Letters to the Editor

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Politico83

Published Letters: 29     Editor's Choice: 3

  • Please Stop Shilling for Hillary

    [Read the article: The GOP attack plan for Barack Obama]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Slate.com, my usual second choice for political commentary (after Salon) today exposed me to something I never really noticed before. It spoke about a heavy pro hillary bias in the coverage Salon and I have to say with that comment came the strong realization that it was very true. I mean this whole article might as well be a Clinton talking point list. This trick will come, the American people aren't smart enough to tell truth from fiction, we should go with Hillary since she's already been through it and survived, ect.

    That people might not be smart enough to realize what a great and thoughtful candidate Obama has is a really sad way to determine a candidacy. Every time I hear about the breakdowns I cringe at the thought of a country run by ignorance and fear which is what Hillary seems to be gunning for. Outside feminists her main blocks are the poor, the uninformed and the uneducated by and large (as exit poling shows). She does best with those who know least, while people who are the most likely to see through smear tactics like the Wright tapes or the red phone ad go for Obama.

    I would like to point out that the uninformed and the unintelligent are very poor voting blocks since they are more open to change due to base impulses most notably fear and hatred of the "other". No amount of fear mongering is going to lose Obama many of his voters from the intelligentsia, the elites, the young and African Americans since his support is both strong and thought out. Hillary has few zealots solidly in her corner and a lot of "swayers" who vote for her or Obama as the political winds blow. This difference in intensity of support is best seen in Hillary's complete inability to win in caucuses where zealotry is a prized commodity. Her voters are the exact voters who left Kerry in 04 after the swift boat ads and who were fooled by Bush's "if you vote for democrats the terrorists win" rhetoric. Some of her base will stay with her, some will swing away, but very little of it is really set in the same way that Obama's strong base is. If anyone is in a position to weather attacks from the right its by far Obama with his strong base of support among voters unlikely to switch sides. Poor whites, latinos, older voters and white women in particular were the ones that lost kerry the election as they were pushed to bush by fear, depending on those voters to stay pro Hillary is a mistake.

  • Bush style dilusions seem to be contagous

    [Read the article: Clinton camp goes on offense against Obama]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    The whole time I read the memo from the Clinton campaign I was just dumbstruck. I guess you could call it shock and awe. What world are they living in where Obama is the main distributer of muck and Hillary still has a chance in the election? It wasn't Obama that stopped the votes in Florida and Michigan, it was the democrats in both states; not only by changing the dates to January, but also recently by blocking new votes. Really the way the Hillary campaign talks about the race and Obama is almost identical to the way the newly formed McBush team talks about the war in Iraq. That's just what we need, another administration thats rooted in deception, half truths and even outright fraud. I keep forgetting thats pretty much how the 90s went under the Clintons a lot of the time because I really, really, like Bill and want to remember his administration as fondly as possible. Luckily I am unburdened by any affection at all for Hillary and so can see her for the lying deceiving shills both she and her campaign managers have become.

  • While the story is touching, it is not divine

    [Read the article: "God talked to me today"]
    [Read more letters about this article: Here]

    Personal experience is by far the weakest argument for the existence of any personal god. This is particularly true in the case of those who have only partial understanding of what most would call their "inner dialog". As your son put it regarding stealing the candy bar "God told me don't do this". I am positive almost anyone reading this story or this letter has at some point heard a voice that did not seem to be their own tell them to do or not do something. This inner dialog is not in any way divinely inspired, its evolutionarily and humanly inspired.

    The inner sense of righteousness is in no way related to any supernatural attributes of some phantom creator; instead that sense which all humans, unless afflicted with particular types of brain deficiencies of which autism is not one, have is born of millions of years of evolution towards a more societally oriented species. The greater success of those humans who expressed empathy and helped each other vs those who did not goes a long way to explaining this mysterious "moral compass". As a species we are not bears with large size , tooth and claw to survive alone, we survive only from this trait of empathy. To say that any semblance of this very species defining humanity and morality is God is to cheapen the part of your son which is both good and self aware.

    This is simply an instance of a confused young man fed superstition by inlaws conflating the inner dialog he does not understand with ideas of divinity he cannot fully grasp. If there truly was an all knowing all powerful all loving god quite simply there would be no young men afflicted with autism in the first place. Autisim, among other afflictions both in man and in the larger world is proof that either god is non existent and thus excused from his cruelty, or the picture of the irredeemably cruel brute Yahweah portrayed in the old testament is frighteningly accurate. Either way the morally righteous God who warns against stealing and wishes to help your son is a lie; your son, like almost all members of humanity, wishes to help himself and through this "god" voice he does.