In its editorial today, The Dayton Daily News descends into a gibberish that is truly nonsense. The DDN opines that Republican Congressman Mike Turner should be reelected, because, “judged on non ideological, nonpartisan grounds, he has earned reelection.”
Earned reelection? Please. The premise of the DDN editorial is that while many voters choose a candidate on how the candidate will vote on the big issues, “Some voters are focused on: competence, energy, ethics, personality, impact, experience,” that is, “non ideological, nonpartisan grounds.”
The paper proclaims, “He (Turner) has done his job competently and energetically,” but, good grief, what was the job, really, that voters in the 3rd District asked Turner to do? The DDN seems mighty proud of the minimal accomplishments of Turner that its discussed in its initial endorsement a couple of weeks ago. The paper uses these minimal accomplishments to proclaim Turner “competent.” But any congressman, however mediocre, would have done the same. Turner did nothing special. We deserve and need a better definition of “competence,” when evaluating the work of our congressmen.
The point is, Turner failed miserably in the big job he should have been focused on: fairly and wisely making independent judgments that would best represent the interests of the 3rd District.
The DDN misses the big picture. Turner has voted over 90% of the time to support the policies of George Bush, and these policies have been disastrous. For six years, Turner has empowered the gross incompetence of congress. He has shown no independence, no interest in supporting oversight. He has simply played the political game. Bush’s approval rating is at 22%. How can we have such a low opinion of the President and still favor those, like Turner, who empowered Bush’s every bad decision and every incompetent act? My Lord. How can this seem so obvious to me, and evidently, so unobvious to the editorial writers at the DDN? In my view, they miss the big picture.
I’m sputtering to find an analogy. Suppose your personal business manager has run your company into the ground and you are facing bankruptcy and disgrace because of this manager’s incompetence. The manager’s argument in defense — look, here I made some money, look how energetic I am, look at my good appearance, my pleasant personality, look at my resume — would fall flat. You would fire the manager, because you would see the impact of his incompetence. You would look at the big picture.
Turner looks good, only if the big picture is ignored. I took a crack at the whole topic a couple of weeks ago when I wrote, Mike Turner Is A Bum, For Our Democracy’s Sake, Let’s Throw The Bum Out. Such strong language. I said to a friend that I hoped that one of Turner’s children wouldn’t ask him, “Daddy, are you a Bum?”
In that article I wrote, “The crux of DDN’s endorsement of Turner is: ‘Turner kept a sharp eye on matters of local interest, and he has made a difference.’ Wow. The DDN’s definition of ‘local interest’ is mighty narrow. There is an enormous local interest in economic stability. Turner’s votes caused the national debt to explode; Turner’s utter loyalty to Republican mismanagement and Republican deregulation imperiled us all. These are matters of enormous ’local interest.’ How can the DDN be so obtuse?
“Turner was derelict in his duty. The fact is, Turner did what most politicians sent to Washington do. He played along, he got in line, he kept his mouth shut. Turner, and every political worm he identifies with, is the problem. And, if our democracy has any reality, in this election, an aroused and awakened electorate will vote Turner out.”
It does not help our democracy to have our local newspaper confuse its readers about the big picture and instead spread misinformation via faulty logic.
