Editorials / Opinion

Seattle Times letters to the editor

Tweaking not enough

I agree with RNC chairman Reince Priebus when he says, “Our message was weak. We were behind in both data and digital” [“Political parties move to reinvent themselves,’ page one, March 19], but I don’t believe spending $10 million to tweak the process is going to bring about the solution he seeks.

There is an enormous difference in this country between what each party, and by extension what all Americans, believe in. We are at odds over every important issue you can think of — tax rates, military spending, food stamps, student loans, infrastructure, immigration, moral rights — the list goes on.

Both parties can improve on media access and manipulation all they want, but the message is not the media.

Congressional jousting and sleight-of-hand will not improve things either. We must sit down and seriously discuss fundamental values that all of us can act upon.

Maybe we can’t get there from here. When President Obama said last week that it may be our differences are just too wide,” sadly he spoke the truth for both parties and for the country.

– Steven Lequire, Des Moines