Columnist is clueless about voters
One reads a column like the Roger Cohen op-ed that appeared in the Sept. 24 edition of the Observer-Reporter, where he is sanguine about voters coming to their senses and wonders, is he completely clueless, or just a hypocrite? For a columnist, the worse sin would probably be cluelessness. After all, a columnist is paid to know something about what he is writing about. But maybe not.
He quotes a Harvard University boffin complaining about the U.S. where “money and special interests have created a corrupt political class that is out of touch with ordinary people, interested mostly in enriching themselves and immune to accountability.”
Cohen thunders, “This must end.”
Is this is a completely new revelation to him? The unrelieved corruption of the political class is why we have the two presidential candidates we do.
On the Republican side, there is disgust with business-as-usual. It resulted in the most anti-establishment candidate since Ronald Reagan being nominated for president. People with short memories do not recall how reviled Reagan was by the Republican establishment.
With Democrats, it was the exact opposite. The anti-establishment candidate did not stand a chance given the absolute corruption of that party’s apparatchiks. They did everything but burn ballot boxes to ensure the uninterrupted coronation of Hillary Clinton. Sanders supporters will remember this. And not just in this election.
Of course, a New York Times column would not be complete without a swipe at Trump. He is lumped in with a gallery of European political figures, all of whom are just chomping at the bit for the opportunity to become despots.
But wait! There is a ray of hope. Cohen advises: “Respect the intelligence of the voters. Sooner or later they come to their senses.”
I, for one, am waiting for the post-election column he writes congratulating voters for their wise choice in electing Donald Trump. But then that would prove my initial premise wrong. Not clueless. Just a hypocrite. Garden-variety type.
John Manning
Canonsburg