A history of no constructive dialogue

A recent letters contributor moaned about the lack of “constructive dialogue about health care,” and excoriated Rush Limbaugh for “comparing the Obama administration and the democrats to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.”

Never mind that 1) Nancy Pelosi actually began this exchange, by referring to veterans, retirees, and taxpaying American citizens as un-American, unpatriotic and Nazis; 2) Limbaugh stated clearly, on several occasions, that his health-care comparison was between the National Socialist system in Germany and the current socialist movement today, NOT personalities; and 3) he also definitively remarked that he was NOT calling Obama Hitler. But, people reading an inaccurate letter to the editor won't know that!

It's odd that I didn't see a spate of letters to the editor on this subject over the past eight years, as culture warriors on the left threw objects, shouted down conservative lecturers on college campuses, screamed at Republican legislators in their town meetings, and even members of Congress - not citizen protesters - repeatedly labeled Bush, Chaney and others as Nazis. Any outcries for “constructive dialogue” then? Of course not.

David Shaw

Coralville