Authoritarian vs. anarchist makes more sense than liberal vs. conservative
Do the terms “Republican” and “conservative” mean the same thing? Do “Democrat” and “liberal” accurately depict the left? Left of what exactly? What is the standard against which “conservative” and “liberal” are distinguished — to measure the distance from which the “far left” or “far-right” have journeyed? What is a centrist — the center of what? Is truth the center, or is the center a narrative about the truth? Who gets to decide? The majority by a vote? And what of the “unaffiliated?” Relative to what?
We throw these political terms around as though we know what we are talking about; but do we? Young folks get on board to what is represented to them as either left or right — are they merely going along to get along, to avoid looking bad or being wrong relative to a narrative they are persuaded to believe is true?
Is the premise of the right vs. left model flawed? Is the fear between the “left” and the “right” justified in truth or in fact, or is it prompted by a narrative underlying an irreparably divided political paradigm, the chasm of which continues to grow, leading invariably to a hot, civil war?
Who benefits from a political narrative impossible to reconcile but those few whose motive it is to divide and conquer?
I’m not the first to say a nation divided against itself cannot stand.
If we want to rescue America from her fall, if that is even possible, we have some very serious, immediately pressing work requiring our attention. We must begin by distinguishing the inherent flaw in the current political left vs. right narrative separating us from and dividing us against each other.
E Pluribus Unum, which means “the many as one,” is the national motto. Look on any coin in your pocket. Here is wisdom: we can only unite as one people under the truth.
I propose we consider tossing out the current political narrative and adopting the political model of absolute despotism versus anarchy. On one side resides total government with no freedom — a 10 — where absolute power corrupts absolutely. On the other side is total freedom, anarchy, no government whatsoever — a zero — leaving every individual to decide what is right in their own eyes. In this model the centrist is an ambassador of order whose work is balance.
The political model of despotism vs. anarchy transforms the divisive narrative into the dialogue of how much government is absolutely necessary to maintain an ordered, free society.
DAVID JUSTICE
Gunnison
Boebert spreads false claims about Texas power outages
Rep. Boebert, quit lying to your constituents. Telling everyone that the outages in Texas were caused by frozen turbines, renewable energy is not reliable and trying to insinuate blame on the Democrats is 100% false.
I worked in Texas over the last 15 years, and specifically on the electric transmission system in Texas. I was heavily involved in the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) projects where Texas worked to upgrade their transmission system to allow for upwards of 18,000 megawatts of wind power to be delivered to the major metroplexes. Texas was a leader in the U.S. in trying to bring clean, renewable and inexpensive energy into their system. Texas has been a GOP-controlled legislature for the last several decades, as well.
So what was the real cause of the outages in Texas? The cold temperatures and the fact that the power plants (gas, coal, nuclear and wind) were not installed to handle cold temperatures. It was NOT that many of the wind turbines were shuttered due to ice, it was caused by the gas pipelines and other systems on the power plants that froze and could no longer operate.
This same situation happened back in 2011 and I was there. The cold temperatures caused rolling brownouts throughout the state. The GOP-controlled legislature knew about this issue and decided not to do anything to address it. How often does it get that cold in Texas anyway? Well, now we know and it IS going to happen again.
As for renewable energy not being reliable? Ask Wyoming and other countries around the world that have wind turbines and experience much colder temperatures. Please do what you were voted in to do and get reliable information, talk with experts and stop spreading false claims.
KARL VAN CALCAR
Palisde
Impeachment is over, but we still need accounting for Jan. 6
For the U.S. to recover from Donald Trump’s criminal and seditious acts, his enablers (including Ms. Boebert from my own district) and violent supporters all must be held to account for their respective roles in the runup to and the deadly storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. That event is even more important than 9/11 and deserves a condemnation and response that is every bit as strong and long lasting.
The Senate impeachment trial is over, but it’s still necessary to root out the lies, the liars, and the sources of misinformation that led up to this tragedy. We must do all we can to prevent this from ever happening again.
JOSEPH STERLING
Grand Junction
