After reading letter writer Mitch Townsend's war cry on the May 21 Chronicle editorial page — "We are the final guardians of liberty and freedom" — I could not agree with him more.
Townsend, as the new chair of the Lewis County Republican Party, calls upon you to fight because you're fed up. Fight the "degenerate Democrats who are destroying everything you hold dear,” he wrote.
That sounds a bit sideways. Let's check the board.
Fed up with the taxes you're paying? The Republican plan includes temporarily "lowering your taxes" by a few dollars, and also abolishing overtime pay and raising the cost of almost everything you buy. Guess which is going to cost you more at the end of the month?
Fed up with the theft of your Constitutional rights? Only one party these days is literally fighting with the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress that the president has complete power over every branch and body in the entire country, including your own.
You know, like a king.
Fed up with the “intentional division of our society along racial, economic and religious lines?” Only one party skewed inclusion into an illegal concept worthy of utter banishment. Only one party opened our doors to wealthy white immigrants while violently deporting the poor non-white ones, calling them all dangerous criminals. It wasn't the “degenerates.”
Lewis County is home to nearly 18,000 people over age 65, 11,500 people with disabilities. Sadly, Medicaid cuts will be deeper for blue states like Washington, specifically because we hold the “degenerate” principle that all people have basic rights to life, liberty and due process, regardless of citizenship status.
The dictionary says “degenerate” means immoral, corrupt, lacking order or structure, showing evidence of decline. That's fairly close to Townsend's description of his own party just five months ago in The Chronicle. Townsend, like so many other well-meaning, patriotic folks, are cutting off their own noses to spite the libs.
Try reading the actual Constitution and Bill of Rights, where it says clear as day it promotes the general welfare and secures the blessings of liberty.
"All persons" are granted constitutional rights, not just your favorites. Then ask yourself who is fighting to preserve those rights for you, and who is trying to scribble them away with a Sharpie?
And if any of you are serious about “moving away from ugly partisanship,” as Townsend recommended in 2024, a great first step would be to stop calling the few remaining constitutional defenders "degenerates."
Tennille Nicolette
Thurston County
