The American Spectator

Reader Mail

NO MORE MR. NICE GUY
Re: Quin Hillyer's Winning Without Wigging Out:

Mr. Hillyer forgets that politics is almost always raucous; think of the British Prime Minister's question and answer time in the House of Commons. The members aren't "nice" to their Prime Minister and maybe that's good because it knocks him off his high horse; something we can all use from time to time and the more power and influence we wield the more we can use it. Contrast that to the boring pomposity of our members of Congress and you begin to think there is something approaching an unhealthy political conspiracy afoot, wearing the guise of civility. Politics is always contentious and always generates intense passions and uncharitable thoughts and deeds. The reason—very obvious—is that it's about things that matter to most people: power, who gets what, our liberty, who wins and who loses, etc. People tend to get worked up about things like that, especially when they feel the fix is in. The fix being in is the basic sensibility that most people—whether they admit it or not—have towards their government. This is not a delusion as becomes readily apparent from a cursory study of politics elsewhere and in history. Mencken sums it up best, "But [the state] still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men."

We conservatives want small government because we want to decrease politics' influence in our society. People tend to get along quite well unless there's a politician trying to stir things up for his own advantage. So I can't fault those who get a little excessive in heckling their Congress critter. Again, consider the Lincoln-Douglas debates in which both candidates were heckled and shouted at. Honest Abe and The Little Giant seemed to accept it with equanimity, unlike our whining, modern politicians.

What really gripes me is that our elected representatives seem to think their job is to represent Washington to us and not the other way around. They should shut up and listen--even to the rude and bumptious masses. If it's too unpleasant for them, then they should find work in another field.
-- Douglas Skinner
Alexandria, Virginia

The pretense from our Vichy Republicans that civility must rule is simply, and bluntly, stupid. Our elected leaders do not read their E-mails, answer their phones, respond to letters (their staff does months later with a canned letter) or any other effort by mere voters at all. We do not write checks big enough to get their attention so...all we have left is in-your-face confrontation....and it works!

Can folk demanding unilateral surrender and civil discourse point to a single major political fight that was resolved in the favor of the right through polite discourse. The left certainly doesn't play by those rules. Partisans doing the political dirty work, mentioning unpleasant truths or worries and making it clear that millions of us do not want the program demanded by our opposition, are the folk who are driving the movement today.

Finally, look at the polls…the course of quiche eating, wine guzzling civility demanded by our cocktail party inside the beltway dilettantes fails. Confrontation works. Tens of millions of regular Americans have been demanding our leaders find a spine for a decade without success. Now we have found a way to bypass those "leaders" and independents are taking note and moving our way.

Beltway pundits, cocktail party, check writing elites might not understand, but Mom and Dad America outside of Washington sure do. We will win this one despite the wussies who demand self-defeating behavior.
-- Jim Verdolini
Boise, Idaho

TAKING THE BLUE PILL
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.'s Everything's Just Fine:

So the prophet, Ezekiel Emanuel, tells us that "money spent on health care reduced [sic] the ability to obtain other essentials of human life as well as some goods and services not essential to life but still of great value, such as education, vacations, and the arts."

Perhaps he had the French national health care system in mind. When Global Climate Change hit France with a vengeance in August of 2003, fifteen thousand people died, most of them elderly. Many people faulted the health care system. But the system worked precisely as planned. You see, the productive sector were off on vacation in August, most at the beach but some, no doubt, admiring the great works in France's museums. It stands to reason that many of these aficionados were students, advancing their educations. These socially beneficial outcomes were actualized, at least partially, by savings realized thanks to the national healthcare system. Precious resources that were not wasted keeping old people alive were available for summer holidays, education, and the advancement of the arts.

But should Global Climate Change ever strike our shores, Prophet Barack Obama (the Beta and our Omega), will assure the elderly with an adequate supply of blue pills.
-- Dan Martin
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Apparently neither Obama nor any of his staff nor any of the Democrat Party leadership ever heard about unintended consequences.

Thus, they provide a textbook example of that old saw, of someone being hoist by his or her own petard.

Seems, too, they're an example of cobbling a plan without actually and/or honestly counting the cost, and then deceitfully and condescendingly communicating the same.
-- C. Kenna Amos Jr.
Princeton, West Virginia