Letter to the editor- RE: Movement afoot by the Democratic party

Published 7:32 am Monday, August 3, 2020

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I read the letter of Arlon Davis which appeared in the weekend edition of The Leader. AS Chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party, I feel compelled to comment on it. I certainly respect Mr. Davis’s First Amendment right to express his opinions. However, as the late great Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not his own facts.” Mr. Davis has manufactured his own facts to support his far right wing opinions.

His statement that the Democratic Party is trying to overcome our current government and replace it with the “flawed ideology of Communism” is just flat wrong. Anyone with the least knowledge of past events knows the Marxist style of Soviet Communism rests in the trash heap of history. It was a 70 year failed experiment that killed millions and has been abandoned by Russia and China. Both countries are still authoritarian, but their present form of government does not resemble Communism. The United States, with the rest of the Western world, fought a nearly 50 year Cold Wat to defeat that flawed ideology.

The rest of Mr. Davis’ letter is nothing more than a rant against the wave of change that is sweeping over our country. The generation to which Mr. Davis and I belong had its opportunity after the Civil Rights Movement to promote equality and societal change in our country and we flunked it. Instead, for the last 40 years more we have stood aside and watched the rich get rich and the poor get poorer, the climate get hotter and hotter, and the country get more divided than it has been since 1860. The common good has been swept under the rug.

The ‘revolution’ that Mr. Davis sees is the pent up demand for a change by my children and grandchildren’s generations and those coming up behind them. The fact is that this is the first time in the last hundred years when we cannot say our children and grandchildren will be better off than us grandparents. That is really the “crime” that Mr. Davis wants to affix to AOC, Maxine Waters and others. Their demands may be crude, and boisterous, but they are the outlier of the countrywide demand for change. Further, there does not appear to be cities burning down and policemen and children being killed. Yes, there are some fires, but hardly whole cities, and there are no facts to support that Democrats are responsible for killing children, although the Trump administration has imprisoned quite a few of them on the border. And, by the way, the vast majority of big cities are controlled by Democratic administrations, including Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, Texas’ four big cities. That is where Democratic voters live.

The reference to Governor Christi Noem of South Dakota, a state with fewer people than Austin, advocating shooting people to defend their property is incorrect. What she did was ask for changes to South Dakota’s stature concerning riots – conservative, but not condonation of shooting people.

Finally, it appears that about half of the people in Texas are Democrats or are going to vote that way. Democrats may not be in the majority in Texas now, but a blue wave is coming. We are not crooks, we just want a better country that gives everybody a fair shot. Mr. Davis is right that “you can’t cure stupid,” but knowledge can cure ignorance. I suggest he study a little more American history and the Bible. After that, he might find himself having a different opinion.

John Cash Smith

Chairman

Orange County Democratic Party