From Bill Flook, President, DCKC
Elsewhere in today’s DCKC newsletter we articulated our goals, and the local issues that matter to us for Election Year 2022. So I thought that I’d add a little of my own thinking on the process, and the product. In advance of our February meeting, I asked each member of our Executive Committee some questions, starting with “Why are you a Democrat?” Here’s where I am on that one:
Why I’m a Democrat: inspired by Kennedy and then by the accomplishments of the early Johnson years — although increasingly turned off by the mainstream and Southern Dems of the later 1960s, I still found space there through McCarthy’s wing of the party. Democrats who I’ve admired have articulated a set of values which resonate with me – social and economic justice, effective and equitable public education, environmental responsibility, active participatory citizenship — infused with an approach of caring for and supporting the weakest and most vulnerable among us.
I’ve been increasingly appalled by the direction that the Republicans have been taking, from Reagan onwards — they’ve just dug a deeper and deeper hole ever since – rejecting any sense of social responsibility, in favor of a “what’s in it for me?” approach to politics. And today that approach has resulted in the Republicans being stuck with the cult of Trump — purely selfish thinking, painted over with a veneer of frightening anti-democratic authoritarianism. I feel bad for my many friends whose “GOP” has been hijacked by that cult — all I can do is to hope that it’ll crash and burn, sooner rather than later — but in the short term, we have to resist as best we can! So it’s easier now than ever to be a Democrat — despite our major internal differences, we’re the only political party that wants to do anything meaningful and positive for the people. And since “All politics is local,” I believe in doing my best for that cause, where I live.
— Bill Flook, President, DCKC