The American Spectator

I have just finished William Tucker’s article, “What Conservatives Want,” and am disappointed by the lack of depth and 2-dimensionality shown in such a prestigious newspaper’s op-ed column.

I’m a “young liberal” as Tucker calls me. And I don’t enjoy being patronized and condescended to as I look for my daily news. But it’s not really enough to just whine about an out-of-touch conservative taking a dig at a generation that he misunderstands. I felt that I should explain what it is about liberalism that attracts so many of us.

It is that conservatism is responsible for the mess that we now find ourselves in. As Mr. Tucker writes his article (from comfortable Nyack, New York) about how there really isn’t that much inequity in this country, I suggest that he take a brief travel through the vast space between our coasts. There he will find those left behind. My hometown of Hawley, Pennsylvania, has a median income of $18,000. Many of those people support a family on that income, and everybody works. So I don’t really understand the argument that conservatism works for everybody who has a certain degree of “get up and go.”

The reason that William Tucker is a conservative is that he blames liberals for his high tax rate (which, by the way, are mostly due to the irresponsible tax cuts and runaway spending begun in the Reagan years).

Liberalism makes sense to me. I like the idea of making sure that my neighbor is taken care of. And I like the idea of my neighbor taking care of me. And every time we have ever adopted this policy in our nation’s brief history, whenever we take the stance that there should be a floor through which no citizen will sink, we have always entered a period of prosperity. The New Deal, The Great Society, The Clinton Years. Look at growth of GDP and median income during these times.

Mr. Tucker’s argument is philosophically compelling, and very misguided. I understand it. It’s been tried. And it’s never worked.

You guys blew it. It’s our turn now.