An open letter from a red county Democratic Chair
Like many of you, I am a Democratic Party Chair in a very red rural county (Huron, Ohio) where just getting a Democrat to run for office is almost impossible. But, I look at my grandkids and think I have to do something. Something to begin the necessary conversations to raise awareness of the dangerous times we are in.
Those conversations cannot begin with policies. We have to reach common ground first. Freedom, Justice and Opportunity are values that are difficult to claim as belonging to only one party - they belong to all of us, Democrat, Republican, Unaffiliated. Defining Democrats as having these values is critical to having our views listened to and having credibility.
our moment
We are standing at a true moment in American history, a fork in the road that will decide our future as a nation. This fork isn’t about Donald Trump, and it isn’t about the next election. It’s about something much, much deeper. For the first time ever as a nation, we are actually facing up to the fundamental principal American democracy: are all people created equal? Do all of us .. everywhere .. have the same right to equal Freedom, equal Justice, and equal Opportunity? That is what’s really going on.
We have nibbled at the concept of equality for nearly 250 years. Back in 1776, of course, we had virtually none. Wealthy white males didn’t just dominate society, it was considered normal. Women didn’t count at all. Blacks and Native Americans were considered subhuman. Being born gay was considered an aberration worthy of either prison or death, and Catholics were considered spawn of the Devil.