To the editor:

I believe in our democracy. I believe we need a balance between responsible conservatives and progressives, but we in Kansas have lost that balance. Our secretary of state is the leader in the national effort to suppress votes and is a national embarrassment. All of our representatives in Washington vote against any bill that supports the middle class, including the farm bill.

This Republican Congress is a giant anchor around the neck of progress. We have a governor who honestly believes that rich business owners should pay no taxes and all of their employees and everyone else who is working to keep a roof over their heads and buy food to feed their children should carry the state’s tax burden. Why do we the common people continue to vote against our own interests?

This is not the Kansas that I know and love. When do we get the courage to confront the fat cat Koch brother manipulators? When do we stand up and say, “The emperor has no clothes”? I am sick and tired of having the rest of the country thinking of Kansas citizens as backwoods, masochistic idiots.

In the past we have been represented by honest statespeople like Bob Dole, “Ike” Eisenhower, Sandy Praeger and Nancy Kassebaum. They are Republican conservatives who want the best for our state and the common people who live and work here, and they voted accordingly. It is time to stand up and be counted. God forbid you might even need to vote for a Democrat.