Letters to the Editor
mattwa33186
Published Letters: 420 Editor's Choice: 45
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FNL
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When Friday Night Lights was a seriously brilliant TV show, no one watched it. When they tried for a ratings grab last season, and the show was absolutely painful to watch, no one watched it. Hopefully they will decide that if no one is going to watch no matter what then they may as well be brilliant.
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Herbal remedy for pain?
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How about willow bark (otherwise known as asprin)?
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Missing the point
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Even if Obama came off as sounding elitist - I don't think he did, maybe that makes me an elitist, too - the statement still puts him light years ahead of the other candidates.
Before you can solve a problem, before you can even identify a problem, you have to acknowledge the existence of the problem. And one of the biggest problems this country faces is the disdain the American people have for their government. Obama has recognized that this exists, even if he may have misidentified some of the symptoms. McCain's response I can understand, he's attempting to ride the coat tails of the most disastrous presidency in history into office, but for HRC to come back with a quote worthy of George II is beyond belief. Are the people of Pennsylvania too stupid to be mad at a government that has failed them at every turn, or just too passive, Hillary? Are you going to suggest they start eating cake?
Are the people of Pennsylvania bitter? They should be. They, and all the people of the industrial states, have been treated with the same false sympathy and fed the same elitist bullshit we generally reserve for third world countries since the Carter administration. And yes, the Democrats have been at least as elitist as the Republicans here, until now.
Trying to identify and quantify people's anger and pain is not elitist. Treating them like they are stupid is, and our government's failure to replace the industrial jobs they let leave can't be explained by anything other than a belief that people from traditionally blue collar regions are too dumb to do anything else. That's the attitude that McCain and Clinton seem more than happy to perpetuate, and one that Obama is clearly trying to break.
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@zenhead
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you'd rather write in the name of a woman who, along with her husband and every President an candidate we've had for the last 30 years, says you and your Irish-Catholic tribe (which we share) can't find work and rehabilitate your cities because you are just too fuckin' dumb to do anything more complicated than bolt two pieces of metal together than vote for a guy who thinks you may be pissed off about how you have been treated... then maybe Hillary (and Bill, and Kerry, and Bush, and Dukakis, Bush 1, Mondale, Reagan, Carter, etc...) are right about you.
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@GoodCelery!
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No worries about the misspelling.
But I was referring to the idea of using spices for pain relief, when aspirin is really pretty natural already. For me, the one redeeming virtue of the pharmaceutical industry is all the great painkillers they provide us with.
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@cytherea
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's not what he said, and you know it. What he said was that people in that situation, those who have been abandoned by the government, make voting decisions based on what are basically non-issues because they know that nothing is going to be done to actually help them. So they pick a candidate based on religion, when the government and religion are isolated by the Constitution anyway. Or the Second Amendment, when that isn't going anywhere, ever, especially in Pennsylvania. Or any of 100 other things that are easy for candidates to talk about because the answers are cookie cutter and have no adverse effects on their corporate sponsors.
Since the greatest exodus of jobs in our history took place under a Clinton, I can see why HRC is grateful for the opportunity to turn this into a name calling contest instead of having to answer for the policies she has supported for 15 years.
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@Concerned Democrat Woman
[Read the article: Obama and the white working class]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not every member of the white working class was slapped in the face. Just the ones who still believe that something good will come from the business as usual politics we've had for the last generation and a half. Your government doesn't care about you (or any of us) any more than the corporations who shipped our jobs overseas do.
If you do, somehow, still have faith in government then maybe you were unfairly characterized. Maybe you are someone who can manage to believe that politicians still act in our best interests, and you don't get distracted by hot button issues. Maybe he should apologize to you.
But I have a hard time believing that all members of the white working class could sit there getting their asses kicked by a hopelessly corrupt group of elitist criminals (and Hillary is a proud member of that group, just look into her connections with Aristide and the millions she made in Haiti) and still believe that these people are ever going to help them achieve the lives their hard work has earned them.