In a letter in the Santa Maria Times, Steve McCoy (“Short memory for Democrats,” July 16) claims “one of the unsaid platforms of the Democratic Party is to avoid responsibility at all costs,” taxing the hardworking “to pay for many who don’t want to work all that hard.”
I hear this a lot from those lucky enough to be born healthy, smart, well-connected, and scornful of those not so lucky. It’s an old plaint of the selfish and hard-hearted, but many of these also claim to believe in the Judeo-Christian ethic, indeed claim to be good Christians. How ironic. Isn’t this the religion founded on the teaching of Jesus, who praised the charitable; who asked his followers to care for the poor, the sick, the unfortunate; who said, “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven”?
The Democratic Party platform McCoy attacks appears to put more stock in those teachings than those publicly invoking His name while promoting their own material interests and treating the wretched poor with contempt. Remember that hypocrisy in November.
This article appears in Aug 5-12, 2010.