While no one is going to defend anonymous letters or distorting issues, there is something much worse in your criticism of the affair of the anonymous letter in Tusten. When you write “there’s a good chance that this ploy worked,” you’re saying some voters in Tusten don’t know what they’re voting on, and take direction from anonymous letters. If that’s true, how informed would these people’s votes have been even without the letter to sway them?

As you say, there is a much bigger election in November (I assume you mean November 2012). Whoever wins, I predict there will be whining losers claiming the result was due to distortions by the other side, or negative ads, or tainted campaign contributions, or media bias; anything other than that the people preferred the other guy. Anyone who makes or accepts these assertions does not believe in democracy. Yes, sometimes candidates get elected who lack the honesty or competence to be trusted to wash my car, but the country survives and prospers. In the end, the people make tolerably good decisions, despite all the nonsense. And the alternative to democracy is unthinkably worse.

You ended with some good advice about becoming informed and making good voting decisions. I would add one that’s even more important than voting right. Make up your mind to accept the decision even if you don’t like it. Don’t look around for people to blame, don’t assume all the other voters were idiots or narrowly greedy, don’t decide the game must be rigged if you lost.

Aaron Brown

Shohola, PA