Letter to the Editor

To the editor,

Political parties were never written into the Constitution, the Founding Fathers feared if they came to exist, they would tear the nation apart. Their worst fears were realized in the Civil War when the Republicans opposed to slavery electorally defeated Democrats who favored slavery in 1860. Today the south once a strong hold for the Democratic party has flipped to a stronghold for Republicans. Political parties and what they stand for are not frozen in time, they change the question is do you.

How are Republicans and Democrats different today? Often it seems the differences feel exaggerated but the handling of COVID–19 demonstrates a contrast in choices of response. Surveys suggest that Democrats and Republicans differ on what they believe about COVID-19 and who they believe. It may be daring to believe that people prefer the truth over lies and would listen to experts over political and media hacks, but it seems that is not always true. It is safe to say that most Democrats prefer experts and professionals for COVID–19 information.

There are over 14 million cases of COVID–19 and growing, this would be the same as visiting the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho all at the same time and finding everyone either dead, ill, recovering, or recovered from the same illness. There are over 277,000 deaths and growing, the same as going to Spokane or Boise and finding everyone dead.

There are definitely two major differences between Republicans and Democrats today and those differences are reflected in the positions they take towards the issues and problems of today. The first is a disagreement on how much government should be involved in our lives and the second is a difference of agreement on the notion of my rights.

Democrats believe we are better served by a more active role for government, especially the federal government. Republicans believe in a more limited role for the federal government except when it comes to spending for the military and giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

There are no absolute rights. You say hold on, the Constitution guarantees certain rights and those are absolute. What about the right to practice my religion as I see fit? If a religion said it was just fine to marry off young girls under the age of 18 and that should those young women fail to submit to their husband the young girls could be raped then further claim the Bible allowed such a practice quoting scripture to prove their point; would we say no that is taking your religious freedom practice too far, most Americans would. We could examine almost every right and find an extreme claim where the majority would agree that is taking the right too far.

Those who argue being required to wear a mask in the COVID–19 pandemic is a violation of their rights are sometimes the same people who denounce abortion as wrong because it takes an innocent life. In 2020 the State of Washington has had at least 3,065 deaths attributed to COVID–19 and 5,630 abortions. In the State of Idaho there have been 1,037 deaths due to COVID–19 and 1290 abortions in 2020. Were the lives lost to COVID–19 any less precious than those attributed to abortion and if wearing a mask will help save a life is it not your duty to do so versus a notion of your right not to. We don’t allow drunk driving because it threatens people lives so why should we allow a callous attitude about masking, a practice known to save lives.