Letters to the Editor
RuthAlice
Published Letters: 43 Editor's Choice: 5
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They prefer fighting wars against non-existent problems.
[Read the article: How the secular humanist grinch didn't steal Christmas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The problem with fighting a real problem is that sometimes you win and then you can't keep raising money and rallying the forces to your side. When labor unions in Oregon pushed for a minimum wage with an annual COLA increase there were political consultants and experts who shared their concern about the risks of taking such a winning issue off the table. Without COLA, Democrats and others can use minimum wage to highlight the GOP lack of concern for the middle class. With COLA, that issue is no longer viable.
So, it makes perfect sense for the religious right wing organizations who are more about raising money and power-brokering than winning to select non-issues who are by virtue of being symbolic, not real, can never be be won. This preference for losing is demonstrated by their unwillingness to win anti-choice legislation by exempting the situation where the mother's life is at risk. There are dozens of examples of huge steps they could have taken to advance their agenda that were frustrated by their unwillingness to make the slight accomodation for human decency and common sense. Why? Because winning stops the rivers of money that pour into their so called charities.
They're wrong of course. Considering the paranoic whining of the Christian evangelicals in America (the fastest growing and most politically powerful religious faction) about how they are persecuted for their faith, etc. etc, it appears to me that the religious right can win a thousand battles and still feel beleaguered and beset because they are essentially self-obsessed whiners eaten away by envy and hatred and no amount of victory will ever make them feel anything but persecuted.
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Why not sooner when it would have done some good
[Read the article: The long march of Dick Cheney]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Everything in this article was known before November 2000, so how come we didn't see anything pulled together so completely back when it might have done some good. The media, mainstream and alternative, portrayed Cheney as a moderating influence on Bush -- not a radicalizing one. Of course, that was because he has a lesbian daughter, so his personal experience made him less homophobic...and that one moderating trait was allowed to translate into a false belief that he would be moderate on other matters as well. Sure, the alternative media did a good job of revealing his innate corruption, but that's not the same sort of danger to the country as megalomaniacal power hunger.
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The Analysis Diminishes the Horror
[Read the article: The Abu Ghraib files]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was profoundly dismayed at these photos depicting the dehumanization of Iraqi prisoners and American soldiers. I confess to feeling that Salon's choice of a thematic presentation, categorizing the types of torture and dehumanization, served to diminish the immediacy and horror of these actions. If you can analyze something, you can diminish its power to affect you and Salon providing that analysis weakened the impact of the horror. Imagine, if you will, 279 thumbnails and presenation in, perhaps, chronological order, without the tools to break it down into smaller pieces.This ill serves Salon readers.
Nonetheless, I am grateful that Salon had the courage to withstand relentless presssure and criticism to put this out there for people to see.
I also want to tell those tit-for-tatters that no number of atrocities on one side can ever justify a single atrocity. An atrocity can never be justified.
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Wedge Issues only work that way if you don't address them
[Read the article: Immigration's race card]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sure, conservatives like to use wedge issues to splinter the natural alliances of those on the downside of power. But it doesn't have to be that way. My organization, Oregon Action, is largely lead by African-Americans who are strong supporters of immigrant rights. In fact, one of our leaders who rode in the Freedom Rides of the sixties, also participated in the Immigrant Rights Freedom ride two years ago to express the alliance between these two civil rights movements. Recently, Senator Avel Gordly, an African-American state senator here in Oregon gave one of the most effective and powerful speeches I have heard - a speech that explicitly linked these two movements.
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McCain's Free Pass
[Read the article: Jon Stewart, John McCain and "Bullshit Town"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why is it that reporters continually ignore McCain's perfect record with Right-To-Life and his other extremely conservative positions because he takes two non-Republican positions in favor of campaign finance reform and against torture.
No one should get brownie points for being against torture as everyone should be reflexively against torture. You can certainly determine that those who support torture have no place in government or anywhere else for that matter, but being against torture should be the de facto position.
So, he has one positive position and a charmingly blunt type of speech, but he is measurably among the most conservative politicians in Congress despite not being a fundie. So don't tell me how much you love him...that just shows how desperate you are to love someone republican -- and how little it takes to win you over.
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Better Republicans to Love
[Read the article: Jon Stewart, John McCain and "Bullshit Town"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was disappointed in how easy Stewart was on McCain and certainly did not think he grilled him. However, I don't want to get sidetracked by that.
If Manjoo and Stewart are so desperate to love a Republican, why not find one worthy of their love like Olympia Snowe, Lincoln Chaffee, Warren Rudman or Susan Collins? Why fall for the cheap theatrics of John McCain? It shows a shallow analysis.
Manjoo credits McCain with courage on immigration -- but that's not courage. There's plenty of Republicans supporting more sensible alternatives and so are Democrats. There were Dems against torture as well, but since they aren't in the leadership, they cannot push anything. That's Politics 101 so I know Manjoo knows better than that, but I guess even common sense goes by the way when you love McCain.