Re: 'Today's Democratic Party – Part Two' [Village News, Letter, 7/22/21]

The subject letter was carefully crafted and certainly would be worthy of consideration – if entered in a fiction writing contest. Now as to factual errors in the letter. The entire letter is a fiction, but here are some of its most egregious faults. Note: I will refer to the subject letter’s author as “the author.”

The author says all things “identifying the Democratic Party’s direct connection to slavery, their resistance to abolishing slavery, and their opposition to emancipation and reconstruction are being removed and eliminated from pubic view and historical record.” Anyone so ignorant of American history as to make the preceding statement has totally discredited himself. The fact is, that in 1860 the Southern Democrats, who were pro-slavery, split from the Democratic Party’s Northern Democrats, who were pro-abolition, and moved en masse to the Republican Party: and stayed there. I don’t believe I have to provide a citation for that.

Contrary to the author, Democrats favor a government that works for all the people. Since the majority of Americans are working class – blue collar and white collar – the majority we work for are working class. And ours is a consumer economy, so we see it as essential that workers are paid well so they have discretionary funds to buy more than just minimum goods and services for survival. So, while Democrats work on the widely popular Infrastructure Bill, what do the Republican legislators want? The following headline says it all: See “GOP Rep. Chip Roy says he wants '18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done.'” (CNN)

Unlike the GOP, we aren’t ashamed of, or embarrassed by, our country’s checkered past. Indeed, we are proud of what our Founding Fathers, mere mortals, achieved in founding our unique democracy. And we are equally indebted to our other forefathers who fought to defend our democracy. There’s no need to gloss over or whitewash our history: that would be lying.

The author notes that the US academic rating is low compared to other industrialized nations. Well you certainly can’t cite Democrats as the cause. Look at the academic status of the states, red and blue. Ranked, the top 10 most educated states are Democratic (blue) and nine of the 10 least educated are Republican (red).

Also note: the heart and center of today’s Republicanism aligns perfectly with the heart and center of the (former?) Confederacy. See “Most & Least Educated States in America WalletHub” and “How Red Or Blue Is Your State?”

John H. Terrell