Dear Editor:
As chairman of the Greenbrier County Democratic Executive Committee, I hoped to provoke a friendly dialogue with the Republican Party so that from our discourse the public could see the different core values of the two parties. Two Republican friends, Bonijean Isaacs and Frank Truckwiller, responded to an earlier letter in which I described the three main values of the Republican party as: the Protestant Ethic, trickledown economics and learned helplessness.
In truth, I never understood the point either of them wanted to make. However, their letters conveyed the message: they were angry!
They were angry at Black Lives Matter, Antifa, foreign aid, Obama, Trickle up economics, desperate immigrants, lazy welfare recipients and more. Unfortunately, their frustrations derive from living in a fact free world on the wrong side of history.
Frank fears “the secret police to enforce ‘agreement’”. Yet in his next sentence asks Democratic Mayors “to Man and Equip the police to return security, safety, and free enterprise to their cities.” Frank condemns protesters who want the same security and safety Frank wants; they just don’t want the white police enforcing Frank’s agreement on them.
Neither writer displays a basic understanding of Democratic trickleup economic principles that have pulled our country out of two Republican trickledown disasters under Hoover and Bush.
Frank also fails in his attempt to connect this countries’ longest economic growth in history lead by Obama, using trickleup economics, with China’s economic expansion. Frank’s anger would be better directed toward China’s piracy of western intellectual property which began under Nixon and for which Trump hasn’t had the smarts to address. Frank should also realize that “free trade” was the battle cry of the Republicans for years.
I respect the two Loyalists. I regret I don’t have the space to correct the facts upon which they base their imagined fears. Their letters are an example of the Republican tendency to offer false solutions suggested by unsubstantiated blame.
Blame stops emotional growth and the search for solutions. Blame separates us when we need to find common ground. As a Democrat leader, I want to work with others to find solutions.
Paul Detch
Lewisburg