Letter another generalized attack on conservatism
In response to David Lowther’s letter of Dec. 10, 2020 entitled “What happens when good men do nothing?” it might interest all those involved to know that this quote comes from Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism. A related point of interest may be that Mr. Lowther’s patchwork wandering through distant, and sometimes unrelated events in American history, does not prove that America is a reprehensible nation or that any one source is responsible for American’s diminishment on the international stage.
It has been a gradual process. The root of a great deal of it, incidentally, was the eight year span of time in which Barack Obama spent most of his time ignoring foreign policy and apologizing for America, while simultaneously diminishing its influence and resources.
A rather more likely explanation for America’s current decline is the complex mixture of knee jerk hatred for anything save extremist liberal progressivism and its “woke” dogma, plus the mistaken policies of successive administrations intent on weakening American identity and subverting its democratic traditions.
That also seems to be the main impulse and guiding theme of Mr. Lowther’s letter. I was astonished to see him use the term “lickspittle,” a derogatory turn of phrase I hadn’t heard since the good old days of the 1960s, when everyone seemed happy with Chairman Mao’s little red book and the kind of expressions it engendered. You can also hear “lickspittle” in the movie Dr. Zhivago if you care to rewatch it and see the context I am talking about.
The idea that the Republican party is determined to replace the current American political apparatus with some kind of one party dictatorship is ridiculous, overblown and hyperbolic. It’s also part of the general theme of phobic “conservative hating” so prevalent these days in which people leap to equate conservatism with fascism or Naziism without the slightest contextual reference to the times or actual historic events.
We are much more likely to fall victim to political opportunism and social relativism than to Hillary Clinton’s “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy,” a shadowy organization she never bothered to specifically identify from the comfort of her millions and privileged lifestyle.
In fact, the Democrats are hardly exemplars of democratic perfection, as Mr. Lowther ought to know. From the fascistic “Blue Eagle” movement of Woodrow Wilson to countless other examples too numerous to mention here, they are no peaches or defenders of democracy. It’s interesting to note that their furious caterwauling about the injustices of the electoral college after Trump’s 2016 victory no longer applies since, in the Nov. 3 election, it served them well, but one of many examples of their hypocrisy.
In short, this was just another diatribe against conservatism and another strident polemic against the need for its role as a balancing element against illiberal extremism. We need balanced political representation, and the influence of both sides of the political spectrum, otherwise we will slip into even more dangerous extremism. To use Mr. Lowther’s words “Lest we Forget.”
Perry Foster
Duncan
