Sometime ago I wrote a letter to the editor entitled, “How to Delude the Voting Public,” referencing the duplicitous campaign run by progressive Bristol Democrats and Laufton Ascencao Longo.

There were two problems with this campaign. One was that Mr. Ascencao Longo was a phony from the start. The other was that he and his Progressive supporters pushed a set of policy issues greatly at odds with traditional Democratic and Bristol values. 

Bristol since the 1930s has been a Democratic stronghold, and for many years that served workers and families well. John F. Kennedy represented the spirit of the Democratic Party, and the ideas expressed in his 1961 Inaugural Address were bedrock values of America — strong national defense, leadership of the free world, and a helping hand but with a focus on self-reliance.

The latter was symbolized by the memorable sentence: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” In his short term of office, he also focused on lower taxes, private enterprise-driven economic growth, a belief in a supreme being and the sanctity of life.

Much has changed in the Democratic Party in the past several decades. The party has shifted so far to the left that the gap between the ideas expressed by President Kennedy in 1961 and the Democratic Party Platform of 2016 has become an unbridgeable chasm. Nationally and locally, the Democratic Party has been taken over by progressives.

The values as expressed by the current progressive candidate for House District 68 are far from traditional Democratic values. These values will lead to greater government control, sanctuary policies, more government spending, expansion of the entitlement culture, and inevitably higher taxes. Those of you who have traditionally been Democrats need to realize that the progressive Democratic Party is very far from your father’s Democratic Party.

Mike Byrnes
Bristol