Labeling is the problem

Labeling is the easiest way for people to dodge on-the-mark commentaries about their actions and unfortunately, it is replacing any actual effort to discuss the issues.
Whenever I have said something that has particularly irritated some of our elected officials, (and in this area, they are normally of the Republican variety) I am admittedly labeled a liberal, thus making anything I say suspect. I notice that very rarely does anyone who attaches that label to me ever make any comment about the substance of what I am reporting.
Labeling, however, is not limited to one side. I also grow irritated of those who are quick to label people as conservatives, again avoiding any attempt to address the issues.
And then there are the people like Neosho radio personality and neoshodailynews.com columnist John McCormack, who stretch logic to smear an entire group of people.
In his most recent column, McCormack launches a broadside against those who opposed the decision to allow a beer garden at last weekend's Choppers for Children. To quote from the column:

"On my talk show, The McCormack Files, last Friday, it became clear that the real reason a certain vocal minority does not want the 'beer garden' on the square is not because of the beer. How naive I was. I thought the beer was the reason-that is what they kept saying, anyway. On Friday one of the leaders of that minority called my show and admitted that he does not want 'those people' coming to Neosho. By 'those people' he was referring to the law-bidding, generous, American Citizens who were willing to ride motorcycles through the rain to attend an event that raised thousands of dollars for The Children's Miracle Network and gave a much needed boast to the economy of Neosho."

With one incredibly convoluted stretch of logic, McCormack has labeled anyone who opposed the beer garden someone who opposes anything that is good for the city of Neosho and someone who would deprive desperately-needed funding for the Children's Miracle Network.

I do not find it hard to believe that many people had sincere reasons for not wanting the beer garden. To say that anyone opposed it did so because they were prejudiced against bikers is ludicrous and is sheer demagoguery on McCormack's part. Personally, I don't drink, but I have no particular problem with the way the Choppers for Children event was run, and I have no problem with people who disagree with that view.
McCormack apparently based this half-baked criticism on the opinions of one caller, using that person's prejudices to label hundreds of people who sincerely opposed the way Choppers for Children was handled.
Maybe it was just a slow week and he couldn't come up with an idea for his column, but this type of labeling, just like the labeling used by people who avoid realistic discussion by invoking the dreaded words "liberal" and "conservative" is a major problem and adds to our problems instead of bringing them to successful resolutions.