It’s worth sharing this heartfelt letter written by a dear friend, Christopher Fay, to his family back home in Ohio.

Fay, who sent me a copy of this without knowing I would publish it (but now with his permission), comes from a family tradition where voting Republican is a way of life.

He runs an organization called Homestretch, whose mission is to empower homeless families with children under age 18 in northern Virginia to return to stable housing and self-sufficiency by giving them the skills, knowledge and hope they need to become productive participants in the community.

Among many reasons, I like this letter because of its extensive historical references, and because of the courage and passion it took to write it (and send it).

To My Friends and Family Who May Vote Republican
by Christopher Fay

I am writing to share with you some thoughts about the coming election, and to explain why I am voting for Barack Obama.

I should first point out that when this election season first began, I thought that virtually any of the candidates would be an improvement on the current President, whom history may rank as the worst President in 150 years, since James Buchanan preceded Lincoln. I’ve always admired McCain, and was delighted when he overcame his rivals for the Republican ticket. While I also admired Obama, my thought at the time was that either of them would be a good choice and if either one was selected as our next President, the country would be in good hands.

I also need to make a disclaimer.

All my life, I have hoped that I might find a Republican candidate for President that I could embrace. My family history on both sides is traditionally Republican. In the loving and lovely home where I grew up in Hiram, Ohio, we had framed photos of Republican heroes of history, including Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, and Robert Taft. My ancestors rubbed shoulders with and supported Republican candidates, local and national, and the feeling in my household was that to vote Republican was to vote family.

The first Republican candidate for President for whom I was eligible to vote was Richard Nixon.  I could not in good conscience vote for him. When I voted instead for McGovern, I knew I had violated family trust and family history. I believe that history has vindicated my choice. In fact, for me and many others of my generation, Nixon single-handedly besmirched the Presidency so completely that it took years for us to regain the sense that a politician might be someone with enough integrity, vision, honesty, eloquence and transcendent abilities to inspire me to action.

Which brings me to Barack Obama.

As I have observed both candidates over the last year, I have gained respect and admiration for Obama and I have found my once healthy respect for McCain entirely depleted. He has run the most negative, impulsive, scattershot, narrow-minded, defensive and purely politically driven campaign since Nixon adopted the now infamous “Southern Strategy” which intentionally stoked racial divisions and led to thirty years of campaigns that used cloaked but real racial and economic fears to build a base of voters that has come to be known as the “Republican base.”

Bush counted on this base and look at the results: the worst economy since the Great Depression; a preemptive war based upon falsified evidence; a reputation among our world allies as a hypocrite, bully and torturer; a discredited Justice Department; a joke among scientists worldwide for our administration’s stand on global warming; the widest discrepancy among the rich and poor since the turn of the century robber barons; an unprecedented deficit; more people turning to terrorism than ever before. The one good thing I see is a generation of young Americans who have finally become so enraged, and engaged, as to demand that we must and will have change. We have not seen this kind of engagement from young people since the 1960′s – the days when Jack and Bobby and Martin spoke of a new America, the days before Nixon devastated our faith in politics and the Presidency.

Obama reminds many people of Kennedy – for me, not John but Bobby. I am old enough to remember Bobby and no politician aroused me like Bobby until Obama came along. And thank God he has. I have been volunteering for the Obama campaign, something I have not done before, because I have never been so excited about a candidate – at least since Bobby, when I was a mere boy and too young to vote.

I have completely changed my mind about McCain and the importance of our choice in this election and I am convinced now that there is only one choice for our next President, and that that choice is Barack Obama. Here is why.

McCain has chosen to identify himself with the politics of Bush in so many ways that I am afraid that if he is elected, we will have a repeat of Bush’s policies, from his health care plan which will tax everyone whose health benefits are paid by their employer (which includes me, almost everyone in my family, my entire staff at Homestretch, and all of my clients who would be ruined by such an approach) to his views of our role as a player on the world stage, to his aversion to addressing the growing gap between the rich and poor in America.

