O that Progressive Old COLDNews

[XLFD]

In the 2016 election, Donald J. Trump won every single precinct in Mason County garnering 57.5% of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 35.7% (a 21.8% margin).  This wasn't an anomaly in a state that hasn't went Democratic blue since the Reagan years (a true anomaly), rather the norm since all other contested state races in the county featured the Republican candidate winning by over 20 percentage points:

Jack Bergman (R) 57.76% over (D) Lon Johnson 36.89% a 20.87% margin

Curt VanderWall (R) 60.37% over Dan Scripps (D) 39.45%  a 20.92% margin

Bill Huizenga (R) 62.9% over Dennis Murphy (D) 32.42%  a 30.48% margin

But this also should be expected when every single one of the people who ran for county commissioner office was Republican in August of this year, there were no Democrat candidates.  It was the same deal in 2016.  Like it or not, Mason County is deep red.

Rather than cater to that demographic, the local newspaper, the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews), has progressively become more progressive over the last few years.  Few would think promoting an unpopular political philosophy is a good business model for a newspaper, and it's showing in their decreased local circulation as they become more brazenly liberal in perspective.  And appealing to an older crowd apparently...

The Reader's Forum of September 7, 2018 shows that they still have a core audience in their readership that feels the need to express their viewpoints to the young whippersnappers of the community, blinded by their conservatism.  Here is the lion's share of those three letters from the COLDNews senescent audience:

The last letter writer's name was Dan Kelly from Pentwater.  The three authors and their perspectives have a lot in common and those things all seem to begin with the letter 'O'.  

1)  Out-of-Towners:  Two of the authors live outside Mason County, the other lives about as far away from Ludington as you could be in this county, living in Freesoil (28 miles away).  

2)  Out-of-jurisdiction topics:  The subject material is far from being of local interest, focusing on Washington political issues, primarily the denunciation of the president and/or his policies.

3)  Old White Liberals:  A quick check determines all authors have seen at least 72 birthdays pass:

It also reflects that they have written similar left-leaning opinions to this and other media in the past, such as this by Gancarz, this by Chye, and this by Kelly.  

4) Out-of-touch:  As noted, Trump and other Republicans won by over 20 percentage points in Mason County, similarly that rang true in Oceana County too, where Pentwater and Hesperia lie.  These septuagenarians who came of age during the 1960's have replaced their liberal dislike of Nixon with a liberal hatred of the current occupant of the White House.  They are out of the mainstream in their communities.

5)  Obfuscatory:  Gancarz emotes that Trump "wants to take away our right to express our freedom of speech", that Trump wants to "shut down this basic right".  He laments that "some states are passing laws making it harder, not easier to vote."  These are at best half-truths.

Chye's piece was bemoaning the concept of any tax cut and offering stats for Trump that are factually incorrect and based mainly on projections.  Where was Chye when Obama was running the numbers up?  

Kelly tells us that Trump "lacks the ability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships... exhibits inappropriate types of behavior or feelings... is moody unhappy and depressed... He always needs to be one-up on everybody and he seeks adulation and lies to get it.  This sick individual is not the leader we need."  Mr. Kelly must be an expert, or maybe he's just that offensive (another 'O' adjective) to everybody that he disagrees with.  

Odd, that the only contributors to the dialog in the only Ludington print media are old white liberal men (a very small minority in Mason County) from remote areas complaining about a president that was handily voted in and still supported by the majority of their immediate neighbors.  

[Dave]

I'm not a Trump fan... not that I was a Hillary fan by any means.... Trump is a president unlike any that we've had before, doing things his way, regardless of if anyone else thinks its right or not. Its fair to say that he's done plenty of dopey things while in office and says some stupid stuff, but not everything has been bad. His supreme court appointees have both been reasonable choices, regardless of how democrats try to demonize them... Kavanaugh in particular appears to be one of the most respected jurist. Its kind of funny reading some of the comments about the appointees, one apparent democratic supporter talked about how the Robert's supreme court was going to take away everyone's rights and all the usual blather... apparently forgetting that Robert's was the deciding vote that legalized gay marriage. Read something from Michael Moore talking about the court as well and how its being politicized by Trump with the recent appointees.... as if it would be any different had Hillary won. Anyway, I can say from my own personal standpoint that the tax cuts have seemed to help me.. I have noticed my pay checks being bigger plus I had a nice one time bonus in the spring as well.

[XLFD]

I've grown into liking Trump simply because over the last couple of years the mainstream media and politicians of both wings have tried to ridicule diminish him, and bring him to ruin.  During that time he has been trying to do what he said he would do to improve the lot of all Americans and has been mostly successful.  I can respect that, because that's kind of what I've been doing in my little corner of the world, with a little less bombast and a lot less power.

The three septuagenarians fail to weigh in on the Kavanaugh appointment and instead just try to tell us why we should not tolerate Trump (who is 72 years old just like two of them) for the usual unicorn reasons of taking away rights of speech (?!), making unreasonable tax cuts (to a dedicated liberal, any tax cut is unreasonable), and because he exhibits questionable character traits (that helped him win the office).  

The question one should ask:  is this the only type of person who writes letters to the COLDNews, is this the only type of letter the new editor wants to publish, or is this the only intolerant viewpoint the opinion page will tolerate?

[Willy]

About the only thing I can partially agree with in these letters to the editor has to do with our National Debt. But the blame for that is squarely on the law makers not the Executive office, even tho it's a responsibility that can be shared when it comes to blame since the Executive branch must approve it. Even then Mr Chye is only partially informed. The rest of the liberal / progressive belly aching is typical left wing puke. I'm a huge trump fan. He's the only President who has kept his word and is doing so under great pressure from traitors who occupy and control much of America's politics and Government operations.

 

[AQUAMAN]

I agree with Willy & Dave too. Well, what can we expect from the new editor when the last 2 editors for quite a few years have leaned very liberal, like COL leaders, and take their marching orders from downstate owners that are of the same persuasion? And even if a conservative offers up some editorial that has to be modified and toned down to get printed, they take issue and attack it asap afterwards anyhow. Begnoche and Klevorn were certainly no leaders, just grasping the tail in front of them for nuisance's sake. When circulation numbers continue to plummet, intelligent people would seek to change course, but the lack of intelligence and foresight are all some are capable of seeing. Sad, and obviously revealing to the silent majority that live here.