Last week, Lawrence Denny of Bluffton called the Republican party a "club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites and ignoramuses." Those descriptions certainly apply to many Republican politicians, but Lawrence seems to be observing faults on one side without realizing that his list of Republican party faults is a perfect match for the Democrat party as well.
Selective observation seems to be a common human trait that manifests itself in many areas of society. For example I've observed it in the workplace. A former coworker (we'll call him coworker "A") hated coworker B but loved coworker C. A would call B worthless and praise C even though B and C were doing the exact same thing. I've seen it at sporting events. When one of "our" players commits an offense and the ref doesn't see it we pretend we didn't either, but when the same offense is committed by a player from the "other" team we yell at the ref for not catching it. And of course a good example of selective observation in politics is Lawrence's letter. He quoted only Republican gaffes and quoted only criticism of Republicans from a few foreign editorialists who share his left wing view.
I could copy Lawrence's letter and simply substitute Democrat gaffes and use quotes from different editorialists and Lawrence's letter would mean the exact opposite of his original.
If Lawrence really wants anyone to take his observations of political flaws seriously he needs to open his left eye as well.
Daniel DeYonge
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Staples