McCain is a warrior and his default switch is attack. He sees the world as good guys against bad guys; we are the good guys and we are naturally right (even if we’re wrong, we’re right). Our international allies, also, are fearful that if he is elected, he will be just another Bush, and that could be calamitous for everyone.

McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin says that he is willing to align himself with the far right, with someone who dismisses global warming as a hoax and who, like Bush, would polarize rather than unite. He chose her after meeting her only once and he is paying for this impulsiveness. She is widely regarded even by Republicans as being unqualified for the Presidency. Palin has at least a 20% chance of becoming President should McCain win the election, according to actuaries. Also, nine Presidents have either died in office or have had to abdicate the office temporarily or permanently; if this were to happen in the case of 72 year old McCain, Palin would be left in charge – a frightening prospect.

McCain’s recent ads against Obama tell me that he would stoop to anything to get elected, including lies, innuendo and appealing to the coarsest instincts among his base. His tactics reminds me of Stephen Douglas, the Democratic opponent of Lincoln in the 1860 election – another critical election that defined the future of this country.

We need a leader who can negotiate, who can bring reason and discretion to the Presidency, who can craft a vision for an America as a wise and judicious leader, not a callous bully. There is a reason for the fact that Obama has aroused unprecedented enthusiasm among people in countries across the globe, from Europe to Africa to Asia. Musicians are penning songs about Obama in Jamaica and Kenya and Indonesia and England as if he represents a sea change in not just politics but also the face of our collective future. McCain grumbles that Obama is a celebrity. He does not understand the nature of Obama’s popularity. Obama is not a mere celebrity; he represents a powerful and inspiring vision of an America that calls forth “the better angels of our nature,” to quote Lincoln.

In fact, as far as I can see, Obama is the true heir to Lincoln. Obama has so many qualities of Lincoln that it is astonishing. Obama knows this; he emulates Lincoln and his decision to announce his campaign in Lincoln’s hometown was deliberate.

Obama, like Lincoln, keeps cool and is rarely impulsive; he chooses advisors from both friends and enemies – what matters to him is that they tell him the truth. Obama’s advisors include Colin Powell and Warren Buffet, hardly typical Democrats.

Like Lincoln, Obama studies issues and makes decisions based on good historical knowledge and upon what can be reasonably accomplished. Like Lincoln, Obama is a pragmatist when it comes to tactics; he takes principled stands and is loath to demean his opponents. Both Lincoln and Obama are masters of logic. Both are craftsmen of words; capable of penning deep and complex ideas in language that anyone can understand. Obama’s speech on race was among the most acclaimed and positive political speeches in recent years; nothing McCain has ever said in his entire career equals that one speech. And like Lincoln, Obama writes his own speeches; not since Lincoln have we seen a candidate so gifted with words and ideas.

Lincoln built coalitions. He was a unifier, not a divider. He forgave easily. He accepted sole responsibility for his mistakes. He could make anyone feel at ease. He became Commander in Chief with little military background but his other skills and qualities led him to become the greatest wartime president we have ever had. His greatest sympathy was with the people at the bottom, not at the top. He rose to the top through sheer effort and intelligence, but he never considered himself above those he left behind; indeed, he saw his opportunity to lead to be his responsibility to right historic wrongs and bring everyone up – in JFK’s words, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

This is a portrait of Obama; it is not McCain.

This is a historic election, with historic implications, like that election of 150 years ago.

And this is why, in fealty to my family tradition, I feel I must vote for Obama, the true heir to the first and best Republican of all, Abraham Lincoln. To vote for Obama is to vote for the Republican of Lincoln’s stripe. Lincoln represented the future, while Douglas represented the past. I prefer Lincoln over Douglas; I look to the future; thus I choose Obama.

I hope I have stirred in you some thoughts that might be useful come Tuesday.

Love, Chris