The sheer ludicrousness of Mr. Bargenquast’s letter (“Now you see the real Obama,” Sept. 24) inspired me to write this response.
Imagine, we are now experiencing “a national disunity unparalleled since the Civil War.” Really? I thought this started during the Bush administration, which hit record popularity lows hovering in the high 20 percent. It does not require a lot of imagination to imagine that Mr. Bargenquast falls among the 20 percent of the population who thought George Bush was the hottest thing since sliced bread.
As I read through his letter, I was quite appalled by some of his statements. For example, “poverty depends largely on culture and behavior.” Is that why there are so many poor white residents in the Appalachian region? It’s their culture and behavior that have led them into poverty? Obviously, the poor choose to be poor. Talk about a specious argument.
And there was the gem of this diatribe, “What kind of president spends like a third-world king” (I think the Iraq War comes to mind, so it would be Bush?), “bows down to Muslim dictators” (Obviously he has never heard of Theodore Roosevelt, who said “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Who has the biggest stick around?), “and talks of a brown shirt militia more powerful than the military?” (You mean Barack is Adolf Hitler in blackface? Gasp!).
The shrill rantings of this writer are too similar to the vocal minority who now crowd the airwaves. It’s getting to be a version of the “Big Lie” that Adolf Hitler loved. If you repeat a lie over and over again, people will eventually begin to believe you.
This article appears in Oct 15-22, 2009.