Thomas M. Finch – 10/18/16

 


This page was last updated on November 1, 2016.


Voting for Trump is terrible advice; Thomas M. Finch; Beaver County Times; October 18, 2016.

The BCT has published at least 41 letters from Mr. Finch (TMF) since December 2004.  At least 31 of these letters were anti-Bush and/or anti-Republican and they never disappoint.  Here is one example.  You can find the remaining Finch letters I critiqued in the critique archives.  As usual, this letter is little more than a string of leftist talking points.  I wish he could get a regular column in the BCT.  I also wish he could get at least five minutes per day on a local radio and/or TV station.  The most recent letter I reviewed was “‘Faux’ News watchers attacked letter writer.”  I also reviewed a letter published six after this one, “Republicans turn abortion into political issue.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.


“Audie Saver’s letter used a medical analogy to persuade people to ‘hold your nose and take the Trump’ even though it is ‘...a bitter pill and hard to swallow.’”

[RWC] As I noted in my comments on the BCT website, “Mr. Finch’s (TMF) letter is a target-rich environment.”

“That was terrible advice.  Voting for Trump is more than just a bitter pill -- it is this country ingesting poison, and committing suicide.  This man is totally unqualified to be president, and Sarver [sic] graciously called him ‘experimental and untried.’  I’m not willing to risk our future by putting this amoral idiot in charge -- and you shouldn’t either.”

[RWC] Given Hillary Clinton (HRC) enabled her husband’s war on women for more than 20 years while he was Arkansas Attorney General, Arkansas Governor, and President of the United States, I would avoid using the term “amoral.”

“Sarver [sic] insults Democrats by equating the Democratic party with ‘socialism.’  Government’s job should be to help everyone -- by doing all the jobs that need doing.”

[RWC] Since Bernie Sanders (BS) describes himself as a “democratic socialist,” how is it insulting to refer to Democrats as “socialists?”

When he described what “Government’s job should be,” TMF described communism.

“Republicans feel that cutting funding is somehow good for the common man, and that no government intervention safeguarding our water, air and food supply is the proper course of action?  U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus like to demean Democrats by calling them ‘liberals’ and ‘socialists,’ like it’s a bad thing.”

[RWC] When TMF wrote of “cutting funding,” from whom does he think the funding comes?  Hint: It’s not benevolent Martians.  We could drain “the rich,” “one percenters,” or the mot du jour completely dry and it still wouldn’t pay our bills.  Also, even if it could be done, it couldn’t be done more than once.

When has a Republican ever said/implied “no government intervention safeguarding our water, air and food supply is the proper course of action?”  The last time I checked, Republicans need “water, air and food supply,” at least until our mothership arrives and takes us back to our home planet and/or dimension. <g>

I wish TMF would settle on his story about socialism.  Above, TMF said “equating the Democratic party with ‘socialism’” “insults Democrats,” but here he doesn’t think socialism is “a bad thing.”

“It sickens me that ‘conservatives’ think they have all the correct answers, when in the course of history, ‘conservatives’ have been on the wrong side of every issue we’ve faced.  With conservatives in charge during colonial times, we’d still be a colony of Great Britain.  They opposed abolishing slavery, World War I, and the New Deal, while supporting Prohibition -- just a few more examples of bone-headed conservative thinking.”

[RWC] It’s important to note when I use the term “conservative,” I refer to U.S. conservatism of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  This is an important distinction because the definition of conservatism (and other “isms”) differs among countries and across time.  For example, what we tend to refer to today as conservatism (individual liberty, free markets, limited government, et cetera) was called liberalism in the days of Thomas Jefferson.  At that time, being a conservative was what you would expect, support of the status quo, which was NOT individual liberty, free markets, and limited government in most of the world.  Sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, the definitions of conservative and liberal were switched.  This move was equivalent of switching the definitions of black and white.  As a result, we now refer to the liberalism of Mr. Jefferson’s day – essentially today’s conservatism – as classical liberalism.

Regardless of what they called themselves individually, the Founders were, as a group, conservative using today’s terminology.  That’s why the U.S. Constitution spells out so few explicit federal government responsibilities.  Fortunately, those who practiced today’s definition of liberalism/progressivism were NOT “in charge during colonial times.”

The original Constitution plus the Bill of Rights scream limited government, not TMF’s nanny state as described by “Government’s job should be to help everyone -- by doing all the jobs that need doing.”  James Madison (a Founder and fourth President) wrote, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.  Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

Conservatives “opposed abolishing slavery?”  The Constitution included provisions to phase out slavery and the Republican Party was anti-slavery.  TMF’s political ancestors – Democrats - opposed both.

Conservatives “opposed … World War I” resolution.  According to Wikipedia, “In the Senate, the resolution passed 82 to 6. … In the House the vote on the resolution was 373 to 50, with 9 not voting.  The negative votes were cast by 32 Republicans, including the first woman elected to national office, Jeannette Rankin, 16 Democrats, one Prohibitionist, Charles H. Randall, and one Socialist, Meyer London.”  Oh no!  “The first woman elected to national office” was a Republican?  Heresy!

Conservatives “opposed … the New Deal.”  TMF finally got one right.  Though the New Deal was a “victory” for big government, FDR’s policies were failures for our country.  For example, the medical care mess we have today is directly traceable to FDR policy.  Consider the following quote from Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Treasury Secretary during the Great Depression.  Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee in May 1939, Sec. Morgenthau said, “We have tried spending money.  We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.  And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job.  I want to see this country prosperous.  I want to see people get a job.  I want to see people get enough to eat.  We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot.”  Further, unemployment never got below 9.9% before the U.S. entered World War II.  Sound familiar?

Prohibition is an “example of bone-headed conservative thinking?”  Both parties had their fingerprints on the 18th Amendment.  Between the House and Senate, 177 Democrats voted in favor of the amendment proposition sent to the states as did 166 Republicans.  In any case, the vote in Congress didn’t make prohibition law.  As per Article V, while Congress can propose an amendment, only the states can actually amend the Constitution.  For a proposed amendment to become law, it must be “ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof.”  Neither the President nor the Supreme Court have a role in the amendment process.

“I’m proud to be a liberal Democrat voting for Hillary Clinton and I hope Trump crashes, burns, and takes the whole Tea-Republican Party with him.”

[RWC] Since he’s “proud to be a liberal Democrat,” I wonder if TMF knows HRC ran away from being called a liberal during a 2007 debate.  When asked if she was a liberal, HRC said she considered herself a “modern progressive” and a “modern American progressive.”  The moderator asked, “So you wouldn’t use the word liberal; you’d say progressive?”  HRC nodded yes.


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