David Broder lives on another planet

This is not a new realization on my part, but one which the columnist reinforces almost every time he puts fingers to keyboard. Yesterday's column is a perfect example. In it, he takes Maureen Dowd to task for writing that, with Bush's election, "the forces of darkness are taking over the country."

Broder goes on to explain that not all Republicans hold extremely conservative views. I agree, but that's the only part of his column with which I am in agreement. Though moderate Republicans can hardly be called forces of darkness, the people running the country have earned that title in the past four years (and thousands of moderate Republicans voted for them, come to think of it).

Broder's arguments are ridiculous: Everything's okay because Andrew Card is from Massachusetts, and because John Ashcroft has resigned. Oh, I feel so much better now. After all, there are no other right-wing religious nutcases who could possibly be appointed to high positions.

Here's my favorite part, though: "I can count two dozen Senate Republicans who have experienced with their own families and friends the pain of mental or physical illness, or poverty, or racial or sexual discrimination. Do you think they would stand silent while a vendetta against any of those groups was carried out?"

Duh! They've been "standing silent" for four years (along with many Democrats, I should add) while the Bush administration chose the wealth of pharmaceutical companies over the health concerns of older citizens, refused to lower lead standards to protect children, relaxed every environmental standard in the country, oversaw the greatest decline of jobs in modern history, made every effort to prevent women from finding out how to protect their rights in the workplace, tried to nominate judges whose careers have been built on discriminating against women and minorities...do I need to go on? The entire Bush residency has been a vendetta against women, minorities, the poor, the sick, and the middle class.