The Big Oil Candidate

AFTER READING "A Manchurian Remake" (Aug. 9), I want to thank John Podhoretz for saving me eight dollars. I enjoyed the original Manchurian Candidate, and was initially excited to see the updated version. But it sounds like they might as well have saved us the pretense and simply titled it The Halliburton Swindle.

As Podhoretz observes, such heavy-handedness can rob a movie of its satirical quality. In addition, there's nothing particularly clever or innovative about depicting an oil company that secretly manipulates American politics. Was this really the best Hollywood could do?

Peter Byrnes Jr.
Severna Park, MD

Hip-Hop Voters, Unite!

IN "GETTING OUT THE PHAT VOTE" (Aug. 9), Matt Labash paints a misleading picture of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. He suggests the network has failed to register its target demographic in significant numbers. But according to the Economist, the network has already registered more than one million young people. Contra Labash's sneering article, it appears that the hip-hop community's get-out-the-vote effort has been quite successful thus far.

Kyle Ballard
Hacienda Heights, CA

Party Polarization

MICHAEL ROBINSON and Susan Ellis do a good job of debunking some myths about growing ideological polarization in the United States ("Purple America," Aug. 16/Aug. 23). But they miss, or at least understate, one very real phenomenon--an ideological realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties that has affected political elites, activists, and even rank-and-file voters.

At every level, the ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans are considerably greater than in the past. Liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats are both endangered species. Conservative areas of the country have been moving toward the Republican party, while liberal areas have been moving toward the Democratic party. As a result of this ideological realignment, there are fewer battleground states in presidential elections. In 1960 and 1976, every big state was a battleground. Today, California, New York, Texas, and Illinois (among other big states) are generally considered safe for one party or the other. In the House of Representatives, the number of districts that are evenly balanced between the two major parties has declined by almost a third since 1980. This is not simply a result of redistricting; almost all of the change has occurred between redistricting cycles.

While the American public is no more polarized than it was 30 or 40 years ago, the two parties are much more polarized, and this shift has had profound consequences for American politics.

Alan Abramowitz
Atlanta, GA

That's Our Word

TOD LINDBERG'S "Husbands and Wives" (Aug. 2) has at last captured the "gay marriage" debate for THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Like all such tempests in a teapot, it is a matter of semantics. To wit: Just what do straight and gay couples call themselves in polite society?

A recent exchange between National Public Radio's Steve Inskeep and a policeman's wife from suburban Ohio reflected Lindberg's argument nicely. When Inskeep asked the woman if she opposed gay marriage, she replied that she opposed the appropriation of the word "marriage" most of all. "I'm just opposed to changing this whole definition of marriage," she said. "Call it something else. You know, do what you want. That's fine. But I just don't want it forced upon me. I just feel like [gay couples] should have their own word."

For many people, indeed, the essence of the gay marriage debate is a question of language and semantics, as Lindberg's essay trenchantly noted.

William O'Neill
Chicago, IL

Not Deployed in 1990s?

WILLIAM KRISTOL'S excellent editorial "The 9/10 Democrats" (July 19) cites John Kerry's comment that the 1990s were a decade when "young Americans were not deployed" in military operations abroad.

How quickly the Massachusetts senator forgets that hundreds of thousands of American servicemen were deployed to Southwest Asia in 1990, Somalia in 1992, Haiti in 1994, Bosnia in 1995, and Kosovo in 1999. While less costly than Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, the wars and missions of the 1990s entailed major sacrifices, too. Kerry should not overlook them so casually.

Kevin T. Carroll
Central Islip, NY