Joel Parkes Describes Del Mastro Loyalists as Tea Party Crowd

Joel Parkes has written a number of Letters to the Editor to the Peterborough Examiner in recent months, critiquing Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro.

Each of his letters has triggered an avalanche of responses from Del Mastro loyalists, defending the MP's record.

Parkes had another letter published in last night's Examiner. In it he noted, in part:

As the "tea party" crowd rushes to respond to my specific criticisms of Dean Del Mastro I can't help but notice a pattern. There is no substantive reply to a substantive critique....Instead there is outrage at the tone of my criticisms. Partisan politics, as demonstrated by Del Mastro's supporters, is a kind of fundamentalism and, as such, tends to practice moral absolutism that manifests itself in demands that criticism be silenced rather than addressed. But that doesn't make those demands valid, or even ethical.

Parkes isn't the only letter writer whose Letters to the Editor encourage members of the Del Mastro camp to pick up their pens. Almost any critique of Del Mastro, however mild, will solicit a half-dozen or so outraged replies.

Heck, even this blog has attracted a libelous attack post on Facebook (from the "We Love Dean Del Mastro Group.") (Note: Letter to MP's office and related correspondence.)