This is a letter sent to the Bucks County Intelligencer on May 17th. I doubt they will publish it.<\/p>\n
\nTo the Editor:<\/p>\n
Well. The primary election is over, and incumbents across the state have been thrown out of office. Here in Bucks County, Patrick Murphy has won the Democratic primary by a two to one margin over Andy Warren, despite the Intelligencer\u2019s ill-considered endorsement.<\/p>\n
What is more telling, though, is the reaction from Mike Fitzpatrick published in the Intelligencer the very morning after the election. Not the usual \u201ccongratulations\u201d and \u201clooking forward to a good debate\u201d, instead Mike immediately launches into the usual name-calling and labeling which have become the standard of the republican national party. Mr. Fitzpatrick likes to consider himself independent \u2013 it would be good to see him be independent of his party\u2019s national attack politics. A \u201cCut-and-Run Liberal\u201d? Please, Mr Fitzpatrick, I will value the opinions of someone who served in Iraq, training the Iraqi\u2019s to run their own military and government and earning a bronze star in the process, over someone went over there on the government\u2019s money for a weekend photo-op, and only after learning who his election opponent might be. <\/p>\n
\u201cImmoderate liberalism\u201d? There are many of us who believe that \u201cliberal\u201d is not a dirty word. It means care for our community and nation rather than executives of ExxonMobil. It means not only mouthing words about educational reform, but actually making it possible by funding whatever programs you mandate. It means caring that our country has the fourth-worst infant mortality rate in the developed world, rather trying to repeal a woman\u2019s right to control her own body.<\/p>\n
The simple truth is that Mr. Fitzpatrick\u2019s support of the current president, when he has really required it, has made him complicit in the unnecessary deaths of 2447 brave Americans like Patrick Murphy who actually have the courage of their convictions, and the maiming of 18,000 more. While the republicans don\u2019t seem to notice, we should also mention the deaths of 40,000 or so innocent Iraq civilians, all someone\u2019s mother, brother, son, daughter, or father. When Mr. Fitzpatrick chooses to put his life on the line for this country, I will give some weight to his use of the term \u201cCut and Run Liberal.\u201d In the meantime, the honest citizens of this county, at least, will not allow the Swift-Boating of a true American.<\/p>\n
In the run-up to the general election, Mr. Fitzpatrick might take the opportunity to learn of our constitution from someone chosen to teach it to our West Point cadets. He might also take the time to study with Miss Manners to learn courtesy. Mr. Fitzpatrick likes to attend Boy Scout Eagle ceremonies. I would remind him that the fifth and tenth points of the scout law have not been rescinded.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a letter sent to the Bucks County Intelligencer on May 17th. I doubt they will publish it. To the Editor: Well. The primary election is over, and incumbents across the state have been thrown out of office. Here in Bucks County, Patrick Murphy has won the Democratic primary by a two to one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.folsoms.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}