Letters: A worsening political climate

Re “Violence and politics,” Opinion, Aug. 21

Jonah Goldberg’s doubts as to whether the political climate has truly worsened suggest a willful ignorance.

It is difficult to imagine that 40 years ago a presumptive presidential nominee would be accused of causing a man’s death (as an Obama-aligned super PAC claimed, outrageously, about Mitt Romney) or that a sitting president would be called a racist by a mainstream news talking head (as former Fox News host Glenn Beck has said about President Obama).

But what is truly misleading is Goldberg’s claim that the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the Family Research Council a hate organization because it opposes gay marriage. In repeated radio interviews the SPLC has made it clear that opposition to gay marriage was not the issue, but rather the repellent characterizations of gays by the FRC, such as the false claim that many are pedophiles despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Gene Caine

Los Angeles

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