Bert Dirschell
Centertown
Dear Editor:
City council members in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, unanimously voted to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at their bi-monthly meetings. St. Louis Park is a suburb of Minneapolis. A councilman was quoted as saying, “Our community tends to be a very welcoming and increasingly diverse community, and we believe our citizens will understand.” St. Louis Park is 84 percent white, 7.7 percent black and 3.3 percent Asian. Median household income is $71,346, compared to the national average of $57,652. The voters elected city councilmen who seem ashamed of our nation’s heritage.
This is the United States of America! No one was being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Why is someone who is offended by having to listen to the pledge even in our country? If you are a visa holder, or illegal, and are offended by our culture and prosperity then get the heck out! Go back to where you came from. If you are someone who was blessed enough to be born in the greatest nation on the planet, and you are offended by our culture and the pledge, leave. I can easily find enough support to buy you a one-way plane ticket to the nation of your choice, if you renounce your citizenship and move.
Minnesota voters typically elect Democrats to national offices. They do so because the heavily populated Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area outvotes the rest of the state. In 78 of Minnesota’s 87 counties, Trump received more votes than Clinton. He lost the state by 44,765 votes, he lost Hennepin (St. Louis Park) and Ramsey (Minneapolis) counties by 344,362 votes. Big city voters tell the rest of the state when to jump and how high.
The situation in Illinois is similar. The majority in 90 of Illinois’ 102 counties voted for Trump. He lost Illinois’ 20 electoral votes by 944,714 votes. He lost Cook County (Chicago) by 1,158,662 votes. Democrats in crime-ridden, nearly bankrupt Chicago run the state.
These are examples of why Democrats want to get rid of the Electoral College. They want the heavily populated coastal states to tell the “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamphobic…basket of deplorables” (Clinton quote) who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” (Obama quote) who live in fly-over states, how we should live our lives.