Mailbag: Enough name-calling: Please respect voters of all parties

I am a registered Democrat. My husband and our adult children are registered no-party-preference voters. I have lived in Huntington Beach for 30 years, worked, paid taxes and raised our family here.

Apparently, however, some members of our City Council think people who disagree with them deserve a different label: socialist, communist or radical leftist.

At a recent City Council meeting, Councilmember Pat Burns opened with a declaration that there is no place for communists and socialists in Huntington Beach, while directing his remarks toward critics in the audience. He later referred to many citizens in the council chambers as “idiots.”

This kind of rhetoric is not new. Burns has repeatedly responded to constituents with insults rather than arguments, and a profanity-laced remark about a resident was caught on a hot microphone at a council meeting last year. Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark has also used “socialist” to characterize political opponents.

Do they even understand the word socialist? Socialism has an actual definition; it is not a catchall term for political opponents. Huntington Beach is a city, not a cable news debate stage. Our councilmembers were elected to oversee streets, parks, public safety, libraries, infrastructure and the city’s finances.

Democrats, Republicans and independents all pay the taxes that support those services, and all are entitled to representation without being branded communists or socialists for questioning their elected officials.

Disagreement comes with public office. So does criticism. What shouldn’t come with it is contempt for the people you were elected to represent. After 30 years in Huntington Beach, I don’t need a councilmember to tell me whether I belong here. Neither does anyone else.

Carol Daus
Huntington Beach