The longer I stick around journalism, the more I hear the phrase \u201cleft wing, liberal media.\u201d<\/p>\n
I heard that phrase bandied about in regard to me these past several weeks, because I said in a column that Sarah Palin was not equipped to be vice president. (“Sarah Palin and the viper pit; nice job, GOP,” July 7). I also took the GOP to task for letting her hang out to dry, in the midst of the various hornets\u2019 nests she became entangled in. (I\u2019ll leave it to you to decide how she got there.)<\/p>\n
So I want to make sure I\u2019ve got this straight, because I\u2019m not certain I even know what a left-winged, liberal media type is.<\/p>\n
They sound like trouble.<\/p>\n
Maybe you can help me.<\/p>\n
Here is what I do and what I believe. What does this make me?<\/p>\n
I vote independent, which is highly annoying when our state requires us to pick our party affiliations. I\u2019ve voted for Republicans and Democrats, although overall the Democrats, in spite of a propensity for handwringing, have gotten my vote a lot more of the time.<\/p>\n
But I love the Republicans\u2019 call for personal responsibility, and that \u201cpull yourself up by your own bootstraps\u201d attitude, which is what America is all about.<\/p>\n
Republicans\u2019 downside is a tendency to take that mantra too far, forgetting there are people who need help getting the boots on, before they can even think about pulling them up.<\/p>\n
I believe in the Constitution and the right it gives citizens to bear arms. I\u2019ve owned guns over the years (and am a pretty decent shot.)<\/p>\n
I want that right, because frankly it would scare me to live in a society where the only people with access to guns are police and criminals. I have the right to choose how I defend myself, especially when the police aren\u2019t around.<\/p>\n
But I also have the responsibility to make good choices. That is the cost of a free society. I\u2019d rather take the chance that someone will make a bad decision, rather than throw away the right to make my own decision.<\/p>\n
By the same token, I believe in a woman\u2019s right to dictate what happens to her body. But for my own body, I am pro-life.<\/p>\n
Organized religion worries me, but not having a belief system at all terrifies me.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t care for Sarah Palin, but Nancy Pelosi is no bargain either. She pulled a few stunts during the Bush era that demonstrated to the rest of the world that America was truly a house divided.<\/p>\n
I admire Condoleeza Rice, although she\u2019s got Iraq hanging over her head. But her Democrat Secretary of State predecessor Madeleine Albright had the Rwanda, Somalia and Bosnia debacles on her resume. I admire both unabashedly – they are intellectuals who added a level of polish and class to the administrations they were hired to represent. And how Rice managed to keep her personal life out of the media spotlight is a triumph for which Palin could only dare hope.<\/p>\n
So, are these the rantings of a left-wing liberal type? Beats the heck out of me. I\u2019ll call them as I see them, and let someone else pin the labels.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Laura Pierce can be reached at lpierce@kentreporter.com, or by calling 253-872-6600, ext. 5050.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The longer I stick around journalism, the more I hear the phrase \u201cleft wing, liberal media.\u201d I heard that phrase bandied about in regard to me these past several weeks, because I said in a column that Sarah Palin was not equipped to be vice president. (“Sarah Palin and the viper pit; nice job, GOP,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10867"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}