TO THE EDITOR:
In Monday’s Daily Tar Heel, a letter from Professor Harry Watson criticizes the editorial staff for not taking enough of a hard-line stance against the supporters of North Carolina’s new voter ID law, but I commend them doing so.
Republicans are not racists who intend to prevent minorities from voting. Rather, they are trying to solve a social problem with what seems to be a common sense solution.
That does not necessarily mean the problem exists or that their solution won’t present problems of its own, but it does mean they are not the villains they are often portrayed as.
I do not mean to fault Watson in particular for his language; we are all guilty of it. We treat politics as war by other means, ardently supporting every argument for our side and labeling the other side as evil so that we can viciously attack every point of it, regardless of how the truth is distributed.
This prevents our beliefs from accurately corresponding with reality and breeds partisanship, inhibiting our ability to solve problems.
So I’ll throw it out there: Pro-lifers don’t hate women. Conservatives don’t hate the poor. Global warming isn’t a conspiracy by power-hungry regulators, and Obama isn’t a communist.
Eric Boyers ’16
Physics
Mathematics
