Call it what is really is: the government option
Re: “Co-ops: The public option by another name,” Editorial, Aug. 26
One of socialist Saul Alinsky’s principles was to demonize and personalize important issues by attacking those who raise important truths. His book, “Rules for Radicals,” is full of ways to avoid reason and move to emotions, since they cannot be easily denied. In the current health care debate, President Obama’s and Congressional leftists’ move towards socialized medicine is replete with such tactics, such as renaming government-controlled health care the “public option.”
“Public option” school children in D.C. have the most expensive educations in the world, but many can’t read their diplomas, which is why Obama’s daughters go to a “private option” school, just like Chelsea Clinton did.
Until the media stop falling into the Alinsky trap, reason will lose to emotion. When someone says “public option” it should be translated to what is really is: the “government option”. Just like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that are $65 trillion underfunded, with not a single politician to reduce the underlying costs, increasing taxes to pay for it, or even willing to admit that they have bankrupted the country.
Jack Adams
Washington
Fawning media miss some big stories
Re: “Three big stories the media’s ‘homers’ missed,” Aug. 13
Mark Tapscott gets it right on the money. The media is the Obama administration’s lap dog, only telling the stories that make the White House look good. The media had no problem going against the Bush administration, but will even distort stories to further Obama’s agenda.
It’s clear that the Washington Post and the New York Times are either too afraid or too stargazed to criticize the current administration. Thank you for providing the news the White House hopes no one notices.
Mike Soh
Alexandria
School vouchers are unconstitutional
Re: “Parents should demand public school refunds,” Aug. 27
In advocating school vouchers, Gregory Kane says that taxpayers should pay for private sectarian schools. This violates the “free exercise” and “no establishment of religion” principle in the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Kane also ignores the fact that millions of voters in over 25 statewide referenda from coast to coast have rejected vouchers or anything like them by a two-to-one margin. He also fails to realize that vouchers would seriously fragment our school populations by religion, class, ethnicity, and ideology. Such social divisions are not good for our society.
Yes, many inner cities have problems with public schools, but those problems are mainly the result of too many years of poverty, social disorganization, neglect, racism, and ghettoization. These problems must be addressed because efforts directed only at fixing the schools alone will not do the job.
Edd Doerr
President,
Americans for Religious Liberty
