I WALKED AWAY FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AFTER 50 YEARS

I was a Democrat for more than 50 years, having voted for the last two, Obama and Hillary Clinton. I will not vote for Biden and I do not support many of the current Democratic Party’s shenanigans and am greatly disturbed by the Party’s leadership. I am most offended by the following, in no particular order:

I experienced the Democratic Party moving too far away from my 50-year commitment to a society that is socially liberal, fiscally conservative, increasingly strong middle class, and with no government involvement limiting legal speech.

• Misguided focus on Covid “cases” without sufficient regard for mortality rate, number of hospitalizations, tests per capita, improved treatments, and unintended consequences relating to child welfare and family economics. Case counts are meaningless outside of such discussion and context.

• Way too weak a candidate. If the Democrats deserve to win the election in November, they should produce a candidate they are proud enough of that they encourage him or her to be widely available to the public, for interviews, speeches, debates, etc. Hiding the candidate, and the running mate, until very late in the campaign speaks poorly of everything democracy means to its citizens. Personally, I am repulsed by the Party’s disregard for the citizens of this country.

• Half-baked Democratic platform. The lack of standards for immigration, the avoidance of the complexities of law enforcement, justice, and global politics are unacceptable. The illegal acts of race-based decision-making combined with the vague nature of social justice, racial equality, etc., are the basis of more illegalities on the part of the government.

• Lack of sophistication in advocating unspecified and unclarified beliefs that border on platitudes, such as diversity, inclusiveness, multiculturalism, social justice, etc. These are all good and desirable attributes for America and should be aggressively pursued, subject to the Constitution and systemic process, with accountability on both sides of each issue. All peaceful demonstrations are welcome, anytime and anyplace. Burning of the flag might be discouraged and disrespectful to those who died defending it but is not criminal.

• Failure to speak out against lawlessness in the cities and the destruction of property that citizens have devoted lifetimes to construct, develop, and acquire. The failure of the entire party to speak out against this is appalling. Innocent people have died so the Democratic party can improve its chance of regaining political power. Many of these people who died are children and employees of the local governments. This silence is criminal.

• Overconfidence and narrow understanding with simplistic solutions for such issues as global warming, poverty, racial divide, etc. Democratic programs that began with The Great Society do not warrant a lot of confidence. Political-party foundations for solutions to complex problems is a formula for failures that play out over several decades. The Democratic party’s ambitions and hubris seem to me to be out of control.

• Unwillingness to proclaim, to American citizens, the U.S’s goodness on the topic of slavery. For example, it was only 75 years after America was formed, with its own constitution, that the country fought a bloody war to make slavery illegal and then led the rest of the world in eliminating this evil practice that had existed for 5,000 years. This interpretation is as valid as the one Democrats profess, yet in these times of controversy, it is never included in the conversation.

• Defunding police and changing gun laws. It is an abdication of duty for any party to promote both the defunding or reduction in police and a reduction in the rights of citizens to protect themselves from criminals. As a result of this gross lack of concern for law-abiding citizens, I bought my first gun at 73 years of age so that I might protect myself and my wife.

In short, the Democratic Party has failed me and is actively and aggressively failing other citizens of this country, including those they proclaim to be protecting. I hope that by losing the election this November, Democrats will rethink how they might best serve the entirety of the citizens of this country. To do that, I believe they will need to become more comfortable with the word “profit” than the word “tax.” Yes, for all his flaws, I will vote for Trump. I will also consider myself to be much less a Democrat than I have at any time over the last 50 years.

Respectfully submitted,
Joel Rakow