May 6, 2015 2 min read

Jon Grogan’s personal attack of Oren Spiegler is not responsive to the issue of the dysfunctional and bizarre entity that calls itself the Republican Party.

I am a recovering Republican who now knows that I cannot allow myself a single dose (vote) of the toxic drug or I may relapse entirely. It is neither necessary nor beneficial to detail all the issues that brought me to that point. Suffice it to say that it is possible, at least for now, to hold one’s nose and vote Democrat. The time is long past when one could do that for the Republican Party. Temperate people who live in an evidence-based world are simply not welcome there.

Mr. Grogan adds nothing to the body politic by his simply ignoring the issues Mr. Spiegler raises. In fact, Mr. Grogan attacks Mr. Spiegler’s right to even have an opinion by injecting a standard of volunteering for service that the framers of our Constitution apparently neglected when they wrote the part about no prior restraint on freedom of speech and of the press.

I disagree with practically everything Mr. Spiegler says, but that is simply because I have different priorities. I think that we should vastly expand public services at the state, local and federal levels and pay whatever taxes are necessary. I do not expect to pay for a car what I did years ago and I cannot reasonably expect government services for the same price I paid years ago. Mr. Spiegler’s priority is low taxes over expanded services. I think that choice is his. Reasonable people can disagree without being, as Mr. Grogan is, disagreeable. That’s how they reach workable compromises or, in some cases, mutually satisfactory positions.

Keep writing Oren. And there’s no known cure for being a Republican. I know from personal experience that you have to just go cold turkey.

Herb Caponi

Upper St. Clair