Letter To The Editor: Response To Importance Of Political Parties

By DENNIS LITTLE
Los ALamos

Mr. Kerr,

Perhaps I’m in the minority, I’m not sure and I’ve never seen a study to confirm. I was raised by a single mother who wasn’t political at all. To the best of my knowledge, she never voted in her life. In any case, I would hope that most people in a town with so many smart people would do their own research and decide who and/or what political party to vote for rather than just depending on what their parents said to do.

With regards to the rest of your letter, I disagree.

The House (with a Democratic majority) has passed a great number of bills, including quite a few bipartisan bills, but the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell will not allow them to come to the floor. There’s a reason he has adopted the nickname “Grim Reaper”.

Yes, Donald Trump was duly elected, but so was Bill Clinton, not once but twice. As mentioned, the House has already approved quite a few bills and is waiting on the Senate.  

So far as skirting our Constitution, perhaps you should read (or reread) it. Based on the other parts of your email, I’d suggest reading Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 5, which reads The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. Since I’m pretty sure you’ll also believe that there can’t be an impeachment investigation without a vote, I’d point you to Article 1, Section 5, Paragraph 2, which reads Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. Yes, there must be a vote of the full House to impeach a sitting President, the current House has elected to not require a full vote in order to perform an investigation, and that is fully within their purview.

You are correct that some people change party affiliations — and I’m one of them. It isn’t necessarily about how a particular candidate stands on a position, but how the entire party stands on those positions. As an example, look at the history of party positions during the Civil War and during the Civil Rights Movement. Parties change and always will. What was the Democratic Party in 1800 is not the same as the Democratic Party in 2019. You may consider these people to be “cut and runners” but I don’t. As I said, people change as do political parties.

I do agree to a certain extent that more study should be devoted to government history but I would much rather people be taught independent thought and research above almost everything else. This has become much easier in the current world because so many resources are online — and I’m not talking about main stream media. I could easily look up the views of any politician or political party not only based on main stream media, but on global opinions as well as just looking at voting results and such. As the old saying goes, you can teach a man to fish and feed him for a day or you can teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. The same applies to politics.

One thing we do agree on completely — stay informed, participate in supporting your values and positions, get involved where you can, voice your opinion — and one you left out, GO VOTE and get everyone else you know to do the same. It doesn’t take long especially in a town the size of ours.

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