I am writing in response to David Reel’s opinion piece in the September 25th Spy. I understand that appropriately the Spy leaves the content of the writer’s byline to the writer. It would be helpful if David Reel would not be so shy about his Republican Party bona fides as the past Chairman of the Talbot County Republican Central Committee.
This OpEd is characteristic of what I call the post 2016 American Enterprise sandwich. The American Enterprise Institute is the longtime conservative redoubt that has employed the likes of Newt Gingrich and Dinesh D’Souza.
In off year elections, the party not in the White House characteristically does very, very well. In 2016, the Republican Party let their extreme Donald Trump flag fly with disappointing results including the continuing speaker of the house fiasco and legislative stalemate because of the Republican Party’s slimmest of majorities.
The American Enterprise sandwich is a way for the conservative fringe to further itself with the veneer of non-combative moderation. The sandwich opens with a seemingly nonpartisan theme, in this case challenges and opportunities for Democrats and Republicans in addressing the African American electorate.
The meat follows with opinion and statistics which are negative for the Democratic Party. The final section contains platitudes about listening to the electorate.
Any piece dealing with how the Republican Party relates to the African American electorate that does not include the nationwide voter suppression efforts targeting that community cannot be taken seriously.
In the case of David Reel’s OpEd, it is not only in the style of the American Enterprise sandwich, but all the opinion is from American Enterprise staff and all the data is from American Enterprise surveys.
Be on the look out for this type of opinion piece and remember that Donald Trump is overwhelmingly favored to be the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 2024. Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and any attempts to distract from that reality should be ignored.
Holly Wright
Talbot County
Sian Salsbury says
In a similar vein, did anyone notice that our own Republican Representative voted against the stop gap measure in the house yesterday? He joined these conservatives in wanting to shut down the government. So all you farmers that support this conservative agenda are shooting yourselves in the foot. All farm loans and Department of Agriculture help goes away when the government shuts down. Andy Harris’s pay doesn’t stop but your financial support for farm loans and subsidies does. All this conservative speak is a smoke screen for power grabbing not any belief in helping their constituents, you people. When the government shuts down it goes far beyond Washington DC. Most government workers are furloughed without pay and essential workers continue to work without pay. So your beloved military continues to function, yet soldiers get no pay. Thank you for your service, don’t feed your family for a while. Those border patrol officers keeping the disgraceful aliens out like you want (unless they work for low pay) don’t get payed. Is Mr. Harris really helping you?