Sometimes letter writers to lesser known newspapers prove to be exceptionally eloquent. Alun Wittaker of Vallejo, California responds to a local neo-fascist wing-nut:
www.timesheraldonline.com/Stories/0,1413,296~31505~2612324,00.html (Scroll down).
A true conservative
I strongly believe that personalities have no place in a political debate, but I must protest Mr. Jack King's letter ("What are they thinking?" Dec. 16) that joins previous writers in accusing me of being a Democrat or even, as he goes on to suggest, worse. He offers me a choice of admitting my "carelessness" for choosing to use the disgusting and loathsome word "egalitarian," or confessing political alignment with Marx, Engels and Mao. Worse yet, he suspects me of being "progressive."
First, let me state categorically that I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the Democratic Party. Further, I have never registered myself as a Democrat, nor have I ever voted for a Democratic candidate. I am, and have been for 40 or more years an old-fashioned conservative (with a very small "c" and no "neo-" prefix). If you must slap a party affiliation on me, then all I can accept without squirming is to allow myself a Tory. But I do try my very best to live up to the title egalitarian, which the American Heritage dictionary defines as: "Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people."
In doing so, I believe that I have more in common with those "progressive" 18th century farmers and traders who authored the United States Constitution than with the 21st century preachers and politicians who insist on slavish obedience to its words, even while blatantly denying its authors' spirit.
Yes Mr. King, I do yearn for the "halcyon days of yesteryear." Real conservatives are like that. They like to save what is best of the past, and carefully and "progressively" adopt the best of the new in ways that compliment our established society. It is the radicals who want to throw out old standards of freedom, protection, and thrift. It is the reformers who want to renounce established friendships, break treaties and legal precedents, and demand that other nations be "with us or against us." It is only carpetbaggers and scoundrels who "wake up and come to Jesus" in order to curry favor with that kind of party line.
We have seen nations swept away by neo-conservative doctrines before. We've watched them inflamed by religious fundamentalism, social intolerance, and anti-science primitivism to greater heights of hubris and disaster. We have seen them become isolated, bankrupt and eventually ruined. Nazi Germany espoused family values above all others, Soviet Russian iconized the blue-collar working man, Afghanistan's Taliban dictated feminine modesty and chastity. Right now, the mullahs of Iran and North Korea's Politburo are demanding their right to break international non-proliferation treaties, and face down the world in order to ensure their own "national security." Please, Mr. King, don't claim that your philosophies are either truly conservative or American in spirit, or that they have much of a success record. And please don't expect alienating most of the world's nations and just short of half of the American electorate to be any help.
And with the American spirit in mind, let me remind you that this nation was founded by those who rather than "wake up and come to Jesus" according to someone else's rules, packed up their lives and risked a dangerous ocean crossing and a hostile new continent (almost as dangerous then as a trip to Mars would be now.) Mr. King, I hope that, when the time comes, I can summon up the moxie to hop a 747 for the trip back rather than agree to mouth "Amen" to your message of intolerance and aggression.
Alun Whittaker, Vallejo
For the original letter this responds to, see www.timesheraldonline.com/Stories/0,1413,296~31505~2601576,00.html.
You didn't know if you were in favor of "egalitarianism" in the same sense as the Founding Fathers, you're a commie or socialist, now did you Kossacks?!