Letter to the editor: Affluent Dems only want to bash Trump

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To the editor:

I am at a loss to know what to do with certain thoughts and feelings following the mid-term elections.

I am relieved that my wife and I, as well as tens of millions of other Americans, will not have to fear our Social Security retirement benefits being cut by 25 percent by the Republican Senate and House. With the Democrats taking over the House, we will no longer have to be scared for the next two years. The Democrats will block any Republican attempt to cut our benefits.

The same holds true for those who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, college student loans and unemployment insurance benefits.

But I am angry, bitter, resentful and disappointed with many of my fellow Democrats who I thought cared about people like me who have low incomes. These affluent Democrats are members of the upper middle class and the upper class, although they don’t see themselves as wealthy and well off.

I am angry at how they scolded me, admonished me and tried to shame me and bully me for the past two years because I did not care much about the identity-politics and culture-wars issues that they constantly bashed Donald Trump over. I focused on the bread-and-butter and kitchen-table issues of everyday survival. I focused on protecting the safety-net programs like Social Security.

These financially well-off liberal-progressive Democrats thought that I should have been more concerned with the plight of illigal immigrants, for example. I don’t understand how they could have been so insensitive to my plight and the plight of millions of us seniors who have to live on Social Security checks of $1,200 per month.

A good friend who does not earn as much as they do has provided me with the answer. They can well afford to care primarily about the identity-politics and culture-war issues and to focus on constantly bashing Trump over them. People like my wife and I can’t afford that luxury. We don’t have their high yearly incomes.

They don’t need Social Security. They never will. It will not affect them if their Social Security checks get cut by 25 percent.

Yet I am still surprised and disappointed that these self-proclaimed humanists are so insensitive. I expected more empathy and compassion from them.

For the next two years, I will still focus on the bread-and-butter issues that the poor, the near poor, the lower middle class and the middle class struggle with that these affluent Democrats do not.

Stewart B. Epstein
Rochester, N.Y.

2 COMMENTS

  1. The man has a darn good point. As far as I can tell, no one in the DNC or most any Democrat in office is anywhere near to being in the lower classes they are supposed to represent. It appears to millions of us the DNC has abandoned the lower classes except for campaign season. The DNC seams to have abandoned almost the entirety of Middle America save for a few isolated urban areas. Like it or not, the reality is winning an election for any federal office is problematic if not impossible without the support of white, male Middle America. Between all the gerrymandering and the electoral college, the Republicans have no need of any majority to retain power, and they know it. All they need is just enough support in a few gerrymandered districts and just a few important states to hold on. In addition to abandoning the middle of the country, the DNC in the last few years seemed to not care a fig about holding any statehouses or governors’ mansions save for mostly just the coastal states. As a Leftist, I just have to say it. You’re just not going to have any luck when you make it so obviously easy for the Right to claim the needs of the deplorable white man mean nothing compared to everyone else. I say that as someone who still wants equality and socioeconomic justice for blacks, gays, trans and what have you. I cheer on the approaching caravan of refugees from Central America, too. The problem has more to do with perception than anything. We all know both parties lie to us. I suggest to you all the Republicans are better skilled at it. Between their relatively poor skills in deception and their poorly played identity politics, the Democrats will be at a disadvantage for some time.

  2. I vote policies. I don’t care whether the candidate is wealthy or not. I will always vote for someone who will safeguard programs such as Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and pursue better healthcare programs (yes, I am for some sort of universal healthcare). I will vote for the person who is more concerned about protecting the working, middle-class rather than those in the upper-income tax bracket. And, yes, I will vote for someone who is interested in enforcing policies in a humane manner, unlike the automatic removal of children from parents at the border fiasco that happened last spring. The lies about immigrants and gross misrepresentations given by Trump and his cronies/media representatives elevate hysteria on the right and prompt a corrective, retaliatory backlash from the left, in turn making it seem the left is too focused on immigration issues. In this scenario, the right wins. That’s why Trump manufactures crises about Islamic terrorists (2016) and immigrants (2018).

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