Letter: Not all silos are equal

Greg Jayne almost got it right in his Nov. 29 opinion column, “Dislike those in government? Then stop electing them.” However, in his wrap-up, he resorted to the inaccurate trope that both parties are the same, relegating them to living in their respective “ideological silos,” the “echo-chamber of their own beliefs.”

He did not tell the whole story, stating, “Because of that, we have moved beyond mere dissatisfaction with government and into the realm of actual anger. Pew found that while 57 percent of respondents are frustrated with the federal government, 22 percent identify themselves as angry with it.” But the angry person silo is overwhelmingly the home of Republicans.

Pew also found that at 32 percent “Republicans are nearly three times as likely as Democrats (12 percent) to say they are angry with the government.

And among politically engaged Republicans and Democrats — those who vote frequently and follow politics on a regular basis — the gap is nearly four-to-one (42 percent to 11 percent).”

The Republican base, after years of fear-mongering (gays, gun control, Ebola, terrorists, Mexicans, debt, deficits, taxes, communists, socialists, liberals, health care, Social Security, Medicare, Democrats …the eve of destruction) and promises by their leaders to do the impossible (like repeal Obamacare), has every right to be angry. I’d be angry too, if I’d been played for a sucker, but just like Charlie Brown, they fall for Lucy’s football trick every time.