BCT Editorial – 11/20/08

This page was last updated on November 20, 2008.

Middle ground; Editorial; Beaver County Times; November 20, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The talk radio and cable TV infotainment fear-mongers on the right and their dwindling band of followers continue to display a failure to grasp reality.”

[RWC] Have you noticed there never seem to be any “talk radio and cable TV infotainment fear-mongers” on the left?

“They are working themselves into a frenzy over something that is not going to take place — the liberal agenda they fear will take place under an Obama administration and Democrat-controlled Congress.

“Columnist Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post notes that the ‘fact that roughly a third of the Democratic House majority sits in seats with Republican underpinnings (at least at the presidential level) is almost certain to keep a liberal dream agenda from moving through Congress.’”

[RWC] Remember, a “columnist” is simply someone who writes his opinion. Not that there’s much difference, but a columnist is not a reporter. That’s one reason using a columnist as a data source is bogus.

“‘The first rule of politics is survival, and if these new arrivals in Washington want to stick around, they are likely to build centrist voting records between now and 2010.’”

[RWC] The problem is, history doesn’t support this myth. The administrations of FDR, LBJ, and Jimmy Carter are all examples of Democrat presidents with Democrat-majority Congresses. Further, Democrats also had filibuster-proof majorities in the Senate. All these administrations pursued liberal agendas. Examples include Socialist Security, the so-called “Great Society” programs, and the Community Reinvestment Act. Either the Times doesn’t know history, or doesn’t want us to know.

“And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. The middle ground in American politics has been abandoned for too long, and it’s time that somebody reclaimed it.”

[RWC] If you’ve read my critiques of Times editorials for even a short period of time, you know the Times definition of “centrist” isn’t what you’d normally think. To see what I mean, please read my critique of the most recent previous editorial entitled “Middle ground.” Heck, according to “The politics of hope,” Mr. Obama isn’t even on the left.

“The real mandate for change in this election was for Washington to change the way it operates. The party and politicians who fail to grasp that — the ones who retreat from middle ground to the bunkers of political and ideological purity — will continue to pay a price at the polls.”

[RWC] I thought this was the “real mandate for change” in 2006. You’ll note the editorial didn’t provide any examples of “ideological purity.”