‘How sweet it is’

Those of us with German ancestors are proud of the rich heritage of German musical and scientific achievement, perhaps less so of their dirigible technology and past military adventurism. But interwoven throughout is the German language and its sometimes perfect words which express in three or four syllables that which often requires a complete sentence in English.

Today’s example: “schadenfreude”... the almost universal orgasmic ecstasy among liberals, progressives, Democrats and perhaps some closeted independents, luxuriating in the heartbreak of certain of their fellow citizens sorrowfully ruminating on the rude rejection of Romney, Ryan, Rehberg, and even Rand.

Figuratively savoring the tears of the disconsolate cheerleaders is like nothing if not dipping into the honeyed ambrosia of the gods. Among the grief-stricken, one might find: the managing editor who has spent the past four years trashing the president of the United States on a regular and predictable basis, achieving some sound and fury, but in the end, signifying nothing...  a producer of Hollywood epics who may have made a few bucks from his recent cinematic diatribe, but since the primary purpose was not for financial gain but to help ease the president out of office, his bottom line appears to have approached zero... the retired general and sometimes columnist whose backing of would-be mutineers in hopes of stirring another Swift Boat debacle seems to have failed utterly... the many Tea Partiers and other certified nut cases whose wide ranging knowledge of current events and history often appears in these opinion pages as toxic sludge and who someday in between sobs may wake up to the fact that upon close examination of the outcomes of the 2010 and 2012 elections from Indiana to Missouri, from Colorado to Connecticut, from Nevada to Delaware, one finds that the Tea Party backing of crackpot candidates has cost the Republican Party control of the United States Senate.

In one of his signature lines, Jackie Gleason, the entertainer from an earlier generation, would have said it best, “How sweet it is!” —Franklin E Schroeter, Somers

‘Punish the guilty’

Now that the election has been decided and we have heard all the excuses from certain pundits as to why Romney did not win, something comes to my mind in all this. And this particular trend was not picked up by the media, not realized, and certainly not expected.

This unrealized trend has nothing to do with the issues, be they moral, economic, social, religious, or of environmental concerns.  This trend is solely about how our nation’s political legislative bodies are functioning. And non-function is probably the right word to use here.

My thesis in this particular letter is to suggest that America, especially younger people, are so fed up with the inaction, the extreme partisanship in Congress, the lack of passing even the most basic and sensible legislation by our legislative bodies, that they came out in droves to vote against the party, the Republicans, which is the current party to absolutely block every bit of legislation that the other party, the Democrats, put forth.

This is not to say that if “the shoe were on the other foot,” that Democrats would not have done the same thing. The point is, this extreme partisanship at the expense of “the will of the people” touched the sensibilities of so many Americans that this could almost be considered an election to punish the Republican Party.

Punish the party of inaction. Punish the perpetrators of paralysis.  Punish the guilty. Did you see any of these headlines? Did you hear any of this being spread out over the airwaves by our great political pundits? Did we talk about this seriously among ourselves?

Well, my take on all this is that this particular phenomenon energized millions in our nation to get out and vote against one party rather than for the other. And until there is a change of attitude, a change of mind-set, and a change in political behavior among our legislators, we will simply continue down the same path of big money interests trumping “the will of the people.” —Bob McClellan, Polson

‘The scars of partisanship’

Let me start with the statement “Lee Atwater lives”! He really died of cancer in 1991, but the “master of dirty tricks” lives on through his protege Karl Rove.

If anyone doubts this you can look up Lee Atwater on the Internet. Atwater was the campaign manager for George Bush the First — perhaps you remember the “Willie Horton attack” on Michael Dukakis. In his deathbed confession, Atwater apologized to all the people he had hurt with his attacks and lies (you can also find this on the Internet). Then came his protege, Karl Rove, to mastermind the campaign of George Bush the Second (remember how he destroyed John McCain?). Today, Rove is still working his dirty tricks in Crossroads GPS and likely a number of the other Super PACs, though, thanks to the Supreme Court we have no idea who is behind all of these “falsehood machines” or where the hundreds of millions they spent came from.

Now that the election is over, the pundits are calling for an end to the partisanship. Trust me folks, it ain’t going to happen overnight, probably not for a number of years. Just yesterday I heard Sen. Lindsey Graham state that the Republican Party doesn’t have enough “angry white men” to win elections any longer. The scars of partisanship are too deep and the media seem to feed on this. I remember not too many years ago when Marc Racicot was running for governor, several newspapers called him a liar in bold headlines (Marc had a propensity for taking license with the truth).

My point is that the media should take an ethical look at themselves and at least try to filter out the whoppers. The most important characteristic of the attack ads and statements is not negativity, but dishonesty! Disinformation should be unacceptable!

We, the people, need to demand this from our media and the politicians, and just maybe our elected officials (and the Supremes) will take action to curb this monster. —Wes Higgins, Kalispell