Letter to the Editor

Earth to liberals, you have a problemIf you are a Republican and you read treasures like England Locke’s Letter to the Editor (Ed. Note: Daily Vanguard, Vol. 58, Issue 44, January 23rd) you can’t help but smile. The point of Mr. Locke’s rant was to complain about the left being labeled “unpatriotic” for being opposed to the war. This has been going on for quite some time and has thus far been quite effective in that no major media outlet has called them on it. Aside from this (I will address these complaints later on), there were some other jewels that merit further admiration. In one very poorly written paragraph (even worse than this piece) he stated that “Bush declared Saddam and Iraq as the master mind behind 9/11.” For the life of me I can’t remember him ever saying such a thing. In fact, Bush, Powell, and Condi Rice have repeatedly said they have no evidence to even suggest that Saddam was the mastermind or involved with al-Qaida, with the exception of a possible meeting in Europe. In reality, a poll in September 2003 revealed that 70% thought there was a connection. It is ridiculous that so many thought so, but apparently the author interpreted this poll as what Bush supposedly said at some point, despite after being asked if he felt Iraq was behind 9/11, replying in the negative. I don’t claim to be a literary or journalism expert, but as a “history major,” you would think he would know how to research such things. I guess not. Repeated complaints about being labeled unpatriotic seemed to be the main theme of Mr. Locke’s rant. Despite all the ranting he didn’t provide any evidence of one “right-winger” labeling someone with an anti-war position unpatriotic. Since he failed to, I attempted to do so for him. Running a LexisNexis search for “Democrat” and “Republican” and “unpatriotic” and various other combinations, I perused more than a dozen articles of Democrats complaining about being labeled unpatriotic. Strangely, I couldn’t find a single quote of a Republican saying any such thing. The best I could find was a Democrat saying Trent Lott had said they were “unpatriotic if they wouldn’t vote for the Iraq spending bill”. In fact I found multiple instances of Republicans including Gordon Smith, Lincoln Chafee, and Tom DeLay saying it wasn’t an issue of patriotism, but of judgment, and that everyone in Congress was a patriot. There is a very real possibility that there is some Republican out there that has made the suggestion that you are unpatriotic if you fail to support this war or President. If this is the case, than it might actually do the left some good to quote this person when complaining about it occurring! God help us if there is, because I guess the whole party would be responsible for what one person said. That is the great thing about being a liberal and writing in, or to the Vanguard (or running for the Democratic nomination for that matter!). You can spout off the most ridiculous accusations based on the flimsiest of evidence or no evidence at all and you are almost never called on it. Conspiracy theories are also strongly encouraged, such as Howard Dean’s famous, “The most interesting theory is that Bush was warned ahead of time by the Saudis about 9/11.” Not wanting to keep his piece tame he labeled Bush a dictator, a dick, the Anti-Christ, and right-wingers as hypocritical while apparently never suggesting anything that they are hypocritical about. Finally, to come full circle, he throws in a “Fuck you Bush!” If that isn’t the strongest indicator of what a whiny immature brat he must be, I don’t know what is. Like a 2-year old throwing a fit because he had his toy truck taken away, Mr. Locke storms off into oblivion. All he needed to top it off was a Deanish “Yaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!” Clearly a Democrat, the part of tolerance.I sincerely pray that Mr. Locke lives a very healthy life and goes forth to lead the Democratic Party at some point in the future for a very long time. With wonderfully researched arguments like his, that would be every Republican’s dream (in addition to Kucinich or Dean winning the nomination). PLEASE, Mr. Locke, run for office someday and proclaim yourself as the embodiment of the Democratic Party. In the meantime, can you and other readers with a similar belief system continuing writing letters to all major newspapers? With wonderful attacks like these you and others are almost assuring George W. Bush of another four years in office. Thank you, and PLEASE keep up the good work. Adam WilkieM.S. Financial [email protected]