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By Roz Rogoff
About this blog: In January 2002 I started writing my own online "newspaper" titled "The San Ramon Observer." I reported on City Council meetings and other happenings in San Ramon. I tried to be objective in my coverage of meetings and events, and...
(More)About this blog: In January 2002 I started writing my own online "newspaper" titled "The San Ramon Observer." I reported on City Council meetings and other happenings in San Ramon. I tried to be objective in my coverage of meetings and events, and saved my barbs for my Commentary page. I had some political differences with the City Council at that time and particularly with the majority dubbed "The Gang of Three," by the San Ramon Valley Times. In 2003 new Council members were elected and the Council was more balanced and fiscally conservative, but I continued to write the Observer until 2009. At that point I decided I wanted to concentrate on my commentaries. So I requested a meeting with the editor and publisher of the Danville Weekly about taking over the San Ramon Observer. My timing was very apropos since the parent company, Embarcadero Media, was planning to release an online San Ramon Express that April. I was offered a "blog" under the name "San Ramon Observer" for my commentaries. I like to inform residents about what is happening in San Ramon, especially on city government and local politics. When I don't have anything to write about on those topics, I just write about anything I am doing or thinking about.
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Outrageous! Heartbreaking! Shocking!
Uploaded: Apr 7, 2017
What are they talking about? Bombings in Syria, Terrorist attacks in London, millions of displaced people fleeing for their lives? No. These are Democrats griping over their candidate being outspent in a special election in Georgia.
Of course all of this hyperbole is to convince the faithful to dig deep into their wallets and fork over more money to outspend the opposition. There used to be spending limits on candidates. We need to bring those back so we don't get into this kind of fundraising paranoia.
It's not just Democrats. Republicans do it too. Scare tactics are used on both sides now to ensure their candidate will win, and if he or she doesn't "Oh the Horror" of the other party being in control. How did we get to this standoff, this gunfight at the NOT OK Corral and the schadenfreude at the distress of the opposition's candidate?
The latest outrage is the Republican's unilateral vote to appoint Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. They couldn't wait for the Democrats to stop talking everyone to death by filibustering Gorsuch's appointment; so they used the "Nuclear Option," and simply voted by a majority of 51 to hustle the Judge into a Supreme seat.
Now there's weeping and gnashing of teeth from the Dems. Oh how awful! Oh give me a break! Gorsuch is replacing Justice Antonin Scalia and by all reports he is Scalia's clone. So NOTHING has changed on how the Supremes will vote on most cases.
The Dems can't resist making a big issue out of a reasonable appointment. If Steve Bannon had been away for the day and President Trump accidentally appointed a liberal Democrat to Scalia's seat, the Republicans would have gone wild.
There are two sides to every argument, maybe even 10 or 20 sides. Not everyone will agree on everything, but that's no reason to make every disagreement into a political war.
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