Letters to the Editor
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‘Something Quite Sad’
While Congresswoman Cynthia A. McKinney’s behavior with the Capitol’s security guards was reprehensible, as Warren Kozak correctly notes [“Something Quite Sad,” Opinion, April 11, 2006], the more important issue is why members of Congress should be allowed to avoid passing through the Capitol complex’s metal detectors, whose purpose is to ensure their safety.
New Yorkers will recall that in July 2003, a New York City councilman, James Davis, was killed by a political rival of his, Othniel Askew, who entered the chamber together with the councilman, with a concealed gun. At the time, elected officials were not required to pass through the detectors.
IRA SOHN
Manhattan
‘Would Goldwater Leave?’
In response to Dimitri Cavalli’s criticism of Barry Goldwater’s attacks on Christian conservatives, I think his remarks betray ultimate ignorance of Goldwater and conservatism [“Would Goldwater Leave? Letters, April 14, 2006].
He also provides further justification for why the Republican Party should split into three parties: Goldwater Conservatives, the Christian Right, and Rockefeller Republicans. Maybe then, we could get something accomplished.
Barry Goldwater was first and foremost about the preservation of individual liberties in America. The biggest enemy of liberties to him was the unbridled growth of the federal government into all areas of our lives.
He was particularly alarmed at the federal reach into the domain of all 50 states, hence his principled states’ rights stand against Brown vs. Bd. of Ed. Also, although Goldwater conservatism believed decency, morals, and personal responsibility to be the underpinnings of conservatism, religion was not the highest of our liberties to be defended; it was one among many.
Goldwater’s conservatism was and is the genuine article. It is at its root libertarian in many ways, but clearly not anti-government. Without Goldwater, there would never have been a Ronald Reagan, and Mr. Cavalli should remember that.
Without the resurgence of conservatism, starting with Goldwater’s principled defeat, there would be no part of the Republican Party touting small government.
With Christian rightists like Mr. Cavalli in the Republican ranks, it is easy to see why the party is in so much trouble, and in such dire need of a three-way split.
JONATHAN WILCOX
Greenwich, Conn.
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