To the Editor:

Princeton’s Democrats might reasonably ask why they should consider voting for an aging, white, often grumpy, Protestant male — i.e. a stereotypical Republican.

Perhaps the beginning of an answer can be found in what I think it means to be Republican.

I am the son of a historian who met his future wife at Princeton Theological Seminary. Both cared deeply about people, language, and religion, both became teachers, and both were lifelong Democrats.

I cast my first presidential vote for George McGovern, a man whose faith in human decency caused him to trust that public sector employees would tend to act in the public interest — with the result that government would tend to be a force for good.

Forty years in banking, finance, and real estate have broadened my perspective, making me much less trusting. I have watched in stunned disbelief as fortunes are
accumulated by people whom my principled banking employers would not have permitted to come through the door; as large organizations thrive despite wasting appallingly large sums of money; and as adventurers earn obscene profits by acquiring and gutting old line businesses — cheapening product lines, discharging legions of employees, and shipping production facilities offshore.

And I have watched with increasing dismay as government divides our nation, impairs our economy, obfuscates causes and effects, flouts our laws, and enriches the officials who claw their way to national prominence. In a pattern that is as old as time, federal, state, and municipal officials extract more and more tribute from the populations they govern. Grand sounding laws are enacted. Regulations are imposed. With each new law and regulation we become a little less free. Problems fester; hiring becomes increasingly impractical and/or unaffordable; favored entities are enriched; out of favor entities are savaged; curtailed access to private sector credit throttles our economy; and our elected officials respond by promising more of the same.

I agree that big business is often predatory, but so is big government. The premise of big government is that people are pirates at heart and that, if left to themselves, the strong and the wily will prey upon the weak and the gullible. That may be so. But why would anyone believe that the solution is to submit to government by the pirates? In the private sector I at least have the freedom to choose which products, if any, I wish to buy. Government decrees, by contrast, are compulsory. They usually benefit few but their sponsors. And, more often than not, despite grand sounding titles, they compound existing problems.

I would greatly prefer to lead my own life, make my own choices, bear the costs of my many mistakes, impose as little as possible on my neighbors, and grant my fellow citizens the freedom to do the same. That, to me, is the essence of what it means to be a Republican.

Peter Marks

Moore Street