I did not understand Katherine Reynolds’ (Letters, Herald, Feb. 23) claim of liberal bias in your Feb. 17 editorial.
As far as I could see, you presented a “what if” scenario as regards the Senate blocking any President Barack Obama nominee to the Supreme Court.
Your contention that the Senate majority might end up shooting itself in the foot if the elections do not go their way is valid and has been discussed by commentators on the left and the right.
I guess for some, just writing the president’s name in an editorial is an act of bias. Incidentally, on the same editorial page in which Reynolds’ letter appeared, you showed your conservative bias by printing a letter from Charles Koch.
I was intrigued by Reynolds’ contention that we are in the last stages of decline as per Edward Gibbon’s criteria laid out in his seminal work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon cites five main reasons for Rome’s fall:
A rising divorce rate, which led to an uncivil society.
An ever-expanding military.
Increasing taxes on the middle class.
Increasingly violent entertainment.
The abandonment of traditional Roman religion.
In the U.S. today, six of the top 10 states with the highest divorce rates are solid red. Two of the other four are Republican-leaning.
As far as civility goes, just follow the Republican primary season. With the exception of Rand Paul, every major player in the Republican Party worships at the altar of the military-industrial complex.
As to taxes, Gibbon says, “The wealthy effectively were able to evade taxation through legal and illegal measures such as bribery.”
Sounds like Trump’s hedge fund managers whom, he says, are no more than “paper-pushing tax cheats.” This and ever-increasing military spending put a greater tax burden on the Roman middle class that stifled the Roman economy.
While Reynolds seeks to lay the blame for America’s fall on Obama and the Democrats, according to the criteria laid out by Gibbon, a far better case can be made for Republicans being the authors of America’s fall.
Joe Erickson
Durango
