The following was a letter that appeared in the Home News Tribune in response to an earlier one published.
Dear Editor:
Willis E. Jones, Jr. said it best in his Jan. 8 letter when he wrote, “Conservatives say, ‘Let’s try to step back a little and do things like we used to.’” That exactly has been the problem. I see nothing in conservatism that benefits us as a people whatsoever and everything in it that has hampered us for generations.
Mr. Jones may not like the catch phrases given conservatives such as “mean-spirited”, “homophobic”, and “racist”, but instead of bellyaching about them maybe he should look at why conservatives and exclusively and consistently the ones charged with such terms. Look at what conservatives have given us over the centuries: It was them that we fought during the Revolutionary War. It was them that were against the reform movements in the church that gave Central Jersey its growth in the 19th century. It was them on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War. They were responsible for segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, Senator McCarthy, the red scare, the Palmer Raids and the antiwar movement during World War II that allied itself with Hitler.
“Doing things like we used to” meant that large segments of society, be it due to race, religion, gender, or sexual preference, will be unjustly disallowed from participating in the American Dream and enjoying the privilege of being an American citizen. Jones may say that would not be the case, but it is only when the liberals asserted themselves and beat back conservative opposition that conservatives decided to change their tune--somewhat.
If one was to read their positions on today’s issues and review their positions in decades past, one would see that they have not changed, and we can also see how detrimental those positions were to society in the past. For example, it was they who were the primary opposition to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement and among those who pushed forth anti-immigration legislation against Irish Catholics in the 19th century. Today, they are still on the same tunes except it is Hispanics instead of Irish Catholic, and they have the nerve to use King as a symbol in abolishing the affirmative action he fought for. Ironically they now say a school in a predominately white neighborhood shouldn’t be named after him because it gives the kids who go there a “black mark”.
A funny thing about conservatives, however. In order to appeal to the public they have to approach them with concerns liberals first raised. This was Adolf Hitler’s tactic when he joined the Socialists in Germany only to bastardize the party as he rose in power with his right wing agenda. While Jones says that the liberal mantra is “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need.” It is interesting to note that this is commonly the mantra of many conservatives as well, some calling it “rugged individualism.” Also while conservatives say that liberals depend on government too much, it is only when the conservatives took over Congress that they found strength, while liberals greatest victories came from grassroots organizations mobilizing their communities to bring that government to task, something else some conservatives learned from us during the civil rights movement. Makes you wonder just how wrong us lefties really are.
For my money, I am proud of the work us liberals have done. We believe in taking that risk to do what needs to be done, and we will continue to do so. So far, we’ve done pretty good. Hell, we built a country.
You paint with a rather indiscriminate brush, sir . . .