A Letter to the New York Times

Charles Blow is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times. In the August 4, 2016 edition of the Times he had a piece entitled "Trump Reflects White Male Fragility." Essentially, he declares Trump to be a racist; therefore if anyone votes for Trump they must be a racist also. This "thinking" is not unlike that of the woman attorney who expressed her attitude toward anyone who would vote for Trump in her email to me, as set out in the 8/1/16 blog post. In fact, this attitude has been expressed by many on the left.

On 8/5/16 I submitted a letter to the Times commenting on Mr. Blow's article. To date, it has not been published by the Times, nor I have heard that it will be. As such, I am "publishing" it here.

This is my letter:

"According to Mr. Blow, "if you support Trump, you are on some level supporting his bigotry and racism...and acceptance of racism is an act of racism. You are convicted by your complicity."

So, Mr. Blow believes the perceived sins of the candidate can also be attributed to the voters. Using his logic, all those who voted for Bill Clinton can be deemed to be sexual predators, and possibly even rapists. If you vote for Mrs. Clinton you agree with lying to the American people (FBI Director Comey testified before Congress that she was not truthful with the American people with regards to her emails) and, hence, must be a liar yourself. If you vote for Mrs. Clinton you are in support of criminality, or at the least extreme carelessness, as Director Comey described Mrs. Clinton's negligent handling of emails. Therefore, your vote for Mrs. Clinton means you have no concern for our national security.

I could go on. However, the broader point is that the Left would rather demonize than engage in debate. Sadly, the editorial writers of this paper are of the same mindset. For example, if you disagree with gay marriage you are a bigot. Classical liberalism, for the most part, has died. Classical liberals respected those with opposing views; they engaged in debate - not demagoguery. But today's Leftists do not engage in debate. Rather, given their elitism, given their self-righteousness, their retort to opposing views is this: "you are a bigot, a racist, a sexist, a homophobe," and on and on.

My biggest disappointment is that the "paper of record" has abandoned liberalism for leftism, and reasoned argument for demonization."