George Allen is not a Tea Partier Re: “Allen, Radtke court Tea Party vote,” April 17
David Sherfinski’s article shows that the GOP just doesn’t get it. There is no way those of us who support the Tea Party will ever vote for George Allen, who is just another self-serving politician who says whatever buzzwords he thinks will get him votes this time around.
We are not going to hold our noses and vote for the Republican establishment’s pick just because he supposedly stinks less than the donkey’s nominee. No mas! If Allen is nominated, he will lose in Virginia like Bob Ehrlich did in Maryland.
Allen’s contributions are not coming from the Tea Party, but from special interests and big business that will expect favors in return. He is part of the problem, along with John Boehner and the other establishment retreads, RINOs and neocons.
If the GOP wants to win, it needs to get them to support Tea Party candidates. Otherwise we will keep voting for the Democrats until they finally get the message.
William Adams
Springfield
Gentrification eventually creates homogenization
Re: “Concerns raised that Purple Line will displace low-income residents,” April 15
Gentrification is a process in which public officials find a new way to “dress up” an area so it attracts wealthier residents, but displaces older residents when rents hit the ceiling.
Sure, new transportation projects create jobs, but they don’t benefit the residents who are forced to move out. And as new developers arrive to tear down the older parts of Prince George’s County, officials will eventually want to purge all low-income residents. So the working class will continue moving east, bringing future generations with them.
Each neighborhood that undergoes this gentrification process will lose its character and eventually look identical to every other.
Yiwa Lau
Washington
GOP nominee must court Hispanics in 2012
Re: “2012 in sight, Obama looks back to Chicago again,” April 10
Barack Obama might be a leadership illiterate, but he is the Muhammad Ali of campaigning. The man can hit you with a haymaker from halfway across the ring. When he’s on the ropes, it’s usually because he’s angling for a quick political jab. This rope-a-dope style of political gamesmanship invites opponents to waste their time on nonissues like birth certificates while he prepares to tee off against his would-be contenders.
The Republican candidate will be entering the ring with less money, a smaller political arm, already bloodied from his bout for the nomination, and trying to mend fractures within his own party.
Any challenger who plans on overcoming the reigning champ should secure Marco Rubio as a running mate and George P. Bush, the eldest son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, as a campaigner. Rubio can put the Hispanic community back into play for the GOP, but he won’t jump in unless the party’s nominee has a real shot at winning. And liberals may have forgotten, but “Viva Bush” might have been the single greatest political push to win the Hispanic vote of all time.
John Cofrancesco
Orlando, Fla.
