Dear local Republican Chair and Trump Cult: the United States has not had “open borders” since at least the 1800s

The newly anointed Webb County Republican Chair is not much of an improvement on his predecessor. They get their national talking point playbook and recite it religiously, hoping some of it might impress the local gentry. 

Again, the magic term “values” was sprinkled throughout his attempted rebuttal, and he managed to come up with some whoppers. From his writings, I assume he is an educated businessman. I don’t know what classes in government and civics he may have taken, but I must point out that there is no such organization as The Democrat Party. The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the U.S., founded by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren in 1828. It has always been known as the party of the common man. 

Perhaps the chairman was trying to be cute or perhaps he really didn’t know the true name of his opponent’s party, but I promise I will refrain from calling his party the Repub Party. It can, however, be called the Trump Cult, going by their actions after his resounding loss on November 2020. I can assure the Republican Chair that our country does not and has not had “open borders” since at least the 1800s and the now defunct “puente libre” of Washington’s Birthday celebration in the past. To say we do, is to insult all Border Patrol and ICE agents in the U.S. who arrest, detain, and deport thousands on a monthly basis. If anyone is guilty of “cancel culture,” all he has to do is look in the mirror. 

Several states, including Texas, have passed laws forbidding classroom teachers in high school and college to discuss slavery and endemic discrimination against blacks and Latinos because they feel white people may be cast in a bad light. Your Party is currently cancelling millions of minority voters across the nation by voter suppression, gerrymandering, and dropping millions of registered voters from the voter rolls for imaginary reasons. 

Sir, no one is coming after your guns, but by passing laws such as Texas did, allowing any person in Texas to carry weapons openly without restrictions, is inviting future massacres in public. Now that Covid-19 has subsided slightly, prepare for more mass killings of innocent children in classrooms. Yet you call yourself the “pro-life” party? 

The local criminal scenarios you described in Laredo have existed since the 1960s and have continued through the present. No one is going to defund the cops. They just need better vetting to keep out Klansmen and neo-Nazis that can’t wait to be legally armed and have badges to be able to shoot hundreds of unarmed minorities and claim they feared for their lives. 

Our Constitution specifically left out any mention of God and founded a secular government precisely because they knew what had happened in Europe that was controlled by the Church for centuries. The Constitution forbids any religious test for anyone wishing to run for office.The Religious Right started to infest politics afterReagan took office.God has no business being on any presidential platform. Your allegation about Democrats omitting God from their platform has been found to be totally false by Politifact. If your party is about God “first and foremost” why is your party leaving out impoverished and hungry kids and the most vulnerable amongst us? Hands that help are far better than hands that pray. You claim to put God first in everything you do. Which God or metaphor? Allah, Jehovah, Krishna, or the Father of your Savior? One man’s god is another man’s mythology. 

Elected officials should place the Constitution first and foremost. Your oath of office is to defend the Constitution, not an imaginary entity whom you are certain answers to you and no one else. Where did your defeated Chosen One start his hate-filled campaign? At Falwell University, whose president had to resign because of financial and sexual improprieties. H.L. Mencken eerily predicted “when fascism comes to America it will be carrying a cross and wrapped in an American Flag.” Did your party consult with the Almighty before placing him on your platform? I am positive He would have politely declined saying he was too busy in the Middle East, and reminding you of his Son’s parable about rich people’s chances about getting into heaven. Democrats welcome all Republicans to the fold. Let’s find common ground and help the least of our citizenry and not just the fat cats. 

I will wait with bated breath for the chairman to list all bills passed by Republicans over the last forty years that actually helped single moms, the poor, and the unemployed. By checking Govtrack.U.S. I found 232 bills proposed in Congress to alleviate poverty and welfare assistance. All of them were proposed by caring Democrats. Not ONE from your party. The only part of your letter that I agree with is that there is a humanitarian crisis at our border. The crisis had its origin in the countries these people fled to avoid being killed by cartels or corrupt soldiers. This is no different than the crisis in 1915 when hundreds of thousands of our ancestors had to flee to the United States to escape the Mexican Revolution, where over 900,000 Mexican citizens were massacred by competing forces of Villa and Zapata fighting the Mexican Government. Most of my friends can trace their origins to that generation that had no choice but to flee with the clothes on their back. We are all Children of the Revolución. 

In closing, I would ask all politicians to consider taxing all church properties, especially the mega churches of Osteen, Hagee, and Jeffress, whose combined worth is over $200 million and who live in multi-million dollar mansions and fly their private jets to invoke the name of God at your conventions.