What the political left and right have in common
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, speaks during a news conference in August in Manhattan. Credit: AP/Yuki Iwamura
A reader characterizes the left as seeming “to want the government to work for the working people” and the right “seems to want the government to work for the well-to-do” [“We Dems must stop drifting to the right,” Letters, Sept. 5]. That sounds like two teams playing a board game. This nation was founded by people who violently rejected a king in favor of the commonwealth.
What do we all have in common?
All people need protection from what we cannot possibly protect ourselves. That would include invasion by a foreign military power, effective plans to thwart preventable pandemics, access to lifesaving health care, protection from criminals — whether they wear a mask or a business suit — and protecting my rights from being infringed by other people's religious beliefs. Social preferences, personal phobias, and class status should not be issues.
Without a strong government to provide what we cannot possibly do for ourselves, we cede all control of our own lives to individuals and entities with bigger guns or lawyers.
— James Moyssiadis, Mount Sinai
I am shocked, appalled and disgusted by readers’ comments about the Democratic Party made by fellow Democrats. Wake up and smell the roses and you will see why people are abandoning the party in droves.
Two readers wrote that they want the losing left to move more left and support the New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. I urge these seemingly uninformed people to read any short story by the great Russian writer and political prisoner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to learn how extremely terrible the lives of the Russian people were under socialism.
I hope these readers just aren’t aware of the facts and will learn why their position is untenable.
— Bob Cavaliere, Port Jefferson Station
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