Your “Red State/Blue State” feature has become a phony debate, half ignorance and half ineffectualness.
First “Red State Dave” plays the “political correctness” card about Democrats looking for made-in-America swag for the convention. Does Dave prefer foreign-made goods? And if Democrats didn’t try to live up to their principles, Dave would play the hypocrisy card. Maybe “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” is an entertaining political trick, but manipulative taunts are a damned poor way to inform the public.
What Dave doesn’t get is that the Democratic Party favors dialogue and negotiation, so the public can understand the principles and participate in the debate. His party is a top-down machine waiting for marching orders from the leaders. Everything is settled behind closed doors, the faxes go out, and the ditto heads begin their pointless parade.
When it’s his turn, “Blue State Greg” pulls all his punches, mentioning only that “every party has its own share of nutballs to bear.” Maybe so, but the right-wing GOP nuts are nuttier. Remember, these are the people who think ketchup is a vegetable (so school lunches can be less nutritious), trees are a source of pollution (so they can chop down anything they want), our planet is only 6,000 years old (so they can enforce ignorance), and Saddam Hussein masterminded 9/11 (so they could beat the drum for an illegal, tragic war).
Which “poli-ninnies” are more dangerous?
The subject of red meat comes up several times in the column. Shouldn’t a newspaper provide something chewier than a stale pablum of Hannity & Colmes outtakes?
Jim Tobias
Matawan