I loved reading the Edgar Allen Beem’s column, “Ignorance triumphant.” I loved it not because he and his ideological colleagues have now added “ignorance” on top of “irredeemable” and “deplorable” to describe me and anyone else with the temerity to reject his worldview, but because he epitomizes confusion and abject irony.

Been portrays himself as an educated person, yet displays a pedestrian confusion exhibited by the left on exactly who elected Donald Trump, why they voted the way they did, and the social value that those “ignorant deplorables” bring to our society. Instead he insists on blaming everything imaginable for their loss – except for the Democrat Party’s disconnected and unappealing choice of candidate, who never put forth a vision or a message for county after county of disenfranchised voters that had developed a distaste for D.C. and career politicians in general.

Beem’s delusion is very good for the loyal opposition, be it Libertarian, Green, Democratic Socialist, or Republican. The liberal mind insists on lecturing the world about facts, truths, and absolutes and then uses their imagined enlightenment as a cudgel. Beem demands tolerance of his world view and thinks that exacting such a result is accomplished by calling me ignorant. Someone less secure in their level of knowledge would see this as intellectual bullying.

Normally, I would say you’re better than this, Mr. Beem. However, in your case, I’m not so sure. Your writings over the recent past have devolved from another voice in a sociopolitical debate into the musings of an angry elitist blogger.

Scott Ruppert
Harpswell