Local GOP chief should focus on collaboration
I was bothered by the tone of the Q&A with the new chairman of the DuPage County Republican Party that ran in the Herald on July 29. To me, Mr. Keller's mindset seems to be "us against them," Republicans versus Democrats, with an implicit but unsupported stance that Republicans can always serve DuPage citizens better than Democrats.
I would suggest to the chairman that each political party has people very capable of serving well the voters who elect them, and that government which is overwhelmingly comprised of one party or the other is not likely to be good for the governed - not at the local level, the state level, or the national level.
Mr. Keller cites DuPage Democrats as campaigning on inclusivity but then "being divisive and fighting everything," without providing examples. DuPage County's demographics have changed dramatically in the past decades; so, too, should the demographics of its elected officials. Of the 31 GOP elected officials listed at http://dupagegop.org/meet-your-gop-officials/, 25 are men and six are women.
It looks as if every single one is white. Where are the non-white Republican officials representing the approximately 30 percent of DuPage County residents who identify as Hispanic, Asian, African-American or some other category? If achieving the diversity in government implied by our county's current make-up entails "fighting" the status quo, so be it.
Mr. Keller is not an elected official. I suggest, however, that he keep in mind that the officials he chooses to run and helps to campaign would, if elected, benefit from collaboration with the opposing party in a joint effort to best serve the needs of voters; that DuPage County does not need the rancor and divisiveness we currently see at the federal level; and that voters do pay attention to how well they're being served.
J. Mark Bade
West Chicago