Stewart Epstein, Buffalo News, December 10, 2019

The major and big difference between the “liberal/progressive” national Democratic Party political views of those such as two of my college professor friends and of people like myself is that they are more concerned with and more passionate about what I call the “identity-politics” issues and the “cultural-wars” issues while I am more concerned with and passionate about the economic, financial, bread-and-butter, kitchen-table, and survival issues of the lower and middle classes to be able to pay their bills.

Thus, I am more concerned than they are with conservative-Republican desires to make cuts in Social Security Retirement Benefits and cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and college student loans.

I have never had the heart to tell them that perhaps their priorities are colored by the fact that they both have combined incomes with their wives of over $230,000 per year, while my wife and I fall under the official federal government category of “near-poverty” (between 100% to 125% of the “official poverty line”).

My well-to-do friends are more concerned with and more passionate about issues such as racism, inclusion, the plight of minority groups, white nationalism and the plight of illegal immigrants. They can well-afford to.

But don’t misinterpret what I am saying here. I also do care a lot about the “identity-politics” and “cultural-wars” issues. I just care more about people being able to survive economically and financially.

It is very hard and painful for me to listen to my fellow Democrats expressing more heartfelt and passionate concern for the well-being of undocumented immigrants while expressing less concern and passion for the well-being of our poor, our near-poor and our senior citizens who did all of the right things in life and now are struggling to survive and to be able to pay their bills.

Stewart Epstein

Rochester