To the Editor:

By reading the letters to the editor in Thursday’s Virginian-Pilot, I think I have learned all I need to know to vote in next month’s election.

One writer shared that he had “worked his heart out to elect President Obama.” Now he “intends to vote for Dr. Wynne LeGrow (vs. Randy Forbes) because LeGrow fully supports our president’s critical agenda and Forbes does not. It is as simple as that.”

I think that sums it up for me.

Another writer, apparently in opposition to U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.) states, “It is time for a return to smaller government, fiscal responsibility and constitutional principles.”

I think that sounds good.

A third writer takes exception to “this notion of letting people take care of ‘their own responsibilities,’” calling it “really ludicrous.”

He “needs all kinds of government services, from police to those who oversee banks and the mortgage industry.”

I’m not sure why he stopped short of including individuals’ medical care and retirement plans and house payments and school lunches and on and on. But he did strongly endorse U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who “has the integrity and the will to stand on principles and not waver. I want the Democrats to win in November and to keep the country on its present course. That’s the only way to get people back to work and also to stay on a path toward a lasting peace.”

I lived for several years in Bobby Scott’s district, and I have a foolproof suggestion for the federal government to save money. Have Rep. Scott stay at home and mail in his votes; he has never to my recollection voted any other way than how the Democrat leadership said.

The way to get people back to work? Why is Ford Motor Co. building its new $2 billion manufacturing plant in Brazil and not in the United States? Lasting peace? Can we actually apologize our way to that? Nope, I think Thursday’s letters gave me all I need to know.

Holt Livesay
Franklin