It took Basic Rights Oregon (and the Oregon Democratic Party) 4 days to issue a
statement about its disgust with Representative Dennis Richardson and his
weekly newsletter. BRO claims Richardson’s mentioning of the Virginia Tech
killings and the vote that week on SB 2 and HB 2007 in the same paragraph is
tantamount to making a comparison of equalization.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The first paragraph of any essay is called an introduction. The purpose is to inform readers about what will be discussed in the essay. High School English students know this: an introduction, 3 supporting paragraphs and a conclusion make an essay.
In his introduction Richardson mentions two events from the “week in review” and discusses a third issue””an update from the previous weeks newsletter on an insurance billing experience his daughter had. Where is the mention of the outrage over that? No insurance companies are up in arms over billing errors because there isn’t anything to be disgusted over. Using the logic of BRO and ODP mentioning this in the same paragraph makes it a tragedy on the same
level.
All three issues are discussed separately under different headings and are treated as three separate articles. One only needs to look at his newsletter from the previous week to see that a similar format had been used with links to separate articles. Disgust? I don’t really see it.
Political disgust must be different from moral disgust; after all it took 4 days to show itself. Maybe its like heartburn, you don’t quite feel it right away. Maybe it’s like a hurricane–needing the right conditions converging. Maybe the disgust has to be aggravated, like the docile alligator sunning himself. Or better yet, political disgust must only come after one of your own gets called on the carpet for violating House Rules.
Like the ship sinking after an attack, the Left has tried to fire off one last shot. Unfortunately the powder in the cannon is wet and fizzles out with no real bang. It’s hard to throw rocks from inside the glass house.
Everyone agrees that the massacre at Virginia Tech was a horrific event. Basic Rights Oregon twisting Representative Richardsons words to use the Virigina Tech massacre to paint him as a bigot is just as disgusting as what they accuse Richardson of.