Vail Daily letter: Herd mentality

“We (Democrats) are a cantankerous bunch … ” to paraphrase a recent author of a letter to the editor,” and because of her membership in that exclusive club, she will “vote this year for people who care about women, children, education, the working poor, minorities, civil rights, equal rights and who understand the meaning of ‘one person, one vote.’” It is because of this very partisan and stereotyped attitude that we have such gridlock and fecklessness in government today. One’s involvement in the political process should not be “party-bound,” a social engagement, or herd oriented. If it is about the issues that concern us all, then what difference does it make whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent or Communist?

That author, of whom I speak, pegs and pigeon-holes non-members of her party/club as callous and indifferent about women, children, education, poverty, minorities and so on. My wife is conservative and a registered Republican, yet she is recognizably a “woman,” has reared three children, is a trained and educated schoolteacher, and does not have a proclivity to conduct a head-count to determine who are minorities in our midst. A “minority” is one who chooses to be and disclaims membership in the “majority” — nothing to do with ethnicity, race or gender. In America, to say that conservative-minded women are, by definition, uncaring and indifferent about these important issues is to disenfranchise them as fellow humans and citizens of a “democracy” that the progressives purportedly tout.

The referenced author further enjoined, “Please join me in sending a message to those who would try to destroy our democracy by voting for thoughtful, concerned Democrats this election season.” Not only is this solicitation divisive and partisan, but it evidences an ignorance of the very foundation upon which American society is based. We never were meant to be a “democracy,” only a “republic.” For “a democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people take away the rights of the other 49 percent” (Thomas Jefferson). I say, eschew this purported “mob rule” mindset come election time, and vote for those who entertain cogent and rational positions on issues that would promote the prosperity and aspirations of all Americans, be they Democrat, Republican, or members of a minority or majority cabal — this averment may not be that progressive, but it is certainly conservative of what America was meant to be.

Fredric Butler