Oh comments.
The poor editorial writer could not w. I suspect many subscriptions were cancelled in the wake of this endorsement. A conservative pundit immediately accused them of "becoming a liberal paper" because of their endorsement. One reader accused them of being too close to the Bush family. One reader slammed them for supporting a "criminal" for President. And that's when my head started to ache.
Seriously.SERIOUSLY, define "criminal" for me. Does it mean encouraging cyber-espionage? Does it mean donating money to an official who's considering bringing a lawsuit against you? Is it an allegation or rape?
Is it criminal to defraud students with a bogus university? Does "criminal" mean not paying contractors for their work? Does it mean encouraging employees to lie on immigration forms?
Or do you mean "criminal" in the moral sense, the way my grandmother used to use it. As in, "It's just 'scriinal' the way some people behave." By that she meant people who lied about other people (she took the commandment about "bearing false witness" seriously). She also wasn't a fan of racism or sexism. (Sexism was an issue close to her heart. She'd been the primary breadwinner in her 50+-year marriage, and she'd made that money as a traveling saleslady. (She once told me that she was the top seller at her company but the management never acknowledged that because it would embarrass the men.) So you can imagine what she would think of a man saying awoman doesn't "look presidential." She would have recognized that for the sexism it is and she would have called it "criminal."
Is it "criminal" in the moral sense to mock people with disabilities, to encourage violence against detractors, to make bad jokes about killing an opponent? Any high school civics student knows that the right to free speech does not include yelling "fire" in a crowded room. My grandmother, a lifelong Republican who despised FDR, might stop short of saying "criminal," but she would label it "hatefHillary Cinton is not a criminal.
HRC is NOT a criminal. She did not order a hit on Vince Foster. She is not personally responsble for the deaths in Benghazi. Her email issues DID NOT endanger the Republic. (She's not who loves dictators.)
She's just a woman with a stunning record of public service running for what's been a traditionally male job in this country and her detractors are throwing every kind of shade at her to see if anything will stick. "Criminal" apparently stuck. And so,people ho would never vote for a woman ever because ... women!!... can tell themselves it's because she's hiding something (not her tax returns) and she's crooked and a criminal who should be "locked up." (She's not the one facing fraud charges, but they know that.)
People will vote the way they'll vote. Anything that either I or the Dallas Morning News have to say isn't really going to change that. But I would like anyone considering voting for Trump just because Hillary is "crooked" and Trump is an "outsider" take a good long look at their motivation and call it what it is before marking their ballot.
I read that endorsement. I don't know where the idea that they've suddenly become flaming liberals came from. They presented a measured consideration of the facts. And many foreign policy Republicans have LONG backed Clinton. Some have even said they would refuse to do their jobs under Trump.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right. Pointing the finger and yelling "Criminal!" is easier than taking the time to try and understand things.