To the Editor:
Re “The Wizard of Beck,” by David Brooks (column, Oct. 2):
Mr. Brooks is correct about Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the rest. Democracy requires an informed citizenry in order to thrive, which means that people have to trade ideas and opinions with some objectivity and dispassion.
These demagogues, with their aggressive bitterness and their lies, bring the public discourse into the gutter. They exhort us not to speak (or even think) rationally, and to them the ability to consider opposing views is a sign of weakness.
In a political system designed to be “by the people,” this is the opposite of patriotism.
Geoffrey S. Poor
Honeoye Falls, N.Y., Oct. 2, 2009
Note from KBJ: If Limbaugh et al. were progressives rather than conservatives, the letter writer would praise them for "speaking truth to power."
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 