This page was last updated on February 21, 2010.
Going nowhere; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 21, 2010.
Read the editorial closely and ask yourself what “minor” fact the editorial omitted. The answer is at the bottom of the critique.
The editorial continues the Times trend of referring to solid leftists as “centrists,” “moderates,” “in the middle,” et cetera. You may recall previous Times editorials referred to congressmen with Americans for Democratic Action (self-described as “the nation’s most experienced organization committed to liberal politics, liberal policies, and a liberal future”) Liberal Quotients (ADA terminology) of 95% as “centrist,” et cetera.
This time the editorial bestows the “centrist” label on Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN). Mr. Bayh’s ratings by ADA and American Conservative Union (ACU) tell a different story, however. Mr. Bayh’s ADA cumulative LQ through 2008 (The 2009 ratings aren’t yet published.) was 85%. Mr. Bayh’s ACU lifetime rating through 2009 was 22.45%. Unless your position is “liberal politics, liberal policies, and a liberal future” are in the middle, how can you call someone who votes for “liberal politics …” 85% of the time a centrist? Why are many (most?) lefties afraid to admit they and fellow traveling politicians are solid liberals, progressives, et cetera? When was the last time you heard a true conservative or libertarian claim to be something else?
As for real centrists (if they exist), I view them like smoke in the wind because they appear to have no core principles to drive their positions. Otherwise, how could they take a big government position on one issue but a limited government position on another? I’d rather politicians have solid ideological principles so I know what I’m getting when I vote for a candidate.
What “minor” fact did the editorial omit? If you noticed the editorial didn’t identify Mr. Bayh as a Democrat, you are correct. I don’t know if the omission was intentional or not, but omitting a politician’s party affiliation is done frequently when -- for whatever reason -- the author doesn’t want readers to know the party affiliation.
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