Wallowing in Mud

Sent to Deseret News Readers Forum, not published:

I am truly sick of the debasement of political discourse in this state and this country. The past week I've heard Dick Cheney say that Connecticut voters who supported Lamont's antiwar campaign in the Democratic primary were giving "the Al Qaeda types" exactly what they wanted, and that the Democratic Party now stands for a wholesale retreat in the broader campaign against terror. Now our own Sen. Orrin Hatch is saying Middle East terrorists are "waiting for the Democrats here to take control, let things cool off and then strike again."

When did we become a country in which there was only one Party line? Silly me, I thought that's what the long war with the Soviet Union was about - fighting for our freedom to think for ourselves and to disagree with our leaders. To insinuate that anyone who is a Democrat is wimping out in the face of terrorists is well beyond civilized discourse of any kind. It is this kind of extreme mud-slinging that has produced the most dysfunctional Congress I can remember - and there have been a lot of them.

Both candidates and the media have a responsibility to do more than repeat the most shocking, most extreme talking points over and over. When we allow defamatory and un-American suggestions (such as accusing folks who don't share our political opinions of aiding terrorists) to become common currency, then we are well down the slippery slope of losing our cherished democracy. I call on Vice President Cheney, Senator Hatch, and all news anchors and journalists who have been mindlessly repeating slanderous trash to stop doing it and apologize to the American people.