Date written: 8/31/14
Written to: Editor, Santa Cruz Sentinel

       Left or right, I hate when politicians use spin words to try and win their argument.  When the world was experiencing 20 years of hot weather "global warming" screamed from the headlines. It was quietly retired after a few years of cold weather followed, and "climate change" was inserted in its place--used as if climate change wasn't a natural phenomenon.  As an environmental liberal I applaud their motives but deplore their tactics.
       Paul Krugman uses a similar tactic in his Aug 31 commentary about Europe's dismal economy.  He uses the term "austerity" to replace fiscal conservatives' call for balanced budgets to halt the ever increasing tendency for nations to live beyond their means.  As a fiscal conservative, I find it beyond comprehension that political liberals champion environmental sustainability yet laugh at economic sustainability.  The same principle applies: when we live beyond our means, environmentally or economically, we rob our children of their inheritance.
        Politically we need to stop seeing the world through blue or red lenses, and realize that most Americans are fiscal conservatives, social moderates, and environmental liberals.  We need to have a mechanism to take legislating out of the hands of a few self absorbed idiots and into the hands of the people who directly suffer the consequences of their decisions--voters.  Check out www.votekiss.org for one such mechanism.