This is a letter to the editor submitted to the Register-Star, a paper servicing Columbia County in New York State. It is a repost to a dreadful OP-ED piece by columnist George Will that was printed in the Star on 12/31/13.
George Will, you have reached a new low as a member of Washington's chattering class. Unfortunately for us readers you chose to inflict this drivel upon us in your New Year's Eve Op-Ed piece in the Register-Star. What a way to end the year! Being bankrupt of ideas, and afraid to talk to us about the really pressing issues, you resorted to the old bag of epithets and one liners that are the dog whistles for the far right. I'll only pick a few to correct because it is so depressing to reread such a waste of ink and paper.
No, George. The public is not recoiling from ObamaCare. A total of 6 million people signed up for ObamaCare last year. That was through marketplace exchanges, George – a Republican idea that worked spectacularly well in Massachusetts. I know you had your heart set on the early demise of the program, but facts are facts, George. Of course as a writer, I sympathize with your plight. You had a deadline to meet, and maybe no one would notice.
You even reached back some 80 years to dredge up FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court. George, that pales in comparison to today's Activist Supreme Court, which ruled – against all precedent -- that corporations are really people. And entitled to all of our rights and more, like spending unlimited sums of money to poison our elections.
No, George. The public is not recoiling from ObamaCare. A total of 6 million people signed up for ObamaCare last year. That was through marketplace exchanges, George – a Republican idea that worked spectacularly well in Massachusetts. I know you had your heart set on the early demise of the program, but facts are facts, George. Of course as a writer, I sympathize with your plight. You had a deadline to meet, and maybe no one would notice.
You even reached back some 80 years to dredge up FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court. George, that pales in comparison to today's Activist Supreme Court, which ruled – against all precedent -- that corporations are really people. And entitled to all of our rights and more, like spending unlimited sums of money to poison our elections.
And then, George, there's the awful progressive legislation you refer to under the Johnson administration that gave the vote to millions of minorities for the first time. Yes, George, a terrible intervention into domestic affairs, Just think, that forced elected officials to respond to the will of the people instead of just the influential few.
And finally, maybe you've stopped reading the papers, George, but the supposed corruption of the IRS was debunked many months ago. It was political gamesmanship. But, I understand, you can't let that get in the way of concocting a juicy story.
George, you ought to consider retirement. There were a million things you might have addressed, starting with an intelligent discussion of the big issues facing our country: taking care of our wounded vets, fixing our broken immigration system, cyber warfare; participation of the under-employed in the booming Wall Street recovery; redressing our broken education system, which is the future of our country; addressing the tectonic shifts in world politics, from China to Iran, Israel and Palestine – down to the mundane, like fixing our 72,000 broken bridges.
But regardless, I wish you a Happy New year,. And I pray that you may have an Aha! moment in the months ahead. Your readers deserve it.
Dan and Mary Udell
January 5, 2014
