Democrats not all of one mind

Bill Laffond Albemarle
Published: June 17, 2008

The comments in “Shooting yourself in the Left foot” (The Daily Progress, June 8), are misguided, inflammatory and completely out of touch. The letter writer references the “hypocrisy of liberals and Democrats and their own blatant racism and sexism” as though this group of exceedingly diverse Americans is of one mind and philosophy.

Give me a break. I don’t know how someone can come to view the human race in such black and white terms. Clearly, voters crossed gender and race lines, and party lines, in this season’s primaries. I crossed gender lines in voting for Hillary Clinton this year, primarily on the basis of health-care reform. My wife crossed race, gender and former party lines to vote for Barack Obama.

To stereotype the “left” or the Democrats as mindless voters who would support a candidate en masse on the basis of gender or race is out of touch with reality, and fails by far to acknowledge the intelligence of these voters.

Perhaps the real issue is that American voters appear to value the merits of both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama over George Bush and John McCain.