Do better

To the Editor;

I suppose it’s necessary for newspapers to print conservative viewpoints on their opinion page. But with Republicans now turned Trumpists, finding a rational conservative voice is about as likely as hauling a blue lobster from Penobscot Bay. So maybe the BDN can be forgiven for subjecting us to Matthew Gagnon.

Trump good, taxes bad, business regulations bad. There is the total of Gagnon’s endlessly repetitive columns. Recently he gave us his 10 “bold” predictions for 2021, which include the twisted idea that public health officials will push for restrictions beyond July because, after all, what they really long for is control over the public. His sense of autonomy must be very fragile indeed.

His winner was “predicting” that Joe Biden would be inaugurated in January. He actually predicted that the man who won the election by more than 7 million votes would become president. In Gagnon’s mind this apparently requires prediction, as opposed to mere acceptance of fact, because a “significant portion of the population” expects Trump’s election lawsuits will overturn a democratic election. 

Has it occurred to Gagnon that a “significant portion of the population” believes in alien abduction and astrology? That they now cheer for the destruction of American democracy is horrifying but not surprising.

Conservatives have gorged upon and now regurgitate a feast of right wing paranoia and the childlike lies that tumble from the mouth of their beloved leader as fast as Republican talking points flow from the pen of Matthew Gagnon. BDN, do better.

Al Scovern

Belfast