Letters to the Editor: Americans simply don’t like the party of coastal elites. Democrats need a change

To the editor: I was lucky enough to be born to a Democratic activist mother and an ACLU father 81 years ago. I have been a Democrat since 1968. I voted for President Biden in 2020. I voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Under no circumstances would I, or could I, vote for President-elect Trump.
Still, being a rank-and-file Democrat is hard. Our leadership insists on willful blindness to the fact that we have become the party of the well-educated elite and we have left the multiracial working class behind. Those who speak for us virtue-signal about culture-war issues and congratulate each other for their moral superiority.
I voted for Biden four years ago, but even then I knew he was frail. I am ashamed that our leadership covered for him and allowed him to run until he withdrew last July.
What I have heard from my fellow Democrats is some version of, “Just wait until 2026, when we will take back the House and impeach him again.” One more empty feel-good gesture.
We need to give up the conviction that because we are smarter and richer and cleaner, we are the party chosen by God or history. We need to get off our moral high horse and rethink our attitudes so the people will actually choose us.
Our attitude feels good, but it is stupid.
Mark Janssen, Yorba Linda
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To the editor: Columnist Anita Chabria needs a reality check. She’s off when she writes in her column about the fight that California faces, “The majority of Americans do not share the values that this state holds dear.”
The voting age population of the U.S. is just more than 262 million, and Trump’s vote count so far is around 74 million. That’s 28%, not half, and those who did vote for Trump didn’t all do so because they are hard-core bigots. Many voters have been fooled by right-wing demagoguery.
Also, the claim that “first and foremost … this was a free and fair election” ignores serious right-wing voter suppression that has been going on for years.
Val Carlson, Los Angeles
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To the editor: It didn’t take long to see Gov. Gavin Newsom’s strategy for his run for the presidency in 2028.
He is going to save California from the evil Trump administration and show the nation how it’s done. Who is going to pay for this stage play? Why, the taxpayers of California, of course.
We have a high cost of living, the highest gas prices, the highest housing costs, the highest homeless population and the highest taxes anywhere. Why not just add on the cost of challenging the federal government to this? Does anybody in California expect anything less?
William Carroll, Carlsbad