What has happened to the Democratic Party?

Political Editorial by Publisher Shari Johnson

At a recent Calhoun County Commission Meeting, County Clerk Jean Simers mentioned in passing that there was not currently a Democratic Executive Committee operating in Calhoun County. It was something that many of us were aware of, but it had never been vocalized by a member of their organization. As the Primary Election draws near, I assumed at some point the Democrats would regroup, but there has yet to be any evidence of it.

I know that curiosity is said to have killed the cat, but I’m pretty sure it was the cat’s lack of attention to what was happening in the area. I don’t want to be guilty of that! So why is it that a party which ruled our county from the beginning era of politics just suddenly disappears from off the political radar and nobody is wondering why?

This morning Ridgeview News received another installment of the weekly column from Democrat Deirdre Purdy and her take on the United States of America, which is for the most part straight out of the playbook for the National Democratic platform. I have to wonder if this is not the reason he party has disbanded.

Her first question is “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

Well let’s see

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, each of these USD amounts below is equal in terms of what it could buy at the time:

Year	Dollar Value	Inflation Rate
2020	$1.00	1.23%
2021	$1.05	4.70%
2022	$1.13	8.00%
2023	$1.18	4.12%
2024	$1.20	1.85%*

Remember the “Where’s the Beef” commercial from 1984? Well, if you’d ask that question now, most folks would tell you that they left it at the grocery store at the average price of over $5.00 per pound.

What about Gas prices? are you better off?

YEAR	JAN	FEB	MAR	APRIL	MAY	JUN	JULY	AUG	SEPT	OCT	NOV	DEC
2016	2.057	1.872	2.071	2.216	2.371	2.467	2.345	2.284	2.327	2.359	2.295	2.366
2017	2.458	2.416	2.437	2.528	2.503	2.460	2.414	2.494	2.761	2.621	2.678	2.594
2018	2.671	2.705	2.709	2.873	2.987	2.970	2.928	2.914	2.915	2.943	2.736	2.457
2019	2.338	2.393	2.594	2.881	2.946	2.804	2.823	2.707	2.681	2.724	2.693	2.645
2020	2.636	2.533	2.329	1.938	1.961	2.170	2.272	2.272	2.274	2.248	2.200	2.284
2021	2.420	2.587	2.898	2.948	3.076	3.157	3.231	3.255	3.272	3.384	3.491	3.406
2022	3.413	3.611	4.322	4.213	4.545	5.032	4.668	4.087	3.817	3.935	3.799	3.324
2023	3.445	3.501	3.535	3.711	3.666	3.684	3.712	3.954	3.958	3.742	3.443	3.257
2024	3.197	3.328	3.542

And yet, Mrs. Purdy, a retired Attorney, believes that we’re fiscally in a better spot.

What about your Health, are you better today than you were in 2020?

According to Mrs. Purdy “March 2020, there were 121,653 confirmed Covid cases.  Medical personnel did not have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  Individuals were making masks and donating rubber gloves.  Doctors were wearing trash bags.  Refrigerator trucks served as overflow morgues.”

While I will agree that President Trump certainly didn’t rid this country of Anthony Fauci in the beginning when he should have, the fact that Sen. Rand Paul, (R-Ky.) said that the former U.S. chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, should “go to prison” over his “dishonesty” in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and lying to Congress, doesn’t make me think that we are in a healthy place in the United States. The fear incited by politicians for their own advantages and the biggest victim of this antic of Anthony was the shutting down of our schools, which has Calhoun kids far behind where they should be, and parents are still struggling to figure out what’s best for the kids, public, private or home schooling.

Let’s add to that the fact that another issue with prices is produce which is so expensive the average family must resort to buying cheaper, less healthy foods just to keep their kids bellies full. Are we better?

Question three from Mrs. Purdy was “Are we Safer?”

My question to that is, are you flippin’ serious? Protesters burned down entire cities, the Democrats blamed our police and convinced governments to cut the budgets of the only people in charge of defending our communities and we were safer? Praise God that West Virginia did not have a vast amount of those liberal thinking politicians, because leaving the people to defend themselves in West Virginia, would have been disastrous for the criminal element. With the number of people who believe in the Second Amendment in our State they would have put it to work.

If you want to know more of Mrs. Purdy’s theories on how well you’re doing, you’ll have to go read the article yourself. But this was my conclusion as to why the Democratic Party is in trouble in Calhoun. Because most Calhouner’s are smarter than that. But it leaves me to wonder about the one who are not?

I personally do not care if you are Republican, Democrat, Independent or any other party. I will not judge a citizen on their political affiliation. I too was a Democrat for years, not really understanding or caring about the National side of it. But the Democrat party makes no bones about the fact that they are Pro-abortion, anti law enforcement, anti accountability, anti gun rights and pretty much anti American. Whether or not they are local citizens does not prevent me from questioning how they would govern on our behalf.