To be sure, there are plenty of reasons to dislike the president, but a letter to the editor should ideally be grounded rational fact-- and it is best if they focus on a single issue. Unfortunately (but entirely typically for the Oklahoman), Me. Cypert's letter does neither. He begins:
Never have I seen and felt my country to be in such a state of confusion, doubt, insecurity, divisiveness and anger. Through 2008 the United States was still a vibrant, enthusiastic, powerful, economically and militarily proud and godly nation!Wait. So things were fine until 2008? Can we really be "militarily proud" when we invaded a country in a pre-emptive war based on non-existent threats? Was the economy really doing that well before 2008? And let's not kid ourselves-- the "godly nation" line is a thinly veiled nod to the right-wing notion that Obama is a crypto-Muslim.
Anyhow, Mr. Cypert is already not doing well. A real newspaper would have passed on this letter already. But the Oklahoman is out to spread lies and misinformation, so we press on...
Then Barack Obama was elected to office by a misleading and dishonest major news media. Many people believed the lies and misrepresentations of the media and passed those beliefs on to others.Ah yes, the old "liberal media" line. We've discussed that before, and it's not surprising to hear a right-wing thrall whine about it now. Indeed, when your candidate looks like a buffoon, it's not that your candidate is actually a buffoon, it's just that the media have portrayed him that way.
Millions of people living on entitlements and government welfare — about half the population — were willing to vote Democrats back into power.This is so tired. Presumably this is just a re-stating of Romney's statement about the "47%" (thanks, liberal media!!!). Amazingly, thanks to the right wing media, there are actually people who imagine that literally half the country is sitting around doing nothing and collecting a welfare check from the country. It's a preposterous notion, but people who lack critical reasoning skills clearly believe it.
He continues:
Millions of white people voted for Obama because they were tired of being called racist. They thought electing a black man for president would put all those charges to rest. Instead, thanks largely to Obama, racism is worse than ever in America. Few who voted for Obama will admit their shame and guilt for putting him in office.Holy shit! So now this guy is a mind-reader?!? And yes: racism is worse because of Obama. Awesome. And then:
Anyone who continues to support Obama out of blind loyalty — meaning the Democratic Party — is as guilty as Obama himself for his failed presidency. I ask the Democratic Party and its supporters to regain their honesty and denounce Obama as the disaster he is. America can't stand three more years under Obama.Got that? The entire Democratic Party is supporting the president out of blind loyalty. No, Democrats can't possibly ever be upset with Obama, right? And again, note the buzz words-- "failed presidency"; "disaster"-- as the old adage goes, if you repeat a lie often enough, people will eventually come to believe it. And this is EXACTLY why the Oklahoman runs these sorts of letters. Is there any evidence that this presidency has been a "disaster" and "failed" as Mr. Cypert (and the editors) would have us believe? As I noted already, if you campaign on a set of policy ideas, and those policy ideas actually come to pass, that's called a 'success.'
But the Oklahoman doesn't want you to hear that, so instead, they push letters like this that say the exact opposite and hope you'll buy into it.
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