Letters to the Editor
weeping for brunnhilde
Published Letters: 1150 Editor's Choice: 3
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@ What Difference
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Btw, who do you suppose loves America more: A) Yourself; B) Me; C) Joan; D) George Stephanopolis; E) Osama Bin Laden; F) (the now deceased) Saddam Hussein; G) Reverend Wright; H) KateTexas
I don't know about you, but I'm sure concerned.
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quite a trick, Walter Shapiro
[Read the article: The Democrats' God problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's called "begging the question" and you practice it with deftness:
"The wrath of Wright calls into question not Obama's faith but his judgment, the same quality that he trumpets when it comes to his early opposition to the Iraq war."
Nothing in your essay has argued for this conclusion.
Zero.
Zilch.
And yet you slip it in here at the end, as if it were common knowledge.
That's dishonest hackery.
In the interests of intellectual honesty, would you stoop to spelling out precisely the methodology by which you're pronouncing on Obama's "judgment?"
God, can no one here craft an honest argument?
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@ debaser
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I admire your optimism.
I wish I could share it.
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@ damnthatxanadu
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Exactly HOW is Hillary "fanning" the flames?
What EXACTLY is she doing or saying or has said or done in all of this except to say what Obama should have known a long time ago, that she would never had stayed with a pastor who said those things?"
"He wouldn't have been my pastor."
"You can't choose your family, but you can choose your church/pastor [forget which]."
"Farakkhan, Farakkhan, Farakkhan."
Please, try and keep up.
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@ damnthatxanadu
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Whatever.
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@ zipcascade
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"You're right- I personally am voting for Nader. I support anyone, though, who would open up a real multidimensional dialogue."
As one who actively campaigned for Nader in 2000 I just want to say hear, hear.
Multidimensional, grown-up dialogue should be sought out wherever it is to be found.
And we should be concerned about the systemic weaknesses in the system.
I feel we have a genuine dilemma in that "our" problem lies not just with Republicans, but with the disturbing trend (exemplified in my analysis by Bill Clinton) of Democrats cooperating with Republicans.
Hillary Clinton voted for the war.
Full stop.
Whatever you think about where to go from here, it's outrageous to me that "good liberals" can't even recognize what an insidious structural problem that represents.
It's like it doesn't even faze them and that's the disturbing thing.
I just want to be able to analyze our political system free from petty partisanship.
Anyway, I for one appreciate the perspective you bring o the conversation.
Thank you for that.
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@ calgodot
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hats off.
Eloquently said, thank you. It's heartening you and others recognize the dynamics at work here.
It keeps me from truly despairing for this country, though frankly, just barely.
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@ bringbackmalcom
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It is what it is."
Wow, what harrowing, prophetic words.
God help us all.
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Forgive me, David, I'm lost
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What am I supposed to have responded to?
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@ Susan
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"people believe Barack Obama is much more "liberal" and "progressive" than I have ever seen any indication of ..."
I think his liberalism is in his focus on process and his resistance of simple binaries.
His speech in Philadelphia was liberal in the best sense of the world. He offered context, analysis, signaled that he understood their were grievances on "both sides," etc.
He resisted any sound-bite, unequivocal denunciations of Wright because he believed the matter was far more complex than that, with a history and subtext, etc.
So it's not in his policy positions per se that I see him as a liberal, though they're basically liberal, but in his way of thinking, his commitment to seeing diversity and grey areas where others see unanimity and right or wrong.
This is how I see it, anyway.
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@ manos (whore of Babylon)
[Read the article: George Bush is John McCain's Rev. Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]FYI: The Catholic Church as Whore of Babylon was a popular theme of Martin Luther's.
It's bedrock Protestant stuff, literally.
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@ Zigomandelbaum
[Read the article: George Bush is John McCain's Rev. Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Very well said, indeed.
One quibble. You write: "Say what you will about Bush and Wright, any comparative analysis is specious. As I have said in the following post elsewhere, Racist America Got Its Needed Symbol."
The tragedy here is that Wright serves not only as a symbol to draw racists, but to draw conservatives as well.
Pretty much everything I've heard Wright say is liberal-critique of America 101.
A bit more pointed and strident, obviously, but that's his job.
But the underlying truth of his words is precisely the truth liberals should stand up and defend.
So it's not just "the black community" or race relations or whatever that loses here, it's liberalism itself.
Repudiating Wright's ideas is a repudiation of the ideas themselves, but even more insidious, it's a repudiation of the basic principles of pluralism and tolerance.
Views that seem wacky (and I'd argue that at bottom, his views are accurate) are to be engaged and brought into the public discourse, not rejected out of hand for political, racial, superficial, or any other reasons.
That this witch hunt is going on is not surprising. That so many "liberals" are bearing pitch forks themselves, gawking, poking--this is dismaying.
God help us all.
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@ Paul (ot)
[Read the article: George Bush is John McCain's Rev. Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](I absolutely adore the Alice reference.)