New Era editorial page: “Poor Johnny one note”
When the Intelligencer Journal and New Era combined a few months ago, I was open to the merger as both a new reality in journalism and an opportunity to see for the first time the New Era editorial pages. As a regular reader of The Intell, I was used to liberal columnists along with George Will, David Brooks, and Michael Gerson on the conservative side. Nothing could have prepared me for the New Era’s editorial page; “The voice of Republicanism in the Garden Spot”. In the past few months there have been at least 100 anti-Obama columns; not letters but columns! This does not include the anti-Obama editorials. It is the most appalling “poor Johnny one note” page I have ever seen in any newspaper in my life.
Like the dying Republican Party that needs to feed its shrinking base with poisonously tainted red meat to fuel its negative energy, the New Era, as the “Voice” of that “Republicanism” rises enthusiastically to the task. So too does Joe Pitts. Whatever the proposition is, whatever the proposal is, whatever the idea is, if it seems to advance the agenda of the President (our President) or the congress, or the working man who may need a helping hand just now, Joe Pitts answer is “No”.
As an indication of just how unbalanced his positions are, vis a vis, big business versus the ordinary working man, his overall record is astounding. The US Chamber Of Commerce (voice of big business) gives Joseph Pitts a 92% lifetime rating for voting with them on issues, while the AFL-CIO (not representing Big business) gives Joe Pitts a 5% lifetime rating. Strange that the US Chamber is almost always right while labor is always wrong.
One of the curiosities in Lancaster County is why regular working people keep electing these people. The answer lies in the culture which seems to have a strong and historic “Plantation mentality”, where the common folk see employers and rich people in general, as their “betters”. It is also self-serving belief since they also have learned that to succeed in a robber baron environment of hard nosed and often vindictive, anti- labor establishment characters, it is better to remain silent and pull the lever for the boss man’s man.
Religion plays a significant role too where goodness, virtue, righteousness, strength, and generosity, etc etc are seen as Republican and everything evil as Democratic. That belief is also self serving because the “boss man” who employs you and your neighbors can always be counted on to reward such a view and punish the opposite. We all need jobs, security, and peace.
Another curiosity is that Republicans and businessmen in general, always say they are for “free market capitalism” but I have never met one who really liked free markets and most would do almost anything to avoid market freedom (i.e. competition). A once prominent local businessman had a single rule about competitors which was “buy em out or put em out”! A real tough guy, and any Lancaster person would do well not to test his mettle by, lets say, trying to organize his workers. His publicly owned, but privately controlled, business was described to me as a “Republican company”.
I asked one of the company execs (for a little fun) how a publicly traded company that existed simply to make and sell pretty mundane products could be a “Republican” company? He answered chillingly with a sharp, short, and single sentence: “This is a Republican company”! (OK!) Joe Pitts gets lots of support from this kind of company and Lancaster County, as elsewhere, is full of them. They belong to the US Chamber and its local affiliates and are significantly active in every campaign.
Joe Pitts knows where his position comes from and its not going to help him at all to support extension of unemployment benefits no matter how bad things are now or may get in the future. By taking care of the corporate interests he takes care of himself, and does so for life. It is not a bad bargain in one sense but in terms of real American ideals, it is a corruption of everything we purport to believe in.
Gee, do you actually have any substance to go with this rant? All you have said is that you hate Republicans/conservatives. I have commented on this trend before. Rarely does the liberal left provide any facts, they only whine about how terrible those evil Republicans/conservatives are.
But wait. Can it be? Yes, you’re really Gil Smart, incognito!!!
The author of this “Poor Johnny one note” letter makes some very valid points. The fact that there have indeed been well over 100 anti-Obama columns published in the local newspaper over a period of only a few months proves what they are saying has some basis in truth.
As for the comment above: as usual, people who don’t like the message, but can’t refute it, instead attack the messenger.
Where are the facts? The letter writer presents one or two facts, adds a whole bunch of leftist opinions, and leaps to leftist conclusions as if they’re also fact. This is typical of recent attacks by the left. Go review the PRO-Obama letters that have appeared in the paper. Very few if any present any facts of their own, they just rant about how evil the Republicans/conservatives are for having the audacity to oppose health care “reform” that is anything but reform, has yet to be defined, and looks to many as if it will turn out to be a all-out attack on the middle class of this country when it finally does happen.
Most justifications for the so-called health care “reform” boil down to statements of “everyone knows that…” Well, I’ve learned that when people say “everyone knows that…” I’d better get a good grip on my wallet. Or run.