The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Sore Knees

11.8.04 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 3)

Loved the article about the phoniness of the left, now showing their religion, etc. The line about Kerry picking up a bible in a black church was classic. The next part, however, about picking up a rifle......okay guys, you writers need to know this because it is important to gun folks, and there's a whole lot of us. Kerry picked up a SHOTGUN. This is a weapon with which game birds are taken. It fires multiple projectiles. A RIFLE is also a long gun, but fires single projectiles. It is used for hunting other game, usually larger, such as deer, moose, elk, etc. There are several good writers' guides on guns available.
-- Frank St. Clair
Lexington, Kentucky

The article, "A Party on Its Knees" hit the nail on the head about the problem the Democrats face. However, their prospects for solving it seem pretty bleak. As Clinton, Pelosi and others chant that, "we need to talk more about faith," I wonder how they'll be able to do that while still addicted to abortion money. Consider how transparently shallow Kerry came across with his "personally opposed to abortion" position while taking in gobs of money from Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice American and NOW. Personally opposed but willing to lead hate rallies featuring his pro-choice legislative record. If America didn't buy it this time around, we won't next time either.
-- Steve Bowler
Hudson, Massachusetts

Nancy Pelosi's comment said more than she intended, "I know that many of the people who are in politics on the Democratic side do so according to the -- the gospel of Matthew and indeed the Bible, but we don't demonstrate it clearly enough and faith is such an important part of the lives of most people in our country. They want to know that we identify with that."
She knows (or someone has told her) that somewhere in Matthew Jesus says something about when you help the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned etc. you are helping him (Mt. 25:31-46). She probably also knows the tax-paying verse in the Gospels about rendering unto Caesar.

What she doesn't seem to realize is that seriously religious people actually know this stuff. We know that the Bible says a lot more than "help the poor." Never mind that Democrats don't ever address the problem of how taking our money to pay for a bloated welfare system that spends such a small percentage on the actual recipients that it would be shut down as fraudulent if it were a private charity is "helping the poor." There's also a lot about morality, sexuality, honesty, and other subjects we were supposed to ignore during the Clinton administration. We know that and we know that the Gospel message is a way of life, not a menu we can choose from and it offends us when Democrats cherry pick Bible verses out of context to support their political positions when they clearly don't know what they're talking about.
-- Father Terry Wipf
Center, North Dakota

So Rep. Nancy Pelosi and others, in rare and comical moments of introspection, suggest that the Democratic party needs to talk more about faith and God in order to have their message received by the voters. Pardon me while I laugh at Pelosi and others. It is her very party that is synonymous with removing any mention of God from the classroom and her very own party that fought tooth and nail to have a monument espousing the importance of kind actions removed from a federal courthouse. To many Democrats, God has been public enemy number one. And Rep. Pelosi laments why her party yet again lost the White House and lost seats in both the House and Senate? You reap what you sow, Nancy. You reap what you sow.
-- Christian G. Farley
Clifton Park, New York

Before the Democratic intelligentsia can become conspicuous about their faith, as Ms. Pelosi suggests, they must first find it. Can a secularist be a person of faith? If so, faith in who or what, outside of themselves?
-- Bill Simpson
San Antonio, Texas

TURN A BLIND EYE
Re: David Hogberg's Why Kerry Lost:

David Hogberg makes an unconvincing case in writing that the Democrats will continue to lose elections "until they are ready to accept that sometimes defending our national security means we have to use force -- they are going to have trouble at the polls as long as terrorism is an issue. The question should be not about whether we use force, but when and how?"

Well, actually, John Kerry and many other Democrats -- elected officials as well as the much-maligned "base" -- do accept that we sometimes must use force, and are willing to debate when and how that is done. Evidence? The overwhelming support for President Bush's decision to wage war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that harbored the terrorists who actually attacked us, and before that, Democratic support for President Clinton's decisions to work with NATO to use force to deal with tribal warfare in the Balkans that threatened European stability -- over the objection of Republicans' disdain for "nation-building" efforts. So we can be discriminating - we just reached the conclusion that the case for waging war in Iraq was not convincing. Irrespective of the electoral outcome, that is not a conclusion that many Democrats' will abandon, given the way the Administration has botched the job and actually increased the power of our terrorist enemies. One thing is clear -- with the current state of affairs in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Bush has kept his promise not to engage in nation-building.
-- Steve Sanders

Although I do not entirely disagree with your article, I find it really tiresome that the press refuses to call a spade a spade.

George W. Bush has repeatedly made a fool of himself and this country that I dearly love. You say that the Democrats are not serious about national security? On what do you base this opinion? Has everyone forgotten that it was Bush who drove away international support with his "go it alone" attitude? Or have you also forgotten that, despite what a very large number of people STILL believe, that Iraq had absolutely NO connection to 9/11, that the inspectors were doing their job, and that Saddam had been contained for years without ever killing an American!

I pray for this country, I pray for the loss of life in our soldiers and the 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties, and I pray for all of the families who will have to face the loss of their children as this war continues on and on for years. I suspect the only way that change will come is when Bush supporters begin to feel the loss of their sons and daughters in this "war on terror" without end.

You want to make a mark on the war on terror? Than stop being the bully of the world and start respecting all cultures. As long as we feel we have the "God given right" to impose our views on other nations, we will be the targets of terrorism.
Sincerely,
-- Susan M. Mazza

CATHOLIC COMEBACK
Re: Paul Kengor's Kerry Loses His Faith:

We Catholics are in a minority here in South Carolina, but we're becoming a larger and larger share of the state's population. Some of us are transplants, but there are many such as myself who are converts from mainline Protestantism, and most of us vote just like our conservative Protestant brethren!

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Nancy Pelosi, Religion, Protestantism, Abortion, Law, Supreme Court, Iraq, NATO