Too many critics are wrongly saying the Democrats lost the election because they abandoned the middle class. Ninety-nine percent of the Democrats I know are members of the working class. I am working class. And no one has done more to raise our quality of working life than the Democratic Party.

The Republicans have not cared about the working class, with their tax cuts for the top 1% and their policies of keeping wages down, blocking health care coverage, trying to get rid of Social Security, reducing overtime pay, blocking child care and weakening protections from human rights abuses by large companies. The Republicans have not cared about the working class for decades.

I also cannot sit silently by while the critics say we lost because we cared about the LGBTQ community, immigrants, families of children with serious health issues, women’s rights, civil rights or the environment. These concerns are derided as “woke,” when in fact they represent caring for our human family, caring about each other. None of this is why we lost this election.

We all know what influenced this election. What the Democratic Party has “abandoned” is bigotry. And I’m OK with that. I am not about to turn my back on my friend’s transgender son, or the immigrants working in the fields, I will not turn away from anyone who needs me to care about their safety and well-being because some fool is telling me that caring is why we lost.

Robin Elliott
South Portland