Although ash never hesistates to criticize those who deserve it, she would rather praise those whose views coincide with her own. And it doesn't hurt when fellow liberals write articulate, persuasive letters, as this example, followed by her response, demonstrates:
A few observations about conservative views
My friend Tom Wallin’s frequent letters provide easy shortcuts to the current attacks on reason and America’s civil liberties being made by the Limbaugh, O’Reilly and the neocon cabal of ideologues. Since he likes to define liberals, I offer the following observations on his variety of conservative. Neocons are for the death penalty, but against the Sixth Commandment; for government control of women’s bodies, against the right of privacy; for unwelcome babies, against health care for children; for searches without warrants, against the Fourth Amendment; for government endorsement of Christianity, against the First Amendment; for presidential power, against equal branches of government; for war, against military service for elite chickenhawks; for multiple deployments of military, against veterans’ benefits;
for fundamentalist bigotry, against minority traditions and lifestyles; for public funding of private schools, against taxes for public schools; for deficient spending, against taxing the elite; for corporate windfall profits, against capital gain taxes; for rapacious corporations, against small businesses and farms; for not recognizing obvious signs of ecological degradation, against environmental regulations; for rendition and torture, against Fifth and Sixth amendments; for kissing up kicking down, against an unbiased view of sin and virtue; and the silliest of all, for “Merry Christmas,” against “Happy Holidays.”
Dave Lawless
LETTER TO THE EDITOR MON 12 26 05
Many thanks to Dave Lawless for his masterful demonstration of how to take the conservative tactic of defining the other side in cartoonish terms and turning the tables. Moreover, Mr. Lawless has done an admirable job of comparing and contrasting what one might reasonably conclude are inconsistent, if not hypocritical, political positions, dare I speculate, without half trying.
My personal favorite form of maligning liberals is the simple use of broad labels – specifically, “Bush-haters,” “weak” (and wouldn’t Freud have a field day with that one), and the word “liberal” itself. Of course, conservatives (not all conservatives, mind you, just the ones guilty of said behavior), being conservatives, never got the memo advising that we liberals reclaim the label – and proudly. To these lazy criticizers content to throw out charges with no substantive argument against liberal causes and philosophy, it suffices to merely say the magic words and laugh as we scurry like cockroaches as the kitchen light is flipped on.
Sorry. That chapter of the Republican playbook has become inoperative. Meanwhile, I’m surprised our President doesn’t visit the Springfield community more often. Assuming for every conservative (and while I’ve got your attention, good decision not to abbreviate the word “liberal” to its first syllable, lest we liberals do likewise to your appelation, which wouldn’t sound very nice) who is willing to write such a breezy letter to these pages, there are a hundred or so who didn’t bother, Mr. Bush could fill a stadium with useful idiots.
