Letter: Public not responsible for elected leaders' actions

Editor,

I write to respond to some hasty comments by Tylor Nelson in Tuesday's Daily Lobo. Certainly people blaming "someone else for their actions" is both common and base, yet Nelson immediately contradicts himself and compounds his mistake by making personal attacks in his argument.

In the same sentence in which he praises responsibility, Nelson makes the claim that the president is somehow not responsible for his own actions. He suggests that somehow the president cannot be an individual because he happens to be an elected official.

This is foolish. Even Republicans, who put him in office, cannot be held responsible for the man's personal actions. Learn what accountability means, Nelson - it's an individual thing. The only way I am responsible for the death of an Iraqi is if I fire the gun.

Nelson also attempts to obscure the issue by making personal, ad hominem attacks. He first accuses those who believe in personal responsibility to be "childish" for not accepting his fantasy world, where the populace is responsible for the leader's action.

He further uses loaded words to portray his opponents as lazy, whining bums, which is a straw man that should readily warn people away from his logic.

Nelson, dissent is integral to the process of democracy, and furthers change. We're not all here to pay lip service to our leaders. If dissent is mere whining, then democracy is dead.

Andrew Martinez

UNM alumni