To the Editor:

It’s amusing to hear Republicans and other reactionaries describe Democrats and the Democratic Party. Contrary to their fiction-based descriptions, Democrats are not intent on keeping minorities dependent on the government nor do they any longer support segregation. Those who supported segregation after Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights legislation became conservative Republicans.

The Democratic Party still champions the working middle class, human rights and the work ethic. Democrats value individual effort and hard work. If you favor child labor laws, having a five-day workweek, and universally available public education, you might be a Democrat.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, has morphed into an ultra reactionary plutocratic party hardly recognizable to what it was. Ronald Reagan would not be nominated by Tea Party Republicans to be dog catcher, much less president.

If you think unions are evil and should be eliminated, you might be a Republican. If you believe that education should be for those who can afford private schools and that teachers are villains who teach kids liberal ideas, you are probably a Republican.

Middle-class Tea Partiers have been duped by the very wealthy plutocrats, such as the Koch brothers, via Karl Rove, Caritas, and others to believe that the rich will be better than the government. Plutocrats want to get rid of government so that they can have total control over the country and everyone in it. They want to go back to the time that three men determined that Garfield would be president.

Norman G. Hoffmann, Ph.D.

Waynesville