To the editor:
Jim Dyment, as evidenced by his recent letter to the editor, needs some new material.
Accusing progressives and liberals of wanting America to become another “North Korea, China, Russia, Cuba or Venezuela, to name a few” is really wearing thin. Apparently, Dyment has been watching too many hours of Glenn Beck’s tearful laments on Fox Noise about how Nazis or Communists are taking over America and destroying the Constitution.
Obviously, saying it doesn’t make it so, and Beck’s and Dyment’s unfounded, extremist claims are belied daily by the enlightened policies of both the Obama Administration and a progressive, Democratically controlled Congress.
Slowly, Democrats are pulling our beloved country out of the ditch that conservatives put it in. The stimulus plan is working. Healthcare, while not perfect yet, is far better than it was. The many constitutional freedoms that were stripped away under Bush/Cheney are methodically being restored by freedom-loving Democrats in Congress.
And yes, the extreme right-wing “drill baby drill” crowd is finally getting its comeuppance, although every progressive and liberal sincerely wishes that it had not taken the worst environmental disaster in this nation’s history to expose the oil industry’s profit-driven, environment-be-damned business model fostered by the secret Bush/Cheney energy policies that placed profits above all else.
Dyment may continue to spread his lies and smears about patriotic, freedom-loving progressives and liberals, because, as he correctly pointed out in his letter, the First Amendment of the Constitution protects his right to do so.
I sincerely hope that he does, because one thing is becoming increasingly obvious to me — the more that extreme right-wingers like Dyment and his ilk talk, the more their ultra-conservative dogma and poison are exposed to scrutiny and the more erosion there is in possible support for their extreme views by moderate, thinking voters. Keep it up, Dyment — you may not realize it, but you are helping the progressive cause every time you write a letter to the editor.
Nels Kelstrom
Clinton
