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September 23, 2012

Reader’s assessment is nonsense

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — Editor,The Transcript:

This is in response to Bruce Kessler’s comments in The Transcript comparing the long-forgotten Luddites to the modern Democratic Party. Mr. Kessler deserves kudos for a singular achievement in his diatribe: never has so much nonsense been uttered in so few words.

In spite of its relative brevity, Mr. Kessler’s rant would have us believe that Democrats are out to destroy everything from the Constitution to individual exceptionalism, from unborn babies to natural gas fracking. What happened to the flag and apple pie, Mr. Kessler? Are we OK there?

Responding to every absurdity in the rant would take a week, so I shall limit myself to two of the sillier ones. Mr. Kessler states that during its recent convention, Democratic speakers “kept comparing all Republicans to Nazis.” I watched most of the convention and never once heard this comparison made.

Perhaps Mr. Kessler is confusing a comment made by one speaker that the current Republican campaign is using a tactic made famous by German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels — that is, repeat a lie often enough, and it will eventually be viewed as truth. The accusation is true in that many Republican politicians are uttering outright lies about President Barack Obama. However, that is a far remove from “all Republicans are Nazis.” 

The second absurdity I wish to address is far worse than the first. Mr. Kessler would have us believe that Democrats are out to destroy Medicare and health care. Yes, he actually said that.

Rather than reading up on the poor Luddites, Mr. Kessler, perhaps you should study your Medicare history. This law (H.R. 6675, Public Law 89-97), an addition to the Social Security Act, was initiated and passed by President Lyndon Johnson — a Democrat. The Social Security Act was passed in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt — also a Democrat. These acts, designed to help the poor and the elderly citizens of America, are possibly the greatest achievements of the Democratic Party.

Why in heaven would they attempt to destroy what they worked so long and so hard to achieve? Dumb, dumber, dumbest: Guess where this claim falls in the sequence?

By the way, another technique employed by Joseph Goebbels was to accuse your enemy of doing exactly what you, yourself, are attempting to do. Repeat the accusation often enough and it, too, becomes “truth.” Oh, no, I’m not accusing YOU of being a Nazi, Mr. Kessler. Just a Republican.

DEAN EVERETT

Norman

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