Local Viewpoint: I want political party that can fill needs.
I loved the My Word column Monday by Karilyn Rust, a liberal Democrat who is leaving the party after years of letdowns and disappointments.
Among her reasons, she mentioned insane politically correct decisions such as removing/ rejecting all Confederate reminders of the Civil War, such as statues, renaming schools, streets, parks, books, movies, etc.
Good or bad, remnants from that era are part of our history. Every nation has the same situations. To destroy, demolish and erase such remnants now, as if somehow to make them all disappear, is ridiculous. I'm amazed at the spineless elected officials and board members who don't stand up to this tyranny. But citizens are just as bad. Parents want to change school names because the people who used to be heroes are now viewed as villains.
Rust also mentions words that are no longer acceptable but aren't insults. When I was growing up, Negro was an acceptable term that was the preferred word to use. It has morphed many times, from colored to Negro, to AfricanAmerican and then to black.
While I am not a liberal Democrat, like Karilyn Rust, I feel her pain. Both of our political parties are failures and frustrate voters. We saw a lot of the anger and disappointment fire up during the last election. Politicians promise change, yet once elected, they waffle and grow ineffective. It's maddening.
People like Rust and I are hungry for a party that can fill our needs and stop the insanity that has run rampant for too long. We need a party that ultimately will return the United States to common sense — not the flavor of the month that curries favor with certain groups. We need a party that's not afraid to say no to:
Censoring our history — good or bad.
Lobbies or specialinterest groups with agendas that are out to make money for their products or companies but are harmful to Americans.
We need a party willing to send criminals away when they break the laws, so we can stop reading about criminals with long rap sheets that go back 20 years and who commit more crimes while on probation.
While I admire a commitment to our military, what if we were to put some military funding toward more police officers, better protection for citizens and stronger sentences for those who are arrested?
There is much work to be done, but I'm afraid we don't have the people working for us who are willing to do it. Sad.