Reader Responds

I often wonder if anyone is reading my rants, so here's proof that someone out there found us, although I may be sending a fuzzy signal...

You call for a national debate on taxation, which I think would result in the people saying, “Tax me, but you need to show me more value for my money.” You call for using our power wisely. You call for bringing our troops home. I presume the next step would be to come up with a plan to use them next time in a way that’s more acceptable to world opinion AND advances our interests. It all sounds good to me. Maybe I’m more conservative and less moderate than I claim to be.

And then there’s your reaction to the government’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina. I think a lot of people had an identical response. Further, I think it caused them to reexamine their acceptance of the conservative mantra “you can’t expect the government to solve your problems.” I think a lot of people are coming back to the idea that you should expect just that. It doesn’t make them liberals.

Expecting the government to solve problems you can’t solve on your own, but in a fiscally prudent manner, seems moderate to me.

I enjoy your writing. It’s so much more intelligent, so much more reasonable, than the crap I hear from a typical conservative (or liberal) hack.

And why the heck does everyone seem to bristle these days when someone calls them moderate? Not too long ago, it was a badge of honor.

Finally, I agree with your political analysis. The Dems are going to do to the Repubs what Gingrich did to the Dems – make big hay out of ruling party corruption and take over. It’s amazing that people were so dumb as to believe that Bush is a populist conservative.

How was the weather in Eastern Europe?

Thanks Jim....I appreciate your comments! The election victories that we Republcians have orchestrated for the better part of my generation has invited a bastardization of the conservative movement. And that is what blisters my butt these days.

I get slammed from my Republican friends for not being "more supportive," but I am a child of the conservative crusade. I worked for Rep. Jack Kemp and on his presidential campaign in 1988, not George H.W . Bush's, which at the time, was considered treason, for not supporting Reagan's running mate. But hey, time has proven that it was Kemp, and not Bush, who was the legitimate heir of the conservative movement.

What I find ironic, that as conservative philosophies have found their way into governing principles, albeit in limited fashion, and under this Bush Presidency, nearly none, those conservative victories have been deemed "moderate." So much so that even John McCain is now called a moderate. Remarkable, given McCain's lifetime ACU rating.

I am one who endorses Jesse Helms' take on moderates; only two things found in the middle of the road, yellow lines and dead skunks.

Real conservatives are being called moderates by members of my own Party, because we have become like the Democrats once were; more concerned about winning the next election with loyalty oaths, than offering conservative ideas to remake government.

By the way, the weather in Kiev was gorgeous, as are those Slavic women.