Obama name-calling isn’t productive for anyone

To the editor:

Joe Jensen’s Wednesday letter, headlined “Stop the lunacy,” used these words in the second sentence: “I wish to set the record straight.” Mr. Jensen then proceeded to call President Obama a communist whose goal is the destruction of our nation, and continued to offer his personal opinions on Mr. Obama and Sen. Harry Reid without giving a single supportive fact. I thought we had gotten past the McCarthy era more than 50 years ago.

“Setting the record straight” implies the giving of factual information correcting something that has not been accurately reported. Without a factual basis, Mr. Jensen is engaging in a baseless rant that I find hard to take seriously.

Communism is an economic system that abolishes all private ownership of property and involves the state owning all basic and non-basic industries and means of production. It is a totalitarian system of authority. I invite Mr. Jensen to give even one example of where President Obama advocates that our country should adopt this type of totalitarianism.

Even Mr. Obama’s opponents who are unhappy with many of his proposals would be hard put to find any instance where he actually states that he espouses national ownership of all property, industry and means of production.

This past Tuesday, the state of Massachusetts proved that citizens can peacefully vote against what they don’t like and prevail. That could not happen under communism.

I believe our U.S. government and economy is the best in the world. We have a free society, as demonstrated by the fact that Mr. Jensen, myself, and everyone else in this nation has the right to engage in discourse on varying topics and hold diverse opinions. It is obvious that Mr. Jensen does not agree with Mr. Obama’s more liberal political philosophy, and that is fine. Without factual evidence, however, his letter merely becomes an unconvincing exercise in name-calling.

Whether we are conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, we should all present our cases with proof or statements that can be investigated and checked out. Otherwise, simply call what you have to say your pure personal opinion, without resorting to the pretense that it is “setting the record straight.”

Lynne Michels

LAS VEGAS