The letters to the editor have been my favorite section of the newspaper ever since I realized the comics weren’t all that funny. So instead of starting my day with Garfield, I turn to the opinion section. Letters to the editor are the place where you can find the opinions that really matter–they’re not necessarily the best researched or even rational, but these are the things that people think. These are the most important opinions in the country, in the sense that letter writers are usually somewhat politically active and they’re active on a level at which they’re likely to have the most impact–the local level.
To make an argument from adage:
- All politics are local
- Letters to the editor are local politics
- All politics can be understood through letters to the editor
Well, the premises may need a little work, but I do think letters to the editor are an important lens through which to view politics in the United States. They’re like listening to talk radio, without the painful experience of actually listening to talk radio. (I tried it once and I barely lasted 4 minutes. They called Barack Obama a socialist. Now, I like Obama’s campaign, but I’ve met socialists, and he is no socialist.) Since I’d rather laugh than cry, the goal of this blog is to provide a place to sound-off on the more egregious letters and opinion articles from a variety of Nebraska papers. When not deconstructing the arguments of letter writers, this blog will also discuss Nebraska within the context of national politics.
