The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 9)

Beyond Good : /p> p>Reference Mr. Lord's article on elites and Alger Hiss and Barack Obama, don't you know that Alger Hiss was innocent? He was innocent and Richard Nixon was guilty. What was Nixon guilty of? Well of being, well, being Nixon. Everyone knows that. Everyone also knows that Harvard educated liberals are never guilty of anything. Besides, what crime was it to spy for the Soviet Union against the evil U.S.? You folks at the American Spectator had better learn American history and the nature of good and evil. Besides, up is down and black is white, slavery is freedom, war is peace. The Democrats help people, Republicans kill people and puppies. br> -- Paul Melody br> Gainesville, Virginia /p>

Mike Roush launched his harpoon at Jeffrey Lord's article by "summarizing" it into a syllogism:

1. Senator Obama said some folks in the mid-West are bitter and cling to their guns and religion as a consequence. Ergo, Senator Obama is an elitist. (If you doubt this, remember he graduated from Harvard Law School).

2. Communists of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were elitist.

3. Therefore, Senator Obama is a communist.

The problem with Mr. Roush's rant is that nowhere in Mr. Lord's article does he pronounce that Senator Obama is a communist. Somewhere in his pursuit of excellence and knowledge, Mr. Roush apparently played hooky the day his teachers enlightened their students about the "straw man" false argument.

More than one European has visited America and noted that in our devotion to the belief in the equality of all men we avert our eyes from the realities of "class" in our midst. In our case, "class" has nothing to do with an aristocracy and often nothing to do with money. Instead, we have an elitist class composed of those with a certain sensibility and refinement.

Pace Mr. Roush, William Kristol did not invent Mr. Lord's contention. The observation of liberalism elitism is a widespread piece of social criticism among conservatives. Perhaps, Mr. Roush should consult Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions or his The Vision of the Anointed. Perhaps, James Burnham's Suicide of the West. Followed by F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism.

topics:
Taxes, Business, Religion, Law, Iraq, Russia, United Nations, NATO, Africa, Socialism, Oil