Attack Ads

Re “Attack Ads Are All-American,” by Nick Gillespie, Commentary, June 5:

Tom Teepen doesn’t write in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, he “bleats,” Gillespie, senior editor of Reason, writes. Angry citizens aren’t turned off by hate ads, we “shrink from .J.J. competing ideas.”

Remember when totalitarianism front organizations called themselves “democratic”? Apparently today, if one wants to run a magazine devoted to moronic propaganda, one calls it Reason.

BOB RAND

Newport Beach

* Little did I realize prior to reading Gillespie’s piece that I qualified as a member of the “chattering classes.” All along, I rationalized my disgust with the deepening squalor of American politics as an appropriate expression of concern over the lack of civility and substance in our political discourse. As a consequence of Gillespie’s trenchant observations, I now understand that I am really just being negative about negativity. This, apparently, is the greater sin.

Fortunately, I dodged Gillespie’s volley of Newspeak, and expect to live to reason another day.

MITCH STONE

Santa Paula