We should vote out incumbents. They are responsible for the current conditions we are in.

This should be our normal venue in all elections. The Founding Fathers would be appalled at having career politicians. Politicians were never intended to stay in office long enough to retire there from public service.

Our chances of having a better replacement are good. Politicians come from the general population, and on the whole are average just like all of us. Thus, the replacements will be as good or better than the incumbents they replace.

Incumbents need to be replaced not because they are generally dishonest -- they are moral just like the general population -- but they need replacing because they get encumbered with promises they have made and deals they have had to make, and are not free to do always what they desire best to do.

Voting out incumbents does not mean voting for the opposition party; there are always primary elections and choices available, so party affiliation can be maintained. There is a difference between parties. One quote mistakenly attributed to Sir Winston Churchill goes like this: "If you are young and not a liberal, you have no heart; if you are old and not a conservative, you have no brain."

Vote them out every time -- locally, statewide and nationally -- and we will be the better for it.

Elwyn Wingo, North Augusta, S.C.