The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 8 of 20)

unsigned /p> p> I enjoyed the article "The Missing 30 Million." I am Catholic and a Republican, I support President Bush -- I am one of the silent majority. br> -- Joy Venosa /p>

The numbers grow: to the list of "doubting Thomases" who question the seriousness of the current party in control to utilize the moral dimension as a foundation for their policies, add the name of a doubting Patrick Hynes. But what is laughable, however, is his steadfast refusal to connect the dots: the Republican Party is abandoning its base he utters, but its titular head bears no responsibility for such inattention to detail or negligence. What flapdoodle!

Hynes and the great majority of the readers of this webzine have to confront the facts: the man I worked for in 2000, and voted for (holding my nose) four years later may be a conservative at heart, but not in action. The columnist George Will may intone, "this president is the most conservative since Calvin Coolidge," which would be news to "Silent Cal," but, George, actions speak louder than words.

Last week, these pages included a review of Bruce Bartlett's recent book about Bush which was properly titled: Impostor. No one can legitimately claim to be a conservative and a profligate government spender for matters not related to the national defense simultaneously; no true conservative would be willing to use U.S. troops to seal the border with Iraq in the name of our national security, and leave our own southern border open for anyone -- terrorists included -- to literally walk across. No true conservative would choose which law to enforce and which to flout, such as not carrying out the laws of the land that currently exist regarding the presence of illegal aliens. Yes, he appointed two Supreme Court justices who may be conservatives, but the editor of the Catholic magazine, New Oxford Review, and many others doubt that they will vote to overturn Roe. That objective is, however, remote: in remarks to a group of law students and professors in Switzerland recently, Justice Scalia said quite clearly that, given the current court make-up, there is little likelihood that Roe will be overturned. In the meantime, the White House does precious little to move on the appointment of known conservative appeals court nominees, some of whom have waited years for their hearings. But if all of this does not disturb Hynes, et al., then allow me to finish with one final bit of unattended business by this administration: partial birth abortion.

In April, 2005, the Ney Professor of Jurisprudence at Amherst College, Hadley Arkes, wrote a must read article in the neo-con monthly, First Things called, "Bush's Second Chance." Arkes, who had been helpful in writing a partial birth abortion bill that might pass constitutional muster, admitted this in reference to Bush's apparent refusal to confront the issue publicly: "...by his (Bush's) example, he is establishing what must surely stand as the most corrosive lesson that could be taught in this country right now -- that in the judgment of an accomplished political man, it is either impolitic or unrespectable to make the pro-life argument in public." Has anything changed since then? I hope those 30 million voters know this the next time they cast their ballots.

p>Pax tecum. br> -- Vincent Chiarello br> Reston, Virginia /p>

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