The saving grace of Daniel Garcia’s letters to the editor is
that they are usually very short.
The saving grace of Daniel Garcia’s letters to the editor is that they are usually very short. On Thursday, June 1st, one was printed that consisted of three sentences: a masterpiece of succinctness. Unfortunately, Mr. Garcia’s pithiness does not indicate even a smidgen of knowledge, and this last letter is a case in point.
Mr. Garcia closes his letter with the admonition: “… remember what Republicans have done for this country – nothing!”
A brief perusal of Mr. Garcia’s previous letters to the editor gives ample evidence that Mr. Garcia is no Republican. He is anti-Iraq War, anti-Walmart, pro-Measure A county sales tax, and anti-Bush administration.
(He is also anti-CalStar helicopter and pro-nationalized health care, though anyone presented with a $14,000 bill after a 20-minute ride might be forgiven for developing such opinions.)
I hope I am not too far afield in assuming, therefore, that Mr. Garcia is some variety of liberal Democrat: pro-union, pro-tax and big government, maybe even with socialist tendencies.
I do not view myself as much of a Republican. The Republican Party often does things that simply infuriate me. But democrats actively try to turn this country into a socialist bureaucracy, and the republicans at least claim to be anti-government, so I maintain my registration as a republican and vote for constitutionalists on the rare occasions that they run.
Even though I disagree with the Republican Party on many issues, I can think of several things that republicans have done that even a socialist democrat should approve. Perhaps Mr. Garcia has forgotten all the history he ever learned, or perhaps he never learned much history, or perhaps the history he was taught was distorted by his teacher’s political agenda. In any case, Mr. Garcia, I would like to remind you of a few things that “Republicans have done for this country” that you should approve of.
Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. He wrote a little document called the Emancipation Proclamation which freed the slaves. The Republican Party was formed over the issue of abolishing slavery. But maybe Mr. Garcia thinks that freeing the slaves was nothing?
Theodore Roosevelt busted trusts, i.e., large business consortiums, bringing about governmental control of business. He also instituted our system of national parks, beginning with Yosemite. I have mixed feelings about these actions; I guess Mr. Garcia thinks they were nothing.
The Democratic icon John F. Kennedy got us into Vietnam, Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson kept us in, and that vile Republican Richard M. Nixon got us out. But that, I suppose, was nothing.
It was Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights legislation of 1957 and 1964. Eisenhower and the Republican Congress pushed it through, but that, to be sure, was nothing.
In this same letter to the editor, while endorsing Measure A, Mr. Garcia asks, “…what is your plan to get California back on track to fiscal responsibility?”
Very simple, Mr. Garcia. No taxes, no bonds. Put the government on a starvation diet. If you think that the government will become more fiscally responsible if you give them more money, well, then your knowledge of economics equals your knowledge of history.
n n n
I was so pleased with the low voter turnout on Tuesday. I figure that when other people do not bother to vote, then my vote counts for more.
I also imagine that only the people who really care about the issues have bothered to vote in a low-turnout race. So I expect that we get better results, overall.
But I do not understand how any registered voter could forgo the pleasure of voting in a primary. There are measures to consider: bonds and taxes to vote down. And in a primary, we pick who will be on the ticket in the big face off in November, whether cookie-cutter candidates only distinguishable by the R or D after their names or conservatives and socialists with philosophies and backbones.
Gilroy citizen Richard Hoenck had it exactly right: “If a person don’t vote, to be quite frank, a person doesn’t have a right to bitch.” About three-quarters of the electorate are going to have to keep their mouths shut until November. Huzzah!
Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every week.
