THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer's name, city, and state.
*1* REGARDING MATTHEW Continetti's Uncivil War, I'd say that the left is on some serious drugs if they think civil war is imminent. They had better hope it's not; this time, the tables are turned.
The red states are far better armed, and our camouflage jackets are not brand new. The red states have most of the military bases and a high percentage of the active military hails from either red states or red counties in blue states. Speaking of which, the majority of the blue state territory is, itself, red. Look at the county-by-county map, we've got them surrounded. Except for their street gangs, they are all pacifists and we grow virtually all their food, except brie and French wine--and armies don't march well on that.
I think there are some folks on the left who need to get a checkup from the neck up.
--Charles Buntin
*2* MATTHEW CONTINETTI mentions Jane Smiley. Ms. Smiley grew up in Missouri, I grew up in Kansas. Her dishonest account of the time and place known as "Bleeding Kansas" takes my breath away.
The fact is that the pro-slave Missourians organized themselves in blue lodges--the progenitors of that wonderful organization, the KKK. They had secret signs, words and handshakes, and liked to steal chickens. They burned, looted, and raped the defenseless settlers out on the prairie. I'm tempted to declare that they raped the chickens too, but I have no evidence to support this, and unlike Ms. Smiley, I won't twist the story to fit my thesis.
The Kansans weren't perfectly PC. While some Kansans wanted abolition of slavery, others would have been satisfied to merely outlaw slavery in Kansas. And some wanted a territory that was lily white.
The Kansans called the Missourians bushwhackers, border ruffians, and, my particular favorite--and one I've actually heard my Iowa grandmother use a couple of times in polite conversation--Missouri pukes. The Missourians called the Kansans Jayhawkers. Must have been a pejorative then...
The Missourians tried to take guns away from the Kansans and they stuffed ballot boxes as if they were Thanksgiving turkeys. But the Kansans had influence in Massachusetts. Their pals sent them Sharp's Rifles in boxes labeled 'Bibles.'("Beecher's Bibles" after Henry Ward Beecher, the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.) The Sharp's rifle was a weapon of mass destruction in 1856. It was a breach loader so it could be reloaded and fired three times more rapidly than the muzzle loaders available to most frontiersmen. It propelled a 50 caliber projectile - and that's BIG - accurately enough so that folks said you could shoot the stripes off a skunk at 500 yards.
In one election, only 3,000 people were qualified to vote, but the Missourians invaded the territory, took over the polling places at gunpoint, kept the locals from voting and STILL garnered 6,000 votes. A couple of other favorite tricks of those fun loving Missouri boys was to throw printing presses into the Missouri River, nail up churches, and set tarred and feathered preachers adrift on the river.
To answer these atrocities of the Missourians (which Ms. Smiley seems to say never happened), the Kansans organized a new political party--The Free State party--which later sent delegates to the organizing convention of the Republican party.
--Dennis Maley
*3* REGARDING MATTHEW Continetti's piece, "Uncivil War," I own five more guns than all my liberal friends combined: five for me, zero for them. I imagine that similar ratios exist across the rest of the red state/blue state divide. In the words of Zell Miller, what are they going to fight us with, spitballs?
--Steven Schlein
*4* THE LEFT HAS already demonstrated a complete unwillingness, if not inability, to use force in order to overcome irreconcilable differences. Secession is really not an option for them. Their arsenal is limited to "gripe grenades," "moan guns," and "bitch bombs." The Union will survive.
--Joshua Guthrie
*5* IT HAS COME to this! Jonathan V. Last has been sucked to the dark side with his Saving John Kerry eulogy. Last has a bad case of say-something-nice-about-the-dead syndrome. He is right that the Democratic pundits are unjustly putting all the blame for their stinging defeat at Kerry's feet. But that's because they can't bring themselves to admit that the problems lie in their party's ideology.
John Kerry was a bad candidate. The crowds he was speaking to were primarily Bush-haters, and it's no surprise he would get appreciation from them. His convention speech was about his time in Vietnam (four months), which alone was meant to convince us that he was fit to lead the country. He spent nearly 20 years in the Senate and has nothing to show for it--he couldn't run on his record. He spent his time trashing Bush with lies and false suggestions--such as Bush's secret plan to reinstate the draft--and never talked about his plans to improve the country. Kerry never distanced himself from the bile spewed by the likes of Michael Moore, the celebrities at the NYC bash that he attended, the left wing members of his party like Dean and Gore, or the use of false documents by Rather.
