EDITOR:
I'm responding to the Nov. 19 R-C letter to the editor "Thankful election's over."
Yes, elections are contentious, but political advertising provides useful information for grown-ups. There is a difference between political ads that level legitimate criticisms about a politician's official acts and policy statements - like betraying American soldiers in a hot war or using tax money to bribe fellow politicians - and personal slurs like accusing an opponent of being crazy or extreme.
As to becoming "a nation of businesses for businesses," may we know which businesses have the power to levy taxes, take us to war, or force anyone to buy their goods and services? The only businesses benefiting from political power currently are the tech and Wall Street giants that support Democrats.
We have far more to fear from a president who wants to punish America for its arrogance and greed by reducing us, domestically and internationally, to a generic version of Belgium. Maybe the letter writer will let us know when the I-team investigators at MSNBC finally uncover that shadow government being run by Dick Cheney and Halliburton out of the basement of Walmart's headquarters.
As to the letter writer's fear regarding the new congress and witch-hunts for homosexuals, records at the Juanita Broaddrick wing of the Clinton Presidential Library show that Clinton himself introduced the hated Don't Ask Don't Tell policy in 1993. Fast forward to November 2, 2010. The Iowa Supreme Court justices who imposed gay marriage, which the author of a Record Courier "Fence Lines" column rhapsodized about a couple of years ago, were recalled by Iowa's enlightened liberal voters. Maybe it's the Democrats that are on a witch hunt.
The letter disparages the Patriot Act, which prevented several Islamofascist groups like the Fort Dix Six from carrying out attacks. Under the Democrats, there has been a sharp uptick in terror attacks, with Americans killed on our own soil for the first time since 9/11. Our air transportation security system has been turned into a politically correct clown college that treats everyone on the planet as equally likely to smuggle explosives onto planes.
Trying enemy war criminal detainees in civilian courts like shoplifters proscribes our ability to extract intelligence and allows the enemy to weaponize our criminal justice system into a propaganda tool. The near-acquittal of embassy bomber Ahmed Ghailani in Manhattan recently was Democrat incompetence and recklessness on stilts.
As to "the political party that contributed to today's economic situation", let's tally it up: Two years of total political power, a trillion dollars taxed, borrowed, and spent, socialized medicine written into law, and regulatory "reform" that amounts to total war on job-creators: Yep, it's the Democrats' economy now.
One last thing. The letter writer should tell her political comrades that the economic analogy about driving a car into a ditch and waterboarding-equals-torture hysteria aren't very credible coming from the Chappaquiddick party. Douglas County voters don't need any counseling, but maybe the letter writer does.
Lynn Muzzy
Minden
