Leslie Ann Ashe Angelo: Sure would be nice to have Mr. Smith return to Washington

To The Daily Sun,

Thank you for your article “What to do when politics come to dinner.” We the people have lost sight of political reason. We are divided, but this isn’t the first time in my lifetime that there has been such divisiveness around the dining room table. The daughter of a WWII veteran with two Purple Hearts, my older brother was one of the leaders in the gay rights movement in Philadelphia in the 60s-70s and was involved with war protests, all while my cousin was serving in Vietnam. This led to my mother sitting in silence and me getting quite an education in politics quite young.

Now the people of my generation are in Congress and the White House. The same battle lines have been drawn. The pendulum is swinging wildly. The political parties of today are nothing like what they were even 20 years ago and this has leads us to this division. The radicalization of the left and the right has my head a spin. The further left (or right) a party will go, the more pull you will feel from the opposing side. Radicalism has become intolerable in both parties. It is a war. People on the right felt the need to vote for the party because the left has become under so much pressure from their special interest groups that it has lost sight of its true function – to serve all the people of the country, not just cater to a few trying to push their agendas. We didn’t vote for the man (eye roll) because we respected him, although there are some who are as radically right as those radically left, we voted against a party that has drifted so far away from center. I’ve thought all along that both parties should be split into two. Then those two in the moderate center could get business done. I’m not calling for those days of cigar-smoking gents in the back room making all the decisions, but somehow in my fantasy world I wish Mr. Smith would go back to Washington. 

Leslie Ann Ashe Angelo

Moultonborough