The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 7)

As one critic wrote of Dustin Hoffman's performance in Rain Man, "it's a one-note performance, but it's a brilliant one-note performance."

That the mainstream media perceives evangelical Christians as "one-noters with little depth" isn't Hewitt's fault. As a pugnacious Irish Catholic, I'd say it's John Calvin's fault, but that's a subject for another day.

Moreover, elitist misperception of evangelical Christians isn't necessarily a problem. Most of the Elvish warriors in the Lord of the Rings movies were one-noters, too, but while they didn't typically wield swords and battle axes, their skill as archers was unsurpassed.

p>"Misunderestimated" or not, all conservatives have roles to play in the culture wars. br> -- Patrick O'Hannigan br> San Diego, California /p>

The statement that "an ability to make a constitutional argument to reach that result is as important, if not more important, than the result itself" has already been proven wrong. The Roe v. Wade decision and from what I read a lot of Supreme Court decisions do not meet that elitist standard. When the left has a majority on the Supreme Court it does not matter how perfectly reasoned any decision is, it will be overturned if the left wills it. They will find a way to make up the law just as they have done in the past. So even if the elitist standard were to be applied temporarily it won't prevail for long. Decisions made to that standard will inevitably be reversed by facile rationalizations. Harriet Miers was held to a standard that has not and will not be consistently applied to the Supreme Court.

p>Elitist conservatives are pretending to live in a fantasy land where reason conquers all. Unfortunately the rest of us live in a world where millions of healthy babies are legally killed every year. br> -- John Scherwitz br> Clear Lake, Texas /p>

I just read Paul Chesser's ludicrous canard about evangelicals being intellectual lightweights that are on President Bush's short leash. His first error is to assume that evangelical leaders -- Dr. James Dobson, Chuck Colson et al, (whom I greatly respect, btw) -- somehow speak or represent the evangelical rank and file's sentiments. Funny, I don't remember voting for them as my personal representative.

topics:
Taxes, Trade, Mainstream Media, Religion, Movies, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Iran, NATO, Oil