To the Editor:
Re “D.N.C. Scraps Its Report Into What Went Wrong in 2024,” (news article, Dec. 18):
The Democratic National Committee chairman, Ken Martin, believes that it would be counterproductive and a “distraction” to release its audit of what went wrong in 2024 as the party looks forward to the midterm elections
May I suggest an alternative? Send every D.N.C. member a copy of “Original Sin,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which explains how groupthink was responsible for the decision by the Democratic Party establishment to support President Joe Biden in his ill-fated decision to seek re-election (the “original sin”).
That same mentality affected Democratic primary voters as they decisively rejected Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who warned that President Biden was incapable of serving a second term.
It’s apparent that 2024 was a collective failure by a political party that shows no interest in learning from its mistakes.
Irvin Dawid Burlingame, Calif.
To the Editor:
I was dismayed to read about the Democratic National Committee deciding not to release its report on 2024, the latest in a string of decisions that demonstrate how it has lost its connection to actual voters, common sense and upholding the democratic norms it claimed were important when criticizing the MAGA movement for destroying them.
The party no longer champions a clear brand “for” anything — having spent the last nine years being “against” President Trump — and it employs the same dirty tactics that it vilifies the Republicans for, such as redistricting.
How does the Democratic Party plan to gain back voter confidence if it is not willing to publicly assess its mistakes, admit where it went wrong and develop a plan to adapt as it moves forward? Isn’t this what we teach our children?
Shoving the report in a drawer and hoping that President Trump has finally screwed up so badly that people will come back to the party is not a strategy to move the party or the country forward. I’m not naïve enough to believe the report was unbiased and exhaustive, but it was at least a step toward reckoning.
Let’s be brave and honest, and come together to be a party for the people and the next phase of America.
Becky Daniel Raleigh, N.C.
Not Giving Up on Freedom
To the Editor:
As a 79-year-old American citizen who spent more than 50 years as a trial lawyer defending the Constitution and the rule of law, I have faith in the essential goodness and fairness of the American people.
I lived through the 1950s and ’60s and witnessed the ideals of our Declaration of Independence — including the fundamental rights of all human beings to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — extended slowly but surely to all people in our country regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
That humanitarian progress and the cherished freedoms it offered to all our citizens flow directly from our Constitution and the democratic form of self-governance that it created.
That progress is now being threatened by a resurgence of previously discredited ideas like “might makes right” and the willingness of this administration to abandon democracy and the rule of law to pursue its own — often private — interests.
But those outdated ideas will not prevail. The fundamental freedoms afforded by our 250-year-old democracy are now deeply embedded in our national DNA. The American people will never give up those hard-earned freedoms. We are not going back.
Paul F. Corcoran Irmo, S.C.
A Christian Nation? No, Mr. Vance
To the Editor:
In “Rejecting ‘Purity Tests,’ Vance Stays Out of G.O.P. Feud Over Bigotry” (news article, Dec. 23), you report Vice President JD Vance’s remark that “by the grace of God we will always be a Christian nation.”
As a rabbi and an American citizen, I found that statement deeply troubling. The strength of the United States has never rested on adherence to a single faith, but on a shared civic identity that allows people of many religions, and of none, to belong fully and equally. That understanding is what has enabled Jews and other religious minorities to flourish here.
Calling the United States a Christian nation does more than oversimplify history. It implicitly places non-Christians outside the national story, despite our service, sacrifice and deep love for this country. At a moment when Jews feel increasingly isolated and targeted, such rhetoric carries real consequences.
(Rabbi) Howard J. Goldsmith New Rochelle, N.Y.
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