LETTERS: DEMOCRATS TODAY AREN'T THE SAME

To the editor:

I can;t stand it any longer. Speak Out callers who don't have the intestinal fortitude to write their thoughts and sign their names to their opinions are nauseating. A caller to Speak Out recently stated that Democrat F.D. Roosevelt brought us unemployment insurance, Social Security and worker's compensation insurance, and that J.F. Kennedy brought us Medicare. These were all wonderful and revolutionary things when they were instituted from 30 to 60 years ago, but after 40 years of continuous Democratic majorities in Congress, they have been gnarled and twisted to where someone can draw unemployment for an entire year, Social Security is being distributed to illegal aliens and is going bankrupt, worker's compensation insurance is so expensive that it can equal almost one-third of a worker's wages and employers are forced to pay it, and Medicare is going bankrupt while co-payments continue to increase. The Democratic leadership has brought us all this and has also found time to decimate our military to the point of not being able to successfully fight a two-front war (a quote from the Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier this month). This person also said that they couldn't think of "one thing the Republican Party has done after Abraham Lincoln." How about stopping over 35 years of deficit spending by a Democratic-controlled budget committee, Ronald Reagan winning the Cold War and bringing down the Berlin Wall by literally spending the Soviet Union into non-existence on military might and bringing our country out of a recession where inflation was in double digits; George Bush using Reagan's rejuvenated military to crush the third or fourth largest army in the world (Iraq) in a matter of days, Richard Nixon (while with his faults) opening talks with China and ending the Vietnam fiasco, Eisenhower ending the Korean War, broadening Social Security and starting the theme of a strong military for Republicans, Theodore Roosevelt starting the national parks system and securing the Panama Canal? There are other things and other Republicans, but I think that I have sufficiently made the point that Republicans have made their impressions in history as well. I would like to pose a serious question to all the senior citizens out there: Is the Democratic Party of today the same party that FDR was the head of? I don't think so. I wish you great folks, those who suffered through the deaths and disabilities of thousands upon thousands of your loved ones to make the world safe and protect our Constitution in two world wars, would just think about it for a while. Over the last 150 years the political parties have switched and reversed in many rolls. One example of this switch is Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, who took the stand against slavery. If a Republican was against slavery, where did that leave the Democrats? Regrettably, they were for slavery. But they have now evolved from that stance to where both parties condemn this unnatural human condition. Likewise, the Republican Party used to be for the rich and against the working person, but no longer is this so. The Republicans want to get people off welfare, educated and to work, while today's Democrats prefer raising welfare payments and the minimum wage, thus making more and more people work and live at the poverty rate(you know that guy who was making what the minimum wage is raised to won't get a raise) and making more and more people depend upon the government. Today's Democratic Party leaders have gone so far that they will proudly defend and fight for perjury, jury tampering, sex lies, immorality, partial-birth abortion, corruption, confiscatory taxation, adultery and lies by the president directly to the citizens of the United States. It is my opinion that the people alive in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s have not changed their opinions and beliefs very much, but the people who control their Democratic Party have. The leaders of the Democratic Party of FDR have moved that party toward the left so preposterously far that the party platform now borders on socialism. Would President Roosevelt or President Truman have tolerated gun control? Abortion? Constantly rising taxes? Slashing, demoralizing and debilitating the military? Federal government control of our neighborhood schools? Lies told to grand juries or directly to the American public by one of their staff, let alone themselves? I think not. These socialists that have taken over the once respectable Democratic Party have made these changes and reversals so slowly that most of us haven't noticed them. Like our growing children, we see them every day and don't notice how they change and grow. I now ask all of you people who were the real Democrats 50 years ago to please pretend you just woke up from a 40-year nap and look at the two major political parties. Which is closer to Mr. Truman's? Are the ideals of this Democratic Party the ideals that your loved ones had in mind when they went off to fight in World War II? After this careful consideration, please remember that, even if we fail to, history will judge. It will judge not only the politicians of our time, but also the people and electorate who allowed those politicians to partake in their immoral and unethical deeds without demanding proper consequences. Please use your vote this Nov. 3 to show our Congress that we demand they support the Constitution and not the medias hype or their party's line.

JOHN R. MITCHELL

Fruitland