Why I Run

“They have no convictions. “They have no principles. They have
no ideas.”
— a senior Republican Senator speaking of his Senate Democratic colleagues in Nov 2005.

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
— a national Democratic leader in Feb 2005.

What we have been witnessing in Washington the past few years is not politics as usual; it is politics at its worst; this at a time when there is an Army in the field and the nation is confronting a series of serious issues at home. We have now in Washington a government that distinguishes itself only by a breathtaking inability to get its priorities straight. Those in the Congress – Democrats and Republicans alike - prefer to expend the vast majority of their intellectual and rhetorical energies in what can only be described as mutual and perpetual partisan rant.

As much as (no) WMDs, Gitmo, and Abu Ghraib have damaged our nation’s credibility overseas, Katrina, a ballooning budget deficit, congressional corruption scandals, and the failure to shape the strategic conditions for success in Iraq – among a host of other things - have shattered America’s confidence in her government here at home. Those who take glee in the President’s plunging poll numbers forget two things; first, that we are passengers on his listing, if not sinking, ship of state; second, that his crew – Republican and Democratic members of Congress share responsibility for this mess.

On occasion, the incompetence in Washington is both glaring and catastrophic; pre-911 and pre-war intelligence failure; Katrina. But most of the times it is that dull, muddling-through variety, the type one sees all too often on Capitol Hill; sometimes orchestrated, sometimes spontaneous. Rising fuel prices-- no energy policy. Rising health care costs and almost fifty million uninsured Americans-- no health care plan or solutions on the horizon. Our major ports dangerously vulnerable-- Homeland Security funds dubiously frittered away on district pork.

Lack of strategic planning; failure to confront – or simply acknowledge - pressing and obvious problems; divisive party politics; failure to decisively deal with egregious political corruption; what we are witnessing is more than ineptitude and gridlock— it is something more akin to criminal negligence. This is hardly hyperbole. People have been sent to jail for raiding pension funds, yet the Congress has raided the Social Security trust fund with impunity. The behavior and ineptitude of the government is unacceptable. It will only change when sensible liberals and conservatives, and moderates – from all parties - mobilize and collectively say “Enough.”

There are always tradeoffs between continuity and change. It is time for change in Congress. All organizations, all institutions, are well served by a regular infusion of new blood; by drawing in people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Congress has become home to a professional political class that too frequently puts the interests of their Party before the interests of the nation. Many in Congress have been there for too long, and constituents are getting diminishing marginal returns from their continued service.

My strengths to represent the people of the 21st District in the Congress of the United State are found in over two decades of service as an Infantryman, military diplomat, and intelligence officer, and almost a decade of service overseas on three continents. I think I have the qualifications to lead in Congress. With your help, I will.

- Tom Raleigh