Local Democrats have often told me I need to be less divisive in my weekly column. One letter to the editor stated, “ Tearing down the other side, whether its one’s spouse or a person of another political belief, does not solve our problems.”
Another recent comment was, “It’s truly time for working together to solve problems locally, statewide, nationwide, and globally.”
Apparently, they feel my words are a source of division in our communities.
I feel differently. I believe it’s appropriate to point out flaws in another’s political philosophy. It is called debate.
One thing I try not to do is be derogatory to individuals who may disagree with me. After all, I have friends, business acquaintances, co-workers and family who vote Democrat.
On the other hand, I don’t believe I have ever stooped to calling my opponents names. They have the right to their opinion. I don’t expect them to write a letter to the editor, but I wonder how local Democrats feel about the division those in their party create when they trash Republicans. Maybe they agree, or do they even notice it?
For example, at a fundraiser last week, the leader of the Democrat party, President Joe Biden, related Republicans who embrace the “Make America Great Again” philosophy with “semi-fascism.”
How can someone be semi-fascist? It’s like being pregnant. You either are, or you aren’t.
As Republicans, we have become used to derogatory remarks from political opponents who would rather stifle free speech than debate ideas.
In 2019 comedian D.L. Hughley stated that Trump supporters are worse than devil worshipers. On TV One’s “The D.L. Hughley Show,” the comedian said he could never be friends with a Trump supporter.
In his 2020 memoir “A Promised Land,” former President Barak Obama labels Republicans — that includes me — as “xenophobic” and racist.
Worse than Democrat leaders are far-left pundits in the media. You don’t have to look hard for examples.
Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce tweeted in August, “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
How is anyone supposed to be able to debate someone who thinks you are worse than the likes of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Boko Haram? Boko Haram, an Islamic sect in northern Nigeria, has bombed churches and set fire to schools. ISIS is the group for radical of Muslims who beheaded American hostages in Syria.
Holding on to that opinion gives journalists a supposed moral authority to go against anything they may have learned about fairness and equal coverage in college.
A Pew survey earlier this year of almost 12,000 journalists revealed that a majority — 55 percent — said every side “does not always deserve equal coverage.”
CNN Anchor, Don Lemon apparently holds to that. In July he urged the media to treat Republicans differently because they are a danger to society. “We cannot have a false sense of equivalency about what is happening when it comes to politics in our country. There is one party, right now, that is not operating in fact, that has been misleading the American people, and that is the Republican Party,” Lemon said.
In a broadcast in January 2018, Lemon revealed his bias when he introduced his broadcast with, “This is CNN Tonight, I’m Don Lemon. The president of the United States is racist.”
In June, on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Joy Reid, along with her guest, Mathew Dowd said that both sides — Republicans and Democrats — are not the same. Believing that the media is too neutral when reporting on Republicans, she urged other reporters to “tell voters” the GOP was a “threat” to freedom.
In March of 2021, NBC’s Lester Holt received praise when he said, “I think it’s become clear that fairness is overrated ... the idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in.”
What all these journalists are doing is justifying their media bias.
I’m sorry if using facts and repeating what Democrat leaders and political pundits say is seen as divisive.
