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This column reflects the opinion of the writer. Learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column.

Imbalance to the right

The Opinion page of The Spokesman-Review on Sept. 14 reads like a publicity sheet for the extremist tea party. Ramirez’s Obama-bashing cartoon is followed by Mona Charen’s Obama-bashing column and three letters, one attacking Sen. Murray, another extolling Glenn Beck, and a third wrongly tracing the left-right distinction to an obscure passage in the Bible. The editorial tops it off by defending the libertarian opposition to any limitations on the role of money in politics.

With only 200 words at my disposal I can’t correct all the misstatements on this page. Let me just point out that the left-right distinction dates back to the National Assembly of the French Revolution, when reformers sat to the left of the speaker and conservatives to the right.

The policies on which they differed were based on the significance each side attributed to human equality, the left favoring greater equality, the right opposing it. By that measure the Bible, notwithstanding some obscure passages, comes down wholeheartedly on the side of the left.

Sally Winkle

Spokane

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