I am writing in response to David Reel’s opinion piece in the September 25th Spy. I understand that appropriately the Spy leaves the content of the writer’s byline to the writer. It would be helpful if David Reel would not be so shy about his Republican Party bona fides as the past Chairman of the Talbot County Republican Central Committee.
This OpEd is characteristic of what I call the post 2016 American Enterprise sandwich. The American Enterprise Institute is the longtime conservative redoubt that has employed the likes of Newt Gingrich and Dinesh D’Souza.
In off year elections, the party not in the White House characteristically does very, very well. In 2016, the Republican Party let their extreme Donald Trump flag fly with disappointing results including the continuing speaker of the house fiasco and legislative stalemate because of the Republican Party’s slimmest of majorities.
The American Enterprise sandwich is a way for the conservative fringe to further itself with the veneer of non-combative moderation. The sandwich opens with a seemingly nonpartisan theme, in this case challenges and opportunities for Democrats and Republicans in addressing the African American electorate.
The meat follows with opinion and statistics which are negative for the Democratic Party. The final section contains platitudes about listening to the electorate.
Any piece dealing with how the Republican Party relates to the African American electorate that does not include the nationwide voter suppression efforts targeting that community cannot be taken seriously.
In the case of David Reel’s OpEd, it is not only in the style of the American Enterprise sandwich, but all the opinion is from American Enterprise staff and all the data is from American Enterprise surveys.
Be on the look out for this type of opinion piece and remember that Donald Trump is overwhelmingly favored to be the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 2024. Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and any attempts to distract from that reality should be ignored.
Holly Wright
Talbot County
Holly Wright says
Oops! 2022 not 2016.
Kent Robertson, MD (Retired) says
Thank you Ms Wright, for giving Mr Reel the credit he didn’t take for himself. I am a strict conservative on fiscal matters, but a moderate in most social issues. I do agree that the more we know about a person or entity speaking, the better we can interpret what they are saying. Again, thank you for pointing out Mr Reel’s bona fidés, as you said. See there, we have already found common ground!
While I found his take on the non-white vote interesting and food for thought, I was uncertain about his political perspective.
Your perspective is, however, blatantly obvious. I am new to the area and don’t know anything about you except that you are an opinionated liberal and anti Trumper. I don’t know your “bona fidés”. Anything else that would help me understand your perspective?
I am sorry that you think cleaning up voter roles, and being sure that votes cast are legitimate, are “voter suppression”. I think anything less leaves our elections open to criticism.
While I wish President Trump wouldn’t run again because he is a lightening rod for criticism of his demeanor (another place we agree), I did like most of his policies.
Now after almost 3 years of “progressive” administration, our borders are more porous than they have ever been. Inflation is at a 40 year high. At a time when China’s military has equalled and surpassed ours, our military is respectively weaker than it has been for all of my 75 year life. Crime is rampant in our major cities. We are more divided than we have been since the Civil War.
If there is an existential threat to the US, I think it is a continued “progressive” administration and agenda.
Kent Robertson
Royal Oak, MD