Diverse Democrats

* After reading Ross Baker’s commentary “Democrats Find Little Unity in Diversity” (Aug. 10), I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. As an old-time Democrat, I find his characterization of Democrats as being earnest policy nerds, pious visionaries, gimlet-eyed pols or flat-out crackpots, to be a little too limiting to accurately describe the diversity of Democrats.

For starters, the Democratic Party still has some of those older infamous card-carrying “L” types who never stop talking about equal justice. And there is a new generation of picket-carrying “in-your-face” types who are preoccupied with environmental issues. Always visible are the little old ladies in tennis shoes who can be seen registering voters at a local mall. Then there are the homeless men and women waiting for handouts at the food bank, the Vietnam veterans holding “will work for food” signs, the men and women standing in unemployment insurance lines, the sick sitting in corridors at the county hospitals, and the welfare clients waiting in the public assistance offices. The largest concentration of identified Democrats are those fortunate working men and women who work every day to support their families and pay their taxes. And then there are always the government employees who are kept busy spending and distributing our hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

Democrats are all of these people and more. Our strength and our unity have sprung out of our diversity.

MAUREEN M. DRUCKER

Santa Ana