Telling it like it should be

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Another letter to the editor.

One of the comments:
Yes, we definitely need two ( or more) healthy political parties.  Just not the two we have now.
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We need two healthy political parties
By Michele Meeks, October 19, 2013

 I seem to have hit a nerve with some people with my last letter. Well, I meant to. I am also well aware of the difference between a republic and a democracy. I also know what most Americans think of when the term democracy is used today—the U.S. If you want to quibble over terms, be my guest.

I most certainly did not call all Republicans extremists, but those on the far, far right who call themselves tea partiers, yes, they are extremists. Most Republicans are more towards the middle and believe in fiscal conservatism and believe in negotiation and compromise. Quite often the extremists call them RINO’s and want to purge them from the party. Purges, no less: Now that is a hallmark of extremists of any variety. There are many Republicans nowadays who feel that their party has been hi-jacked by the tea party and others on the far right. It most certainly is not the party that Abraham Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt or even Ronald Regan knew.

I am a Democrat and a liberal and proud of it. But, I deeply believe that we need to have two healthy, strong political parties that put this nation first and foremost before ideology. We need representatives who are willing to work together to make this nation of ours work, not ones who are so wedded to their ideology that they shut the government down and threaten the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. And, for what? The tea partiers in Congress acted like small children throwing a temper tantrum and deciding to smash everything in sight because they did not get their way.

I am also very tired of the disrespect shown a president of the United States by citizens of the United States. I disagreed strongly with President Bush, but I would not have called him the names that are thrown at President Obama or made the comparisons to various dictators. Anyone who has ever actually lived in a dictatorship would laugh at you. Also, you should really remember that dictatorships arise from the extreme right as well as the extreme left, and President Obama is much closer to the center whatever you might like to believe. That is a case where some people would do well to read their history.
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