My father was a life-long Republican – and secretary of his union for 20 years. Today’s Republicans are a disgrace to the tradition of Margaret Chase Smith and Dwight Eisenhower, let alone the honored tradition of moderate discourse. I greeted the arrival of Julie McDonald’s column in The Forecaster with interest, looking forward to a balanced, conservative view. Despite the boorish, partisan tone set in Augusta, I was hoping for something akin to Tony Payne’s reasoned, conservative rhetoric. This was not to be.

Instead, the first few articles by Ms. McDonald, including the most recent defensive piece about Republicans having a heart, have resembled not conservative, but blatantly partisan assaults on liberals. She obviously does not understand that the notions of free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms are all liberal, not conservative, concepts. Without offering any substantive criticism or alternatives to the policies she derides, she’s just heckling.

Readers recognize when someone is parroting the talking points from either the left or the right. If the good editors of this paper want even the semblance of a logical dialectic on state or national politics they should either retain an equally harsh, partisan liberal columnist (Edgar Allen Beem’s benign musings don’t rise to this) or tutor Ms. McDonald on the distinction between journalism and propaganda.

Steve Romanoff
Falmouth

Copy the Story Link