Your Opinion: Fueled by fear of the future?

Mike Barnhill

Ashland

Dear Editor:

"Hearing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warn CEOs to 'stay out of politics' is surreal," said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. After torpedoing campaign finance reform and fighting for corporations to be freed to flood unlimited money into political campaigns, McConnell and other conservatives are facing the "sickening realization" that corporate America is taking sides with the enemy.

If you want to see where this "showdown" is headed, said Michele Norris in the WashingtonPost.com, "flip on your TV and watch the ads." The all-white families have largely been replaced by Black, brown, Asian, mixed-race, and same-sex couples buying cars, laundry detergent, and engagement rings. Corporate America knows the U.S. will be "majority-minority" sometime in the next 30 years and "are protecting their bottom lines" by embracing that diverse, multiracial reality whereas "much of the Republican agenda is fueled by fear of this future." If corporations are forced to choose between that future and a party that wants to "time-travel back to the 1950s," their schism with the GOP will only widen.

In my opinion, if the GOP continues down this "mindset" of wanting to continue the lifestyle of the 1950s, they will lose more voters to the Democratic Party. The nation should not rely on just one political party and the GOP can act as a counterweight to bring more balance into solving America's diverse problems. But if the GOP continues to "live in the past" and refuses to adapt to the present, I think the GOP will cease to be a major influence in America's political future.