E. J. Dionne The Washington Post

August 23, 2010

E. J. Dionne
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20017

RE: “The Politics of No” - Maybe

Mr. Dionne,

The one common denominator, the one thing that is always present when modern American Liberals use – other than never letting facts interfere with their argument, particularly when an inconvenient truth is involved – is that Conservatives either are snake handlers or knuckle draggers.

“The principled case that must be made is that the brand of conservatism
seeking power is irresponsible, incoherent and untrue to the
best of its own traditions.”
Today
You

When a “Trousered Ape” tells me I am not true to my “traditions” I reach up from where I type and touch some books written by Edmund Burke. Sitting next to them are some works by Russell Kirk. Nearby I can find some Buckley, T.S. Eliot, Weaver, Friedman, Newman, Tolkien, Lewis, Chambers – and that’s before breakfast.

Alas, my collection of modern American Liberal traditionalists is a bit limited.

I have the obligatory Rousseau. Whatever else he has done it is easy to know why Frogs and modern American Liberal Jeremiahs are always fighting for Dante’s uncompleted 10th circle.

I could mention Saul Alinsky but that would be like striking out the pitcher. It counts but not really.

John Rawls is my favorite default modern American Liberal pseudo-intellectual. When I first read “A Theory of Justice” I thought it was “Confederacy of Dunces” set in Utopia, the holy city of New England. That book is a hoot. Honest. It got even better when I realized that not only wasn’t his tongue planted firmly in his cheek but he believed every word. Too bad the laws governing gravity are still in force.

You say that Congressman Gohmert [R-TX] wants an investigation into the danger of “terror babies”. You say that he has “absolutely no proof”.



Who knows what “proof” is?

O.J. beat the first rap, didn’t he?

Perhaps the Congressman is acting in the best traditions of the House, the markers for Congressional investigations being laid down by former Speaker Tom Foley [D-WA].

An author named Gary Sick – Honest! – came up with a marvelous idea.

He said that in October, 1980 then VP candidate George H. W. Bush flew in a SR-71, AKA the Black Bird, to Paris where he met with some of the Ayatollah’s henchmen. There he put the election fix in, a la Hudson County or Cook County. That Carter, the worst President of the 20th century deserved to have his mean spirited ass booted out of the White House, there can never be any doubt. Nobody had to fly to Paree at Mach 3+ to know that he was history.

Modern American Liberals take care of their own. Speaker Foley gave the author a boost by announcing an investigation into the October Surprise because “there was no evidence”.

Foley says there is no evidence; O.J. gets off because there is too much evidence. Do they cancel each other out? Is that what modern American Liberals call a zero-sun game?

“Where are the responsible conservatives who should
be denouncing such crockpottery”?
Today
You

I don’t know where they are.

Perhaps they are taking their daily IV of the Trivium to overcome the obfuscatory persiflage coming from the White House.

Perhaps they are preparing for Speaker Pelosi’s investigation into the funding of those opposed to the Ground Zero mosque. Would it be OK for witnesses to take the Fifth? Could we have a Hollywood 10 moment?

Perhaps they are in search of the elusive, rarely seen, Austrian/English dictionary.

Perhaps they are trying to find the map of the United States that shows the 57 or 58 states that are in the Union.

Perhaps they are trying to figure out if deficits under President Bush were so bad why are they so good if they are multiplied by four under President Obama.

“…more than a third of conservative Republicans declare
that our Christian president is a Muslim…”
Today
You

As to believing that President Obama is a Muslim – Does it make a difference if he is Sunni or Shia? – I must say that I am in total agreement with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

When asked the same question during the campaign of 2008 she answered that he wasn’t a Muslim…“as far as I know”. Call her what you will but somehow “conservative Republican” doesn’t quite fit.

Speaking of “crockpottery” am I the only adult who finds it at the outer edges of credulity to believe that our “Christian president” could listen to the Gandhi like utterances of Reverend Wright for 20 years and hear nothing negative?

Another Conservative traditionalist, the great Doctor Johnson, covered that possibility.

“Such stupidity, sir, is not found in nature.”



Kevin Smith