A Counter-Narrative
Shelby Williams Has It All Wrong
Recently Plano City Council Member Shelby Williams posted via his City Council Facebook page an essay he called “Republican Values vs Democrat (sic) Values.” I’m not going to link to it here; if you really want to see it, it’s on his Plano City Council Facebook page. In it, he states, “Most of you, especially minorities,” would find their values better represented by Republicans, and then proceeded to explain that everything we know about Republicans are lies told by the Democratic Party “propagandists” and the media.
His essay, in which he meant to convince folks that Republican values are really what we all long for? A copy/paste of the Texas Republican Party and National Republican Party “statements of core values.” What’s funny here is he couldn’t post a Republican Party platform, because they don’t have one! Trump has no platform, no policies, and therefore the Republican National Committee opted to not have a platform this year, instead opting to adopt the platform from 2016.
These “core values” are not in alignment with the vast majority of Americans. Here are where Americans stand on many issues that currently face our country:
- Healthcare: Sixty-nine percent of registered voters in an April 2020 survey support providing medicare to every American (April 2020). https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/494602-poll-69-percent-of-voters-support-medicare-for-all
- Climate Change: A majority of Americans continue to say they see the effects of climate change in their own communities and believe that the federal government falls short in its efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change. (June 2020). Two-Thirds of Americans Think Government Should Do More on Climate
- Economic fairness: Sixty-one percent of voters support Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax of two percent on those holding more than $50 million in wealth and three percent for those holding more than $1 billion. (March 2019) Americans want the wealthy and corporations to pay more taxes, but are elected officials listening?
- Racism in America: A majority of Americans — 57 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll — said that police officers were more likely to use excessive force against Black “culprits” than they were against white ones. Roughly three out of four Americans were saying that “racial and ethnic discrimination” is a “big problem” in the United States. (Sep 2020) Is This the Beginning of the End of American Racism?
- Organized Labor: Sixty-two percent of Americans approve of labor unions today, which is consistent with the 61% who approved last year and up from 56% in 2016. Before 2017, public support for unions hadn’t exceeded 60% since 2003, when 65% approved. (Aug 2018) Labor Union Approval Steady at 15-Year High
- Immigration: 77% of Americans polled think immigration is a good thing for the country. (May 2020) Gallup Poll on Immigration
- Abortion: Nearly 80% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or some circumstances (May 2020) https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx
Americans get it. Shelby would have people believe that anger with Trump and other Republicans is due to some sort of propaganda from Democrats but the big problem for Republicans is that majorities of Americans dislike their policies. Yes, there are certain constituencies that support Republican policies, such as there are, and candidates, but these views are not held by majorities of Americans. Republicans have been able to hold onto power not through popular voting but by gaming the system, through voter suppression, gerrymandered districts, and court-packing. When your party doesn’t have popular policies and agendas, in fact very little policy and an agenda of holding onto power for the sake of power, winning elections through popular vote is unlikely, which is why Republicans have turned to their anti-democratic tactics, not just in Texas but in many states and in fact nationally.
If you’d like to compare the Texas Democratic Party platform (yes we have one for 2020) to the Republican “statement of values, here is a link; it’s long and I don’t want to copy/paste like Williams did. But I will leave here the preamble, which I believe is a very well defined set of core values that most Texans, and Americans, will find little to argue with.
Texas Democrats believe the need for a well-functioning government that acts based on facts and evidence to preserve the life, health, and well-being of every person has never been more clear than now. The interdependence of every Texan on the actions of every other Texan challenges us to give of ourselves so that none of us fall. Together, we will overhaul the social contract and establish a new economic engine that allows all residents to thrive.
Republicans like Williams have completely lost their way. They are devoted to an ideology that is fundamentally anti-democratic, have policies and agendas that are unsupported by and unpopular with majorities of Americans, and have to game the system in order to win elections. But the good news is we have a solution: Vote for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. Vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for President and Vice President, and every other Democratic candidate on your ballot. If you live in Collin County, like I do, here is a link to download a ballot reference card for all the Democratic candidates. If you haven’t yet, go vote! If you have, please sign up to poll greet, drop lit, or phone or text bank to help get people to the polls. November 3rd is coming; let’s turn out and show the country just how much we support the Democratic agenda.
