Dear Republican Candidates, You Have us all Wrong

Dear Republican candidates: You are campaigning on talking points that do not actually appeal to us. Why are you doing that? Who told you we want these things?

Dear Rick Perry: We don’t want our troops in Iraq. We don’t think President Obama was too quick to get them out. We think he was too slow. We don’t want to go back into Iraq militarily. We don’t care if Iraq’s Shiites like Iran’s Shiites and we don’t think that 18-year-old young men from Alabama and Louisiana with guns can convince them not to. And, the Iraqis don’t want them there. President Obama did not err in his negotiations. There is *no* majority in the Iraqi parliament that would vote for having US troops on Iraqi soil. Would it be the Islamic Mission (Da’wa) Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki? The Sadr Movement of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has threatened violence against US troops if they remained? Would it be the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq of Cleric Ammar al-Hakim, which is close to Iran? Where are you getting this majority? Or are you just going to invade the place again?

Dear Rick Santorum: We don’t want a war with Iran right now. We are tired of wars. Only 16% of the population says it is all right to attack Iran in the short term.

Dear Mitt Romney: We don’t want tax cuts for the wealthy. Most Americans back raising taxes on the rich

Dear Rick Santorum: We don’t want birth control banned. We’re so out of step with you that we not only want birth control for ourselves, two-thirds of us just want the schools to provide birth control to our teenagers and have done with it. Even our American Catholics mostly reject the ban on birth control. We think we do have a right to privacy, which you want to take away from us. Why do you think we would like you better for this?

Dear Newt Gingrich: Actually, we don’t like virtually any of your campaign promises. But that isn’t the point. It is you that we don’t like. We think you’re a hypocrite and that you got rich off influence peddling, including to Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. Please stop it now.