This page was last updated on May 11, 2010.
Corporate greed tops common good; Thomas M. Finch; Beaver County Times; May 11, 2010.
Mr. Finch’s letters never disappoint. As usual, his letter is little more than a string of leftist talking points. It’s at least the 24th anti-Bush and/or anti-Republican letter from Mr. Finch since December 2004. Here is one example. I wish he could get a regular column in the Times. I also wish he could get at least five minutes per day on a local radio and/or TV station.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“It’s ironic The Times ran an op-ed article lamenting the lack of civility in politics (Dallas Morning News) the same day that I got to be subjected to another inane diatribe bashing Democrats when all the negative attributes in that letter could be applied to both parties (‘Do we have to spell it out for you?’ on Thursday.)”
[RWC] I didn’t see the Dallas Morning News piece Mr. Finch mentioned, but the Times publishing “an op-ed article lamenting the lack of civility in politics” is a hoot. Name-calling and personal attacks are SOP for Times editorial and opinion column pieces.
As for “all the negative attributes in that letter could be applied to both parties,” not exactly. It could be true for “M” and “A,” and perhaps more letters if you’re talking about RINOs.
“The Democrat-bashing crowd have all been brainwashed with the same lies and propaganda, and they all believe the same things:”
[RWC] Given Mr. Finch’s letter-writing body of work bashing Republicans, you have to get a chuckle out of him complaining about the “Democrat-bashing crowd.”
“1.) Big government is bad.”
[RWC] True.
“2.) All Democrats are tax-and-spend socialists.”
[RWC] Mostly true. Show me a list of elected Democrats who are not “tax-and-spend socialists.”
“3.) Everything’s President Barack Obama’s fault.”
[RWC] False. Though Mr. Obama supports/supported the policies that got us here and won’t make things better, he had a lot of help from Democrats in general and from less-than-conservative Republicans.
“4.) Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are not idiots.”
[RWC] True. Agree with them or not, they are not idiots.
“Thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations have the same rights as people, unlimited corporate and lobbyist funds will buy elections for Republicans and purchase legislation that benefits corporate America.”
[RWC] This is not what the Supreme Court ruled, but Mr. Finch never lets facts get in the way of a good rant. I covered the central point of this issue in critiques here, here, here, and here. I’m sure it was an honest oversight that Mr. Finch failed to note the ruling also applied to labor union management.
I love how folks like Mr. Finch push the idea Republicans and big businesses are synonymous. Has Mr. Finch heard of George Soros, Peter Lewis (Progressive Insurance), Jon Corzine (former U.S. senator and NJ governor), Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Rahm Emanuel (Mr. Obama’s Chief of Staff), and on and on? As for businesses contributing to political campaigns, they tend to contribute to candidates they think will help them. Sometimes it’s Democrats and sometimes it’s Republicans. Big government makes this possible.
“The will of ‘we the people’ will soon be a thing of the past, replaced by corporate greed at the expense of the common good. We’ll be a country of one-party rule like Germany was in the ‘30s.”
[RWC] Mr. Finch knows the Nazis were socialists [Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (in English, National Socialist German Workers’ Party)], doesn’t he?
“America is special because we do work for the common good and elect a representative government. That’s now obsolete. Giving Republicans power means the end of American government as we’ve known it.”
[RWC] Blah, blah, blah.
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