The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 9)

Michael Craig replies: Hey, Ed, gimme a break! It took me only two episodes.

p> CULTURE OF THE LIE br> Re: John Corry's The Pipsqueaks' Dirty War : /p>

John Corry quotes from a David Remnick article in New Yorker that "Vaclav Havel... had triumphed over a totalitarian system, and restored the 'dimensions and vigor of the liberal idea....'" Interesting twist. My understanding is that Havel waged a moral crusade against the "culture of the lie" that was the defining characteristic of communism. When Havel and the dissenters in other bloc countries, aided by the vocal and moral support of the pope and Ronald Reagan, exposed the lies and evil for what they were, the system collapsed.

The Soviets were restrained in preventing the collapse because they were vulnerable to the Pershing missiles that Reagan had deployed (without opposition from the Vatican, which gave the deployment a moral standing it would not have otherwise had) and, oddly to some extent, because Gorbachev had been elevated to the status of great diplomat by the Western media....

p>Contrary to Remnick's implication, totalitarianism seems to be mostly confined to the left. There's a whiff of it in much of the Democratic Party platform, which is based on political correctness, class warfare, race baiting, group identities tinged with victimhood, and glorification of government as our problem solver and protector. Maybe he misidentifies today's "liberal" idea with the liberal idea that guided America prior to the New Deal and Great Society. Illiberally, there is little debate among the Democrats and left that is aimed at getting to the truth of any current issue. To see such debate, one must go to conservative or libertarian sources. The Democrats, as did the communists, resort to demagoguery, slogans, half-truths and lies to support their positions. For instance, try to get into an honest debate with a leftist on taxes, public schools, federalism, or separation of church and state. You know the responses, and they aren't reasoned positions supported by evidence. Just more of the culture of the lie. br> -- Pat Birmingham /p> p> IT'S CODY OUTSIDE

topics:
Taxes, Education, Sports, Global Warming, Communism