Even sour grapes can be well phrased, and Kenneth Gough presented his after-election version most competently. But rigid one-themed ideology never disguises well, and this one’s getting boring. His Nov. 18 piece turned his usual fare into unsupported allegations and predictions that beg for scrutiny.

First, President Obama won overwhelmingly with a popular vote edge of 3 million, and 330 electoral votes. Only gerrymandering kept the House Republican, with Democrats actually winning the popular vote.

We will indeed make the most of Obamacare. The 50 million who can’t afford insurance or are barred because they are or have been sick will do just that. Insurance costs rose 4 percent this year, compared to the 10 percent we’ve borne for decades.

Medicare won’t use vouchers and steadily erode away.

Middle class and poor Americans will not lose out so millionaires and billionaires can enjoy a 20 percent tax cut since Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget won’t triumph.

I don’t think Gough intended to paint the very rich as unpatriotic leeches, but he assures they’re set to flee their homeland or hide their money offshore.

We won’t have a president who hides his riches abroad and shields his tax returns so we don’t see how unpatriotic he actually is. Likely we’ll have meaningful tax reform, and we’ll discover who values riches above country.

We’ll see the end of Bush’s wars, which contributed most to the troubling debt. We’ll address the debt, but not on the backs of the poor and the middle classes. Maybe we’ll give the Pentagon the leaner, better-equipped military it asks for and tune out irresponsible clamor for more spending.

We’ll not be a welfare state, but a fairer, more tolerant one. We’ll protect our environment. We’ll respect science.

Americans proudly said so, overcoming all that money and shameful efforts to suppress our voice.

JENNIE YOUNG

Elizabethton