J.D. Prose – 11/6/10

This page was last updated on November 8, 2010.

Are Democrats an endangered species in Beaver County?; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; November 6, 2010.

As you read this opinion column, keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the Times. In addition to being an entertainer/pundit, Mr. Prose is a part-time reporter covering political stories. Ask yourself this. When a pundit gives his political opinions in one part of the paper, can he be trusted to report politics objectively elsewhere in the paper? After all, would a person whose opinion is 1+1 equals 3 report 1+1 really equals 2? Does he have a “Chinese wall” in his head to keep his opinions from bleeding into his reporting? (You may recall NPR claimed it fired Juan Williams for doing exactly what Mr. Prose does.) If it can get worse than that, Mr. Prose has made name-calling and personal attacks a foundation of his columns. If pushed, I’d be willing to bet Mr. Prose would try to excuse his writing by claiming he’s paid to be controversial and stir debate. The problem is, you don’t need to get into name-calling and personal attacks to accomplish those goals.

You can find the archive of my Prose column critiques here.

This column is yet another exercise in name-calling.

Mr. Prose wrote “So, what gives with the Republicanism?” I doubt there is “Republicanism” (whatever that is) in Beaver County. Mr. Prose apparently doesn’t consider that Beaver County rank-and-file Democrats may not be as far left as Democrat activists and leadership. Take a look at Beaver County Reds to see what I mean. My guess is local rank-and-file Democrats have not changed their positions as the party itself has drifted further and further to the left. As a friend’s father told me, “The Democrat party left me; I didn’t leave it.” I’m not a JFK expert, but I suspect he would be considered to be on the far right of today’s Democrat party.

As for Rep. Altmire, his campaign did its darnedest to run from the Democrat party in general, and leadership [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is an example.] in particular. To the best of my recollection, none of his campaign ads identified Mr. Altmire as a Democrat. If you bought what the Altmire campaign sold, there was little to distinguish Messrs. Altmire and Rothfus.