Your recent article on “Imagining a Democratic West”
was a refreshing attempt to really examine the political realities
of the West, rather than just engaging in the usual
Republican-bashing (HCN, 4/12/04: The One-Party West). As one of
the many conservative Westerners who really does care about our
environment, I’d like to see some changes that would break
the power of big business and prevent the destruction of our
region. Unfortunately, as your article correctly points out, I have
a hard time trusting a party that seems to be dominated by
environmental extremists from the coasts.
Also,
it’s important to note that some of the prominent Western
Democrats of the past came from a time when two liberal Democrat
presidents got us into an unpopular war, while their Republican
successor got us out and also signed landmark environmental
legislation. Bottom line, today’s party is not your
daddy’s Democratic party, and you’ll have a hard time
attracting conservatives to support it.
That said, I
think we need to find some way of coming together at the state and
local levels to deal with all our pressing regional issues. If we
wait until we reach agreement on the national social issues of the
day, we’ll probably all be long gone and our region will be
trashed. I hope that you will continue to publish articles
proposing ways that we can focus on the local issues that concern
all of us, while we continue to respectfully disagree on everything
else.
Neil Snyder
Idaho
Falls, Idaho
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline This isn’t your daddy’s Democratic party.
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