer payments as a direct result of the state’s heavy-handed mismanagement of the pandemic, and other smaller mistakes because of rushed central planning.
The purpose of calling us in for the vote was to react and correct the failure of those policies. Ironically, the solutions offered only exacerbate the problem with more progressive policies that grow government dependence while requiring middle class taxpayers to ante up even more. Kudos to the courageous few that stood strong and voted their conscience despite the pressure to conform.
This vote was a chance to make the case that the Hartford Democrats’ way has been an utter failure and will continue to be. This was a chance to address the root problems of the high cost of energy, of inflation, of our underperforming economy, and to fight for our worldview where individuals are empowered to succeed, where competitive markets set prices, and hard work and personal responsibility improve the quality of life. In short, the world view of America itself. The special session vote was the perfect opportunity to pivot and stand for something again.
Unfortunately, many of us have become accustomed to thinking that we need to elect certain people or a certain party to ‘save’ us, and that the failure to win elections also means that our worldview cannot be realized. Thankfully, that has never been true. It has always been the people themselves that have the power to change our trajectory. To do so, they need to understand what is happening and the consequences of the course we are on. Then, they need to demand that elected representatives – regardless of party affiliation – deliver policies that match.
There are indeed alternatives to the Majority’s failed policies and a better way for Connecticut. Those who know me know that I never fail to articulate alternatives and make the case for our American system of representative government. Let’s hope 2023 is a new opportunity for all of us who love America and what it represents to stand strong for our principles and set us back on a proper course.
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Sampson, a Republican, lives in Wolcott and represents Wolcott, Prospect, Southington, and Waterbury in the State Senate.