Ouch! Getting beaten up by both your “Red” Dave Simpson and “Blue” Greg Bean explains these purple bruises. Although it hurts when I type, I’d like to continue the dialogue we’ve been having over your Red State-Blue State feature.
Dave congratulates himself that he feels no guilt over the success of ExxonValdezMobil or any other “free trade” winners. Does he really smile in pride as the gas pump display spins itself into an infinite blur of digits?
The global market in oil is about as free as the market in hot dogs at a ballpark — pay your $7 to the only vendor, or go without.
I respect markets as much as anyone; why won’t Dave’s party let us import pharmaceuticals from Canada? That marketstrangling policy costs American consumers billions.
The Republicans have steered more billions in no-bid contracts to Halliburton and others. That’s no market at all; does Dave the taxpayer gladly foot the inflated bill because Dick Cheney, the Crony in Chief, comes from his state?
There’s a sucker born every minute, which I guess is the GOP plan for demographic dominance.
Democrats want companies to compete for all the market share they can get. But we also want our government to be there to restrain monopolies and restore competitive balance when it’s in the public interest. Under the Republicans, our government’s righteous regulators have been as AWOL as Dave’s favorite president.
Greg, I agree with your criticism of simplistic political thinking and finger-pointing characterizations. I’m pretty sure you would be surprised at some of my political positions. It’s my party that denies our country is made up of red states and blue states.
I didn’t decide on the name of this feature; in true wishywashy, liberal-artsy style I would have called it Fuschia State-Plum State. I was asking to see more authentically liberal content in your newspaper because it would widen and enliven the dialogue, not polarize it into predictability.
A “gorgeous mosaic” looks better than a black-and-white checkerboard, doesn’t it? I’m not always sure my GOP cousins are up for complexity, or even a frank exchange of views, though.
Look how our own Republican former governor was humiliated for daring to claim “It’s My Party, Too.” Today’s Republicans are more Rush Limbaugh’s reflexive dittoheads than William F. Buckley’s reflective contrarians.
Greg, I struggle stolidly every day to be as “lighthearted” as your dialogue with Dave is. Really, though, can you play the “humorless liberals” card when millions of us watch the hilarious “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” every night? It’s liberals who have learned to thread the needle between “funny-strange” and “funny-haha” when it comes to politics. Needle? That reminds me — time for more pain medicine.
Jim Tobias
Matawan