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Letter: Renew effective political discourse

The Columbian
Published: October 16, 2013, 5:00pm

There is no role for political discourse today. Our culture is based on a win/lose attitude rather than a discussion to find the truth, or at least our best understanding of it. Under that approach to public policy development, people will and do disagree. But it has reached a fever pitch and has actually put us at the point of fiscal and political disaster, in large part because of political maneuvering of a few very wealthy and ultra-conservative people in the U.S. who have been engineering this struggle for a long time.

Evidence of that is a Fox News story outlining how the Koch brothers and Ed Meese have been orchestrating this government shutdown for months (http://bit.ly/1bO5Klz). This story deserves a full investigation by the news media, beginning with efforts to gerrymander our legislative districts according to interest rather than population. Report information citizens can use in sorting real political discourse from the madness of sound bites inflicted on well-intentioned voters.

It’s one thing to disagree that a national health care strategy increases a culture of dependence in our nation. It’s quite another to risk our economy because of that disagreement. And that level of brinkmanship is possible because of gerrymandered districts that leave some politicians feeling secure about the eventual electoral fallout caused by an enlightened voting populace.

Jim Crawford

Washougal

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