Furthermore, Kerry disrespected the military in the '70s, continued to do it during the campaign, and yet wanted to be their commander-in-chief. And if I had a dollar for every time Kerry said "I," my bank account might rival his wife's. He WAS a bad candidate. And his experience doesn't seem to have changed him at all.
Please take what appears to be the near empty bottle of loopy juice away from Mr. Last before we see him do a piece that blames the drivers-ed instructor for Ted Kennedy's watery mishap in the '60s.
--Jim Watson
*6* JONATHAN V. LAST provides a sympathetic, but accurate analysis of John Kerry's performance, and that of the pit bulls in Washington who would eat him alive.
I voted for George W. Bush, and would not have even considered Kerry for President--certainly not with John Edwards only a heart beat away from the job--but I think it's a shame many have turned on him after his defeat. The party must take responsibility for this defeat. It must realign with the American people, and stop providing sanctuary for the Michael Moores of the world.
If the Democrats are still bickering and pointing fingers, then I fear they haven't really learned much from this election, except, perhaps, how to posture better.
--Caroline Mooney
*7* I AM GAY, Roman Catholic, conservative, and Canadian(not a big voting block!), and I greatly appreciated Libby Sternberg's Winning the "I Don't Know" Crowd. Unfortunately, the absolutist views espoused by so many on the left, including some with whom I agree on certain issues (like same-sex marriage) too often assume ignorance or mean, willful blindness on the part of those who take contrary positions.
My belief that homosexuals are deserving of true equality (including the right to marry) is at odds with my religion. Yet, I am unwilling to dismiss as ignorant or mean a Pope who has led a contemplative, noble life, dedicated to God.
I am unwilling to dismiss as stupid or malicious your President, who has shown dedication, dignity, and grace, even in the face of tremendous insult.
With such greats as I have mentioned, I share this human condition in which I have many opinions, but few real answers. How lucky for the gods of the left that they may live so free of doubt.
--John Ratchford
*8* One of the best points Libby Sternberg makes is that in the middle of a campaign the "real answer" is often lost.
I retired recently so I have more time on my hands than is probably good. One of my great joys in life is listening to Don Rumsfeld's news conferences. Yet in watching the news conferences, getting to hear the "original answer" in context and following it through a 24 hour news cycle, it is amazing how the whole meaning of the answer and the original question is changed throughout the day by the media.
During this recent campaign the phenomenon cut both ways, to the chagrin of the Kerry campaign. Kerry often tried to claim answers were taken out of context and spun when the answers were, in fact, just dumb. Yet at the same time the media would dig back for Bush quotes that were answers to totally different questions, not just answers taken out of context.
--Edwin W. Irby, Jr.
*9* THE GREEK thespians said "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad..." Hugh Hewitt's point about hubris in his recent articleA National Party? is well taken.
But things will get worse before they get better. Consider this: In the 2006 Senate contests, there are 18 Democrats up versus 15 Republicans. Six Democrats are running from red states versus only 3 Republicans running from blue states. And unlike the Democrats, the states are a very light shade of blue. Of the 5 senators over the age of 75, all are Democrats; one, Byrd of West Virginia, will soon be over ninety. Some or all may succumb to infirmities and fail to stand for reelection. Eight Democrats are in their first term versus 5 Republicans.
Add all these factors up, and in an equal contest the Republicans stand to pick up two or more Senate seats on average. It is not inconceivable that the Republicans could equal or exceed 60 Senators; eliminating obstructionism of any kind.
--Derrick Strait
*10* THE PROBLEM with Specter is that he probably will prevent strict-constructionist judges from being appointed to the Supreme Court, as he did in the case of Robert Bork. Is Hewitt suggesting we should allow the 20 percent of pro-abortion Republicans to prevent the appointment of non-activist judges?
Pro-lifers like me donated and volunteered SPECIFICALLY so that we might have good Supreme Court appointments. Since the next few appointments could restore sanity to the court this is well worth the potential for self-inflicted wounds from party infighting. I can't imagine a wound more severe than two to four more activist judges on the Supreme Court--can you?
And if the party abandons the struggle for good judges, how likely is it that pro-lifers will continue to support it?
Not very.
--Rob Flynn