Letters: Not all politics are local
Re “GOP thrives at local level,” Sept. 4
Randy Pope, a conservative city councilman in the Sacramento suburb of Oakley, complains that his freedoms are restricted because regulations limit his choice of light bulbs, toilets and shower heads. He confuses freedom with unrestrained resource-guzzling.
A democracy is not a place where someone can overconsume resources selfishly. All those other pesky people need access to resources too.
With Pope’s other liberties obviously intact, he has confused freedom with greed, which he is still free to express in a major U.S. newspaper. May he also find the freedom to commit to conserving and save the outrage for a government that still hasn’t done enough to build a sustainable society.
Nancy Breuer
West Hills
Since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Republicans have used the so-called Southern Strategy to win elections. Even Ronald Reagan delivered his first post-convention speech in 1980 in Philadelphia, Miss., where he spoke of states’ rights.
This strategy works at the local level — just look at all those GOP governors and their control of many statehouses. But nationally, demographics are changing, and there are not enough old white men to make GOP campaign strategies work.
Donna Handy
Santa Barbara
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