Lessons from ‘The Grapes of Wrath’

Hello, Jordan

I’ll begin this post with, “It has been a long, long time since we last spoke. Looks like things are going well for you... I'm glad.” I used those same words in the thread following your LTE dated Jan. 25, 2021 titled, “Where to from here?” In that letter, you criticized Trump supporters who insisted the 2020 election had been stolen. I responded to you with what I said twelve weeks before your LTE appeared in print… Joe won. I agreed with you that we should move past what did or did not happen in November 2020 and put our focus on other issues… like immigration. I also addressed your LTE’s left wing talking point about systemic racism. We’ll come back to that.

Today’s guest perspective is filled with progressive talking points. In it, you compare Big Ag luring Okie farm workers to California with immigrants who crossed our border during the past four years. It’s a false equivalency. Big Ag beckoned migrants in the 1930s for selfish financial gain, but Joe Biden beckoned nearly 90 years later for selfish political gain. We are now paying the price for the Democratic Party’s failed leadership over the past four years.

Some DJ readers on the left side of the aisle may chafe at comments laying the blame for the violence this week in LA on Democratic Party leadership, but I don’t recall Okies storming LA’s City Hall to demand better wages and other benefits.

You called for “peaceful resistance” to current administration policy, and I agree with you again. Let’s have it… lots of it. However, what we cannot have is rioters assaulting police officers and setting fires in downtown LA. When we saw violence across American cities in the summer of 2020, where was the Democratic Party’s leadership? In your 2021 LTE, you also wrote, “Of course, any violence is abhorrent, but Black lives have not mattered for 400 years, and the visible injustices of murdered black people is deeply rooted in the racism that befouls this nation.”

Those murders are also rooted in the Democratic Party’s failed leadership. The year before you wrote those words about “deeply rooted” racism, 575 Blacks (mostly young men) were shot and killed in Chicago. Where was the Democratic leadership? Chicago had the No. 10 murder rate in the country, and the Democratic Party also controlled the other nine cities. We sure heard a lot of rhetoric from the left about systematic racism during the past four years. Where was the left’s outrage over the senseless slaughter of Blacks in cities controlled by the Democratic Party for decades? Where were the protests?

Coming full circle to “The Grapes of Wrath,” both sides of my family… Okies and Arkies… migrated to Kern County in the 1930s. I know all about their suffering, and I know we need migrants in our country… desperately. However, neither party has moved the needle on real immigration reform. That’s beyond sad. We are now seeing in LA and other American cities more consequences of the Democratic Party’s failed leadership. Those consequences following four years of failed leadership at the border cannot be laid at the feet of the current administration.

You’re correct when you write, “WE THE PEOPLE don’t want authoritarians to rule…” Neither do the people want the progressive agenda that features overregulation controlling our everyday lives, dependency on government hand-outs obtained by picking the pockets of working Americans, and censorship to squelch points of view not aligned with the progressives’ agenda. Controlling people’s lives, creating dependency, and silencing dissent is not the way to promote democracy.

Mr. Sher conveniently forgets that President Trump was democratically elected and is implementing his campaign promises. Mr. Sher clearly likes democracy only when his agenda is pursued but that is not what the majority had in mind. The tiresome comparison of the dust bowl victims with others coming over the border is another cheap shot that only stirs sentimental but irrelevant discourse. So far Mr. Trump appears to have the support of most Americans much to the chagrin of the elites who would rather see our country burn and run by lunatics waiving foreign flags. Well, knock yourself out on King Day and wallow in your self delusion.

Yawn, snore…here we go again with a 750-word attempt to weave an apples-to-oranges tale to pen another “orange man bad” diatribe. Hey Mr. Sher, perhaps you don’t recognize the irony, but what you’re calling “No Kings Day” can alternatively be interpreted as a celebration of Flag Day and better yet, our (yes, our) great President Trump’s birthday. So essentially, everyone is celebrating Trump’s birthday. If these celebrations go off without a hitch – congrats to everyone in celebrating Trump’s birthday. But, if these celebrations include violence or untoward activity, local so-called leaders will take the heat and we can see whether local law enforcement was allowed to do their job and keep law and order. If not, I’ll notify the feds that the National Guard may need to be sent to our little town. Another plus. If any shenanigans occur, it’ll only harden the opposition to the opposition of President Trump and his common sense America First policies.

Personally, I’d like to see law enforcement launch their drones and and parade their military surplus vehicles to a staging area perimeter. Just in case protesters and paid agitators need to be kettled due to rowdiness. I’d also recommend folks take as much video/photos as possible in the event things get out of control. It’ll help the feds find/prosecute troublemakers. And finally, you may want to park away from the parade route, if there is one, just in case folks decide to recreate Los Angeles and set fire to cars or hop on top of cars to wave a Mexican or other nation’s flag.