By PAUL ANGER and VICKIE DAHLMAN-ANGER
On Facebook and Instagram, Jefferson Parish (Louisiana) Democrats are posting heartfelt videos – one from Paul -- as dozens of folks explain Why I’m a Democrat.
Check ‘em out at https://facebook.com/JPDemocrats and https://www.instagram.com/JPDemocrats. The posts have drawn a flurry of responses, many supportive but most from trolls who can’t understand why anyone is a “Democrap” or “Demo-rat.”
Maybe that’s what we’ve become, a mean-spirited nation roiled by name-callers inspired and unleashed by our name-caller-in-chief. Donald Trump has taught his adoring battalions to belittle, smear and assault his opponents – online, on the street, at the Capitol.
But the Dems’ videos keep coming, driving trolls crazy as one Democrat after another patiently explains that when the vast majority of Americans go to the polls, it’s in their interests to vote Democrat.
In the videos, folks talk about concepts like empathy, equal justice and opportunity, voting rights, fair taxes that should fall less on low- and middle-income earners and small-business owners, more support for public education, affordable health care and prescriptions, renewable energy incentives and job training that shifts workers from fossil fuels to clean energy to help save our planet.
All that provides for Americans’ common good. When we support each other, we stand taller … stronger. Shouldn’t be controversial, unless maybe you’re in the wealthiest 2%, or CEO of a coal company, or a voter who’s lost in the far-right fog of bogus cultural issues churned out by Trump and Fox News and alt-right social networks and talk shows. Not a single Republican voted for the recent Inflation Reduction Act, which addresses many critical needs for Americans and is paid for (and then some) by slightly raising taxes on wealthy individuals and large companies and closing loopholes for tax-dodgers.
Where has the Republican Party gone? Fifty years ago, Republican President Richard Nixon was open to universal health care. Republicans and Democrats differed back then, but the reach across the aisle was much shorter than it is today. Neither party has cornered the market on idiots, but most Republicans in the last few years have left their aisle seats to line the wall on the far right.
So Paul Anger and wife Vickie Dahlman-Anger have become full-throated Democrats. After 23 years of marriage and 90 years of combined career experience in media and marketing, this is a recent development. We listed no party affiliation when we retired to Metairie seven years ago.
Then Donald Trump happened. Judges and juries will decide his future, but no matter –his torch still burns in Florida’s Daddy DeSantis and in red states across the country where Republicans are trying to make it easier to throw out legitimate election results in the future. That happens in dictatorships, not democracies.
Regarding the cultural issues, let’s get a few things cleared up:
++ Democrats are not against Americans being wealthy. Lots of us Democrats do pretty well. But Republicans work hard to help the rich get exponentially richer, and America’s gap between haves and have-nots is increasing. Check out the top tax rates 50 to 60 years ago. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who served in an era when Democrats spearheaded Social Security, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
++ Democrats do not want to take away your guns. Lots of Democrats hunt deer and serve in the military and own firearms to protect our families. What Democrats actually want is this -- universal background checks to flag people who shouldn’t have guns, and common-sense restrictions on mass-kill weapons.
++ Democrats are not for open borders. We do want asylum-seekers to be considered expeditiously and respectfully. We believe in opening paths to legal status. America was not built on a stiff-arm, stopping those fleeing oppression and fearing for their lives. It’s a fact that immigrants quickly make positive contributions to our economy, above the cost of initial services. And hey -- we need the workers.
++ Re the idea that Democratic “elites” or “woke” people run the country – huh? Is it bad to be “woke” if that means standing against injustice and feeling empathy for others? Should Jesus now be a butt of sarcasm because he went “woke” at the Sermon on the Mount, invoking the Golden Rule as a distillation of what he learned from the Hebrew bible? And actually, who is “elite” in America? Aren’t these people “elite” -- The Donald? The Koch brothers? Tucker Carlson?
++ Re abortion -- pro-life vs. pro-choice is a heart-breaking issue. Vickie and Paul are pro-choice, with reservations. Rape, incest and health of the mother should be reservations for pro-life advocates. Here’s a question: Can lawmakers who believe life begins at conception but vote against universal early childhood education really call themselves pro-life?
The bottom line in our house is this – the extreme right could destroy democracy. We don’t much like the extreme left, either. Bernie and The Squad can go too far.
But we all have to choose in the voting booth. Vickie and Paul choose to support the common good of Americans, preserve the planet for our kids and grandkids, stop the alt-world madness, and uphold our democracy.
That’s why we’re Democrats.