It's by Karen X Cartwright... · Our local newspaper, the politically and socially conservative Caledonian-Record, has been publishing in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, since 1837. Its publisher appended the following note to a letter to the editor entitled “Had Enough of the Liberal Hatred,” in which a reader condemned the paper for printing other readers’ letters criticizing Trump and congressional Republicans for attempting to destroy our democracy. The letter writer announced that he would be canceling his subscription. Publisher’s Note: We sincerely appreciate your long-time patronage. If you’ve been with us long enough, you know that for more than a century we were a Yankee-Republican, fiscally conservative newspaper. That shifted when the Republican Party we knew — of small, responsible government and fiscal discipline — was replaced by a movement embracing authoritarian tendencies. You may also recall the many times we published letters from “liberals” who accused us of being too conservative. Today, we get the opposite complaint. The reality is that we publish letters from across the political spectrum because we believe in equal voice for all. We also learned not to marginalize readers who confuse our independent news coverage with our opinion page — especially as social media has eroded objective truth, gutted local newspapers, and left people in ideological echo chambers. We will miss your support. And when we disappear, our community will lose much more than a subscription — we'll lose a watchdog, a public square, and a reliable source of verified information. For the record, our concern about Donald Trump’s leadership is not about party loyalty; it’s about democratic norms. His record includes: Capturing the justice system through politicized prosecutions and intimidation of judges and lawyers; Purging and politicizing the civil service via loyalty tests, watchlists, and removals; Overusing emergency powers to bypass Congress on trade, immigration, and security; Manipulating elections through extreme gerrymandering, weakening voting-rights enforcement, and politicizing election machinery; Using domestic militarization for routine policing and threatening cross-border military actions; Pressuring universities and civil society through funding freezes, punitive settlements, and licensing leverage; Politicizing science by deleting datasets, blocking research, and controlling grant decisions; Undermining independent media through defunding, blacklists, and legal harassment; Profiting from public office through conflicts of interest, foreign gifts, and opaque schemes; Weaponizing tariffs against allies; Undermining immigration rights, including birthright citizenship; Attacking diversity, equity, inclusion, and civil rights infrastructure; Rolling back equal-protection enforcement; Weakening social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and student debt relief. We believe these are not conservative values — they are authoritarian ones. Between the loss of local journalism and the normalization of such tactics, all Americans, regardless of politics, stand to lose.
Trump’s Takeover of D.C. Is Not a Distraction. It’s the Whole Point. - Click
ReplyDeleteLiane*in*VT posted this today!
ReplyDeleteIt's by Karen X Cartwright...
·
Our local newspaper, the politically and socially conservative Caledonian-Record, has been publishing in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, since 1837. Its publisher appended the following note to a letter to the editor entitled “Had Enough of the Liberal Hatred,” in which a reader condemned the paper for printing other readers’ letters criticizing Trump and congressional Republicans for attempting to destroy our democracy. The letter writer announced that he would be canceling his subscription.
Publisher’s Note: We sincerely appreciate your long-time patronage.
If you’ve been with us long enough, you know that for more than a century we were a Yankee-Republican, fiscally conservative newspaper. That shifted when the Republican Party we knew — of small, responsible government and fiscal discipline — was replaced by a movement embracing authoritarian tendencies.
You may also recall the many times we published letters from “liberals” who accused us of being too conservative. Today, we get the opposite complaint. The reality is that we publish letters from across the political spectrum because we believe in equal voice for all.
We also learned not to marginalize readers who confuse our independent news coverage with our opinion page — especially as social media has eroded objective truth, gutted local newspapers, and left people in ideological echo chambers.
We will miss your support. And when we disappear, our community will lose much more than a subscription — we'll lose a watchdog, a public square, and a reliable source of verified information.
For the record, our concern about Donald Trump’s leadership is not about party loyalty; it’s about democratic norms. His record includes:
Capturing the justice system through politicized prosecutions and intimidation of judges and lawyers;
Purging and politicizing the civil service via loyalty tests, watchlists, and removals;
Overusing emergency powers to bypass Congress on trade, immigration, and security;
Manipulating elections through extreme gerrymandering, weakening voting-rights enforcement, and politicizing election machinery;
Using domestic militarization for routine policing and threatening cross-border military actions;
Pressuring universities and civil society through funding freezes, punitive settlements, and licensing leverage;
Politicizing science by deleting datasets, blocking research, and controlling grant decisions;
Undermining independent media through defunding, blacklists, and legal harassment;
Profiting from public office through conflicts of interest, foreign gifts, and opaque schemes;
Weaponizing tariffs against allies;
Undermining immigration rights, including birthright citizenship;
Attacking diversity, equity, inclusion, and civil rights infrastructure;
Rolling back equal-protection enforcement;
Weakening social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and student debt relief.
We believe these are not conservative values — they are authoritarian ones. Between the loss of local journalism and the normalization of such tactics, all Americans, regardless of politics, stand to lose.
Perhaps it bodes well for a shift?
DeleteOf course, it is Vermont.
But! A relative of ours who has been pro-DT in the past clicked LIKE yesterday on a post by Heather Cox Richardson!
That's quite a statement.
DeleteSusan says she's back to not being able to post! It's so frustrating!!
ReplyDeleteAny idears of what she could try?
Rats! Well, it was nice to see her in person yesterday anyway.
Delete