Dear editor:
Being a registered Republican, I am offended by the content of the guest columnist, Michael Leppert, in the Dec. 27 issue of The Tribune.
The gist of the article concludes that the Republican Party is divisive, yet the mere title of the article is not only divisive but also offensive: “It’s America vs. the country club next November.”
Did I read that right? Did Mr. Leppert conclude that to be American, you must espouse the beliefs of the Democratic Party, and if you do not, you are, sadly, a member of the country club (non-American) Republicans? Wow!
That sounds a bit like someone may need some inclusive training, of which Mr. Leppert suggested all Republicans need. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and conclude that the newspaper editor gave his article that catchy title.
Consider all of the negative labels Mr. Leppert applied to the Republican Party: Country club, weird, whiteness, maleness, absurd, exhausting groupthink, alarmingly homogeneous, mob, divisive, exclusive, biased and perhaps more insinuations, since a “club” suggests wealth and influence, of which I have neither.
My dad was a veteran, a blue-collar laborer, poor (from raising seven kids) and a Democrat, but he switched parties in his later years because he felt his party had veered from principles he held dear all his life. I don’t deny that the above labels exist in the Republican Party, nor should anyone deny that they exist in the Democratic Party. But it seems highly judgmental to categorize all people in either party as being all of these things.
As for “the club” declaring war on diversity, equity and inclusion training, this seems a rather harsh statement. Each person has a fundamental right to believe what they believe without being negatively labeled by these terms.
I can’t help that I was born a white male (though born into Appalachian poverty), but that seems to make me bad in Mr. Leppert’s sight. I am a strong believer in the Bible, so that has affected the way I view morality, but that doesn’t make me a bad person.
I choose to be a registered Republican because their platform is closer to what I desire for America, but that shouldn’t make me a target of Mr. Leppert’s article, nor the recipient of his negative labels, and it certainly does not make me un-American.
Believe what you want, Mr. Leppert, but don’t reprimand me for believing what I believe. That is what makes America a great nation. And no, it’s not “America vs. the country club next November.” Rather, it is Americans of all parties casting a vote for what they believe is right.
The Rev. Larry Arrowood, Seymour