Stacey Dash explains Romney support

TMZ calls the 1,344-word pro-Romney missive Stacey Dash sent them earlier this week a “rant,” which isn’t totally fair. The letter is coherent, if rambling — and while Dash’s reasoning sometimes seems convoluted, she’s expressing thoughts that might be familiar to anyone who’s ever felt their political views shifting with age.

The actress apparently wrote most of her letter on Tuesday, 10 hours before the election’s results were revealed. She starts out by disclosing that she voted for Barack Obama in 2008:

I hadn’t known anything about him until he earned the Democratic nomination. He’s brilliant, understated, ethical, a great husband and father. President Obama will always be remembered as one of the greatest leaders this United States of America has ever known.

And the moderate Republican is still a fan of the president, praising him for achievements like “repairing the infrastructure of our highways, bridges and train rails” and the Claims Resettlement Act of 2010. The truth is, Dash doesn’t hate Obama — she just likes Romney better. “My vote for Romney isn’t a vote against Obama,” she writes, bolding her words for emphasis. “That’s not how full participants in the democratic process operate. We vote for candidates and we vote for issues.”

Dash took a lot of heat for openly supporting Romney this fall, especially from the African-American community. She addresses her critics in the letter, writing, “I am not a spokeswoman for all women” — she’s asked you repeatedly not to call her “woman” — “or for minorities, or for single mothers… I am only one vote. Together we all choose who will lead our country.”

The rest of the letter outlines Dash’s reasons for voting Republican — lower taxes; Romney’s “sterling” business acumen — as well as her progressive views on social issues and her hope that the GOP will grow to be more inclusive. She ends with a plea for bipartisanship, or even non-partisanship: “Stop pandering to partisan politics while our great nation flounders.”

All things considered, the actress sounds pretty reasonable throughout — especially in the note she added after Obama’s reelection was sealed. “I congratulate him,” she says. “No he was not my choice, but he was the choice of the majority of our country. I do respect and appreciate that the country came together to make a choice. So for that I applaud Americans.”

USA! USA! USA! Read the whole letter at TMZ.

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