News -> Letters to the Editor TUE, MAR 10 5:00PM by Jean Sellmeyer Smith, Crowley

WHO SPEAKS FOR THE GRAND OLD PARTY?

Does Michael Steele, the new Republican National Committee chairman who mimics the message of change but claims bipartisanship is overrated, speak for the GOP? Or Rush Limbaugh, who says to Joe-the-Jobless, “I hope he [Obama] fails”? Or Sarah Palin, the Alaskan moose hunter who garbles party policy beside a Tom Turkey getting his bloody head yanked off?

The old party lacks new direction. We do have many reasonable Republican legislators — Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter and Susan Collins among others. But moderate Republicans often seem out-maneuvered, out-photographed, and out-shouted by theatrical blowhards.

For starters, let’s tune out Rush. Oh yes, he’s a showman par excellence! Remember back when his voice came blaring over your radio urging you to put your mind in neutral? “You needn’t think,” he said. “I’ll do the thinking for you!” A pompous pill head in the throes of addiction was vying for mind control. Whoa! And are we too brainwashed by Fix News to tell truth from propaganda?

Recently In Crowley, there was a little dustup about the hometown newspaper, the Post-Signal. Following Inauguration Day (in a front-page, now-we-see-the-light editorial), the Post-Signal issued a heartfelt apology to its readers for eight long years of backing Bush.

Dumb me! I swallowed it.

Six days later, the Post-Signal ran another mea culpa apologizing for its first apology. It was the double-reverse — good in football, bad in journalism. It’s a small play, you might say — unimportant, insignificant, a mere drop of misinformation.

But is it? The central question is for the Post-Signal’s owner, Louisiana State Newspapers: What exactly is your policy? Do you even try to present a balance of views? During election cycles (when voters most need a free flow of ideas) you flat-out refuse to print letters discussing candidates. Why? Do you speak for the Grand Old Party — or like Rush, simply push a failed far-right ideology?

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written by Guest , March 18, 2009 - 03:04 am

Louisiana State Newspapers is a long time supporter of the greatest living Democrat of all times---Edwin Edwards.

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written by John Edward David Peter Malin , March 26, 2009 - 03:23 am

Jean:

It should be a goal of the Republicans in Louisiana to manufacture a new refurbished image.

My brother and I suspect that Republicans have no clue as to what 'conservatism' is. It is not a philosophy.

It is a rhetorical-psychological ideology. The purpose of ideology, or, State promoted propaganda, is kleptocracy [Greek, "power to steal"].

Those who lie, cheat and steal for a living---hide their wicked crimes behind three systems: the religious system, the political system and the military system ! All three are burdens on the backs of ordinary people attempting to survive, reproduce or enjoy life.

The Latin meaning of 'conservative' is, of course, "slave" ! Need one say anymore?

To write a competent book on 'conservatism' would require attention to 'scientific' magic of the 1st century BCE to the 5th century ACE ! Presently, the 'conservative' fools must go back to Edmund Burke (1730-1797), "the Father of Conservatism." [See the newly released two-volume edition of Edmund Burke: Volume I (1730-1784) & Volume II (1784-1797), 2008 and 2009 respectively, Oxford University Press, by F.P. Lock. Burke was despised in his own age by his peers as an incompetent philosopher.

Those who value human liberty can do no better than to read "A Vindication of the Rights of Men; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution" by Mary Wollstonecraft. She was the brilliant daughter of the political economic theorist, William Godwin.

The present cabal of Republican 'conservatives' merely want a natural aristocracy [promoted by tax benefits, as usual], specifically, denied them by our peculiar Constitution. To achieve this vulgar, criminal goal, they have perverted our laws, customs and traditions of the last 233 years. They wish to make everyone else a 'slave.'

Perforcely, there is not equal tension between "conservatism" vs. "liberalism"; liberalism or "freedom of the mind" will always trump silly conservatism, since the latter is rooted in fraud and violence, appealing as it does to the three time-honored forces of darkness in the human mind: ignorance, hate and fear ! We are, after all, upper ape primates.

This is, of course, the reason why educated university minds of our professors and students tend to be "open" minds, or "liberal" minds. It is not the purpose of a university to promote ignorance. The teacher lights the torch in the mind; the clergy snuff it out.

Lastly, pay attention to the notion of kleptocracy [Greek, "power to steal"] by the religious system, the political system and the military system. They spend cash, they do not earn it; and what is worse, it is other people's cash. The working cash of the poor and lower middle class---whom these three kleptocrats devour!

It will require a savant to put the vulgar nonsense of conservatism under proper philosophical introspection; this has not been done for 25 centuries in the Western World.

John E.D.P. Malin & James F.D.P. Malin
Cecilia, Louisiana

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