Dirty Politics & an Uncivil Tongue

Here’s the dirty truth: Allison Scamman of Stratham and her Republican cohorts’ continuing shrill statements about Carol Shea-Porter are not about facts or issues – they are only about throwing out as much bile in the form of name-calling and twisting the truth as possible to falsely define Ms. Shea-Porter as someone she is not.

This is a cheap, sadly often effective, and deliberate effort to drag our civil political debate into the gutter, where they hope to fare better than discussing genuine and valid differences of opinion based upon facts.

Presumably, Ms. Scamman and her colleagues don’t believe that facts, truth and civility will support their positions.

Here’s an example: “Democrats don’t support the troops”. This is a sleazy, “red herring type” slogan intended to emotionally divert attention from discussing the truth. It has nothing to do with the Bush Administration’s POLICY DECISION to commit the illegal and probably criminal act of invading a sovereign nation that was NOT A THREAT TO AMERICA.

Like all Americans, Carol Shea-Porter supports and cherishes our troops’ service to our country, and like 75% of Americans, she supports a sensible but speedy termination of this obvious fiasco in Iraq.

In the name of truth and civil political discourse, I call on Ms. Scamman and her operatives to take this opportunity to renounce the tactics of Hitler’s propaganda minister Goebbels, and clean up their act. I believe Republicans have much of value to contribute to our state and our country. Stick to principles, facts and respectful public discourse. It’s good advice, and if their positions have real merit, they’ll attract more folks to their side.