Letters to the President #1170: 'Darwin strikes'

Reporter's Note: President Obama is increasingly going after Republicans as the presidential race heats up. I, on the other hand, continue sending letters to the White House at my same pace.

Dear Mr. President,

I have been reading a bit about your latest attack on the Republican budget as “social Darwinism.” Well, I can tell you a thing or two about that based on my dating days. Yes, considering how much trouble I had getting dates, I can only plead that I must have been a victim of natural selection. Ha!

Still, it is an interesting way to couch your opposition to someone else’s budget plan. It creates an image of a mad political scientist creating a Frankenstein-budget to unleash upon the land. Mind you, I’m not saying that is necessarily true or fair as criticisms go, but that is the impression.

Demonizing one’s opponents is not only a time honored political tradition in this country, it is also one that seems to be growing in popularity. Hardly an idea can be dropped into the hopper without someone from the opposing side playing “Tubular Bells” on a concertina and declaring that Beelzebub is among us. (Sorry for that old Exorcist reference, but it seems appropriate.)

Accordingly, it is hard to blame anyone for going that route these days. After all, almost everyone who launches an attack can say to critics, “Hey, the other guys started it!”

Still, I kind of miss times when lawmakers…and presidents…were at least a little more inclined to make their critiques less dire. You know, when they used to say things like, “I have great respect for the opposing parties and certainly for the authors of this idea, but I disagree with their ideas. I fear they will lead our country in a direction that will not best serve the interests of all, but instead may serve too much the desires of the few.”

But that’s me. I’ve been wrong about plenty of things before and I certainly could be wrong about this as well.

Anyway, I’m busy covering the primary voting in DC, Maryland, and Wisconsin, so I can’t write much. Delegate Darwinism as at work, and I have to keep an eye on it. Ha!

Regards,
Tom