To the Editor:
Stanley R. Greenberg is telling Democrats to be more like . . . Democrats (“Why Voters Tune Out Democrats,” Sunday Review, July 31). Traditional Democrats, that is, the party that gave the nation the New Deal, the grit and courage of Harry S. Truman, and the vision of John F. Kennedy.
We Democrats should be the party of working people, not of chief executives and boards of directors. We should be the party of Main Street, not Wall Street—and we need to show, over and over, why one party cannot represent both.
We should be the party of immigrants, and of those who value their immigrant forebears. We should be the party that values education—not education bureaucracy. We should be the party of people of color, and of whites who know that a more inclusive society will be a more successful society, socially and economically.
Above all, we need the courage to fight for our principles. We should disdain campaign dollars from corporate political action committees and bankers, and stand up for public financing.
Will our opponents seek to drown us with their campaign cash? Yes. But we should relish the fight, confident that in the end truth and honesty will prevail.
JONATHAN J. MARGOLIS
Brookline, Mass., July 31, 2011
