To the editor: Along with the 4 “Cs” visitor contributor Jill Lawrence highlighted, there’s a fifth “C” phrase that must be added to her checklist (“This year, the keyword for Democrats is ‘competence,’” Aug. 18). It’s “communist.”
President Trump stated it loud and clear the day after Abdul El-Sayed received his main race for Senate in Michigan, calling him a “communist loser.” Simply this previous Sunday, Republican New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis added her personal doozie, warning that Democratic candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America would type a “commie caucus” if Democrats reclaim Congress within the fall.
Republicans have used related rhetoric towards main Democratic initiatives earlier than. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Social Safety program and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Medicare program had been attacked by their opponents as communist expansions of presidency. But each applications survived — and thrived — as a result of they addressed actual wants and had been carried out with the sort of clear-eyed competence voters count on from their authorities.
That, in a nutshell, is the distinction between competence and communist name-calling. My hope is that voters will set the document straight come November.
Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Seaside
