After reading today's David Broder column (and before reading Hunter's diary), I opened my email and decided to write Mr. Broder.
For a long time, I had respect for Broder and his work. He has been at it for a long time, and has made some good contributions to coverage of Washington over the years. He's also made some egregious errors in judgment, such as saying in 1972 that Watergate wasn't a big deal.
By and large, though, I respected Broder, but today's column was even worse than how Kos put it when he linked to it. It upset me, both for equating us left-wing bloggers with the American Taliban, and for the terrible use of the tired old storylines, such as Lieberman and Chafee being "independent" and deriding Lamont as just being the "bloggers favorite," as if the people of Connecticut didn't vote Joe out of office.
The letter after the jump....
So, here's the letter:
Mr. Broder,
I have long held a deep respect for you and your work. I've followed your career, read you often over the years, and appreciated your contributions.
Today's column, though, was terrible.
It was terrible for insinuating that independence exists among the GOP, when today's "compromise" demonstrates once more that they are leashed dogs, whose lines end in the hands of the Bush White House. They capitulated once more, this time on torture. My God, how do you not see this for what it is? Did you ever, in your 40 years in Washington, ever see a debate over TORTURE before? Were the Geneva Conventions ever questioned or in need of "clarification" before?
It was terrible for using the tired storyline of "angry, foulmouthed left wing bloggers." Maybe it's easy for you as an established reporter with a high profile to not become angry. Maybe it's easy for you, as a well-off American who has certainly benefited from the Bush tax cuts, to not understand the pain that those of us in the lower middle class feels from this top-heavy economy. Maybe it was just too easy to use such a tired old phrase and ignore right-wing bloggers who condone racism, encourage violence against your colleagues, and push for an America that is fascistic at best and theocratic at worst.
You dismiss Ned Lamont as "the bloggers' favorite" while praising Sen. Lieberman's independence. May I remind you that Ned Lamont beat Lieberman in the primary, and that bloggers weren't the only people voting? The Democrats of Connecticut turned out in high numbers to boot Joe. Once upon a time, primary results were respected by the losers. Why are you supporting a sore loser, Mr. Broder? Why would you praise a man who is ignoring the wishes of voters and continuing to try to cling to power?
You end your column by saying, "And that in turn would set the stage for a 2008 election in which the two branches of the independence movement -- Republican and Democratic -- could compete in a campaign that would, for a change, show a "decent respect" for the intelligence of the American people." However, your column shows no respect for those of us who form an active blogosphere, where we share ideas, talk, empathize, and yes, we curse and get angry sometimes.
Mr. Broder, you are capable of better than this. Stop defending the center. Take a look around and realize that the center is now the left, because the right has gone off the seesaw and kept moving. Go out and investigate what is happening in America, as Haynes Johnson once did. This "angry left" is not some group of elitists. I'm a recent college graduate struggling to get by. We count among us truck drivers, grandmothers, teachers, pastors, etc. We are the average American.
I'm sorry if our use of foul language offends you. I'm sorry if you can't handle anger. I'm sorry that we had a far more human, emotional, gut-wrenching response to things like people dying in the streets of New Orleans, or to the mere idea of permitting torture, or to so many promising young lives being shattered in Iraq by an arrogant president who thinks he can bend nations to his will. We didn't want for it to be this way or ask for it to be this way, but those in power made it this way, and we are reacting harshly to harsh realities. We have cause to curse and to be angry. We are the average people whose voices are getting lost among the nonstop chatter of 24-hour cable "news" channels. We are the people who feel the brunt of the misguided, aimless policies of the GOP government. We the people have a problem with where our nation is heading, and by God, this is a nation governed by the people, for the people, with our consent, and we are angry and cursing because this government is ignoring the will of the people.
Thad Zajac
Los Angeles
IMO, this is the best letter I've ever written.