I miss the walls

Dear George:

I disagree with David Broder about the relative insignificance of values in the fall election. Yes, Iraq and security issues will continue to dominate our concerns, but I believe a voter’s life view - or values - will tell the tale in the ballot booth.

Some citizens have written that they would rather vote for a cartoon character than the President. The ‘anybody but him’ attitude is in vogue for many. An understanding of modern liberalism helps explain why some have a visceral dislike of the President while others reserve ill feeling towards Senator Kerry.

Here’s the thing in a nutshell: During the last century, liberal ideologues took a great idea – liberty – and then trashed it. Liberalism was a good thing for decades precisely because its main pillar of liberty coexisted within restraining walls. If you think of your ‘rights’ as the space between walls, then think of the walls as representing religion - or morality - or ‘the law’. The walls started tumbling down 60 years ago and are now completely demolished. Folks who miss those walls tend to vote for republicans. Folks who are more comfortable with cultural chaos tend to vote for democrats.

The radical students of the ‘60’s’ now run the institutions they then tried to burn down. Many are, today, the producers and distributors of ideas and values that are hostile to church, family, and ‘the establishment’. They seem to dominate in elite circles: academia, Hollywood, network news, NY Times, journalists, foundations, and the Democratic Party. Harry Truman was a classic liberal, and my hero, but he would be spinning is his grave over what the modern version of liberalism has wrought.

Unless he is found in bed with a live girl or a dead boy, I will vote for Bush because I miss the walls. Millions will vote for the other guy because they think walls are inconsequential. Our life views make us do it. My vote will be for adult leadership. My vote will be against the potty-mouthed Whoopies, against a figurative five star general committing sexual harassment against a figurative private in the Oval Office, against the fifty Senators who can’t bring themselves to say that marriage should be between a man and woman, against Mapplethorpe’s ‘art’, against the NEA destruction of Americana in our schools, and against the perky poison of Katie and Dan and Peter. It’s as simple as that.

Gary
Age 60
St. Augustine Florida