The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 12)

p>Even now, as she moves even more into the spotlight, she cannot hide those tendencies. Nor can she camouflage the very apparent fact that she and her husband -- and his vice president -- really do represent some of the most despicable and counterfeit behaviors of the 1960s culture. Maybe their defeat will put an end to the romantic fantasy of what those times never were. And who these people have never been. br> -- C. Kenna Amos br> Princeton, West Virginia /p>

This article is an excellent example of why I have become an avid reader of the Spectator. I recently had a confrontation, in my own home, at a dinner party with a radical leftist who grudgingly supports Howard Dean "though he has considerable conservative credentials." The gentleman's diatribe began with the heated and specious likening of the President to Hitler. Of course radicals have a visceral hatred of Mr. Bush for a reason they seem unable to articulate except that he's head of a police state; committing genocide everywhere; and made Europe hate America.

I attempted to probe for evidence of any of these occurrences, but got an actual screaming tirade about my eagerness to don "jackboots" and "goose-step" through life. I was embarrassed for him and so I began to build a "we're not so different" bridge. To my utter amazement Mr. Tyrrell captured the result without being present at my table (though he is indeed, always welcome there). My screaming radical has never served in the military; comes from inherited wealth; finds the church of his Irish fathers "stultifying and horrifically retrogressive"; and began his lifelong anti-American political activism in his late teens. "Politics is what I do." And surprisingly he has moved his fortune off shore in a manner that, like the Kennedys, he has no income tax liability. He does not contribute to charity -- "the government will take care of those in need" -- except for his annual $100 contribution to Beloit College his alma mater.

On the other hand, I come from a very small town in upstate NY where all worked and went to church. I was as destined to serve this great Nation as to breathe and did so during the Vietnam War (as did my great-great grandfather during the War of 1812; my great grandfather did during the Civil War; my grandfather during World War one and every male of age did in World War two). I had no inherited wealth; worked my way through university with considerable help from my wife, and have worked and saved since the sixties. I go to church; I give 10% of my income to a variety of charities and I don't scream at friends' dinner parties.

p>Thank you, Mr. Tyrrell, for providing me the framework in which to understand these really significant and extremely bitter differences. br> -- Jay W. Molyneaux br> Denver, North Carolina br> P.S. I asked him to leave the third time he referred to another friend at the table as a "political and cultural moron." These radicals really do have no substance. /p>

Much is made of Hillary's youth as a "Goldwater Girl" turned liberal torchbearer. This is brought up as an emblem of my "boomer" generation. What is not discussed (except within conservative circles) is the much larger phenomenon of leftist youth turning to the right.

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