_______________UPSIDE-DOWN POLITICS BY DAVID HOROWITZ (07/27/98)
	David Horowitz, in his paean to the Republican Party, conveniently avoids any mention of the pervasive influence of the religious right in the party. He does this for one very transparent reason: It undermines his argument. Horowitz blithely chooses to ignore his theocratic brethren. There is a battle right now between the libertarians he credits with the party's power and the "fire and brimstone" crowd to whom the party does obeisance. All he has to do is look at Steve Forbes' kowtowing to the religious right to see who's really in charge of the Republican Party, and they're not promoting individual rights. -- John Kirk St. Louis David Horowitz's column begs a simple question: Is the American conservative movement so bereft of ideas that we can do nothing but bash caricatures of the left? Particularly when that left seems to represent grudges and stereotypes from the late '60s rather than the late '90s? Was that "Right On" or "Whine On"? Surely Salon can come up with a conservative intellectual whose writings equal that of the rest of your magazine. -- Lew Stead Germantown, Md. David Horowitz attacks the "socialist left" in this country as being a reactionary and out-of-touch movement. Mr. Horowitz only sees half of the problem here, as there now is little difference between the "conservative" and "liberal" elements of our political landscape. Horowitz attacks "liberal" causes such as welfare and the tobacco bill, but he fails to look at the "revolutionary" conservative side of it. In 1994, while Newt Gingrich led the "Republican Revolution," his district in Georgia received more federal handouts per capita than any other state in the country. The Republican Party is funded heavily by big tobacco. And Clinton's relationships with "reactionary dictatorships" such as China were made possible by the acts of Republicans such as Nixon and Reagan extending the olive branch to tyrants in Asia, Africa and Latin America as we embarked on the conservative crusade to "contain communism." Another claim made in the article is that the mission of conservatives "is to return power usurped by government to the American people, and to chip away at a cultural and political status quo that has not worked, and that has been rejected by the American public." This is true of neither side of our political spectrum, nor is the claim that conservatives represent "the little people." The victory of Gingrich's cohorts represents the triumph of corporate America, as much as Clinton's backing of NAFTA and trade with China. The conservative resistance (or is it a reaction?) to the tobacco bill, while at the same time warring against illegal drugs (whose manufacturers don't fill conservative coffers), is an example of how conservatives match liberal hypocrisy. What Horowitz does not see is how the line between left and right, at least in mainstream politics, has been smudged into an effete and corporate-backed center. The rise of Clinton, a president who talks "liberal" but acts like a Reagan, was more than a "superficial restoration" of liberalism: It is proof of the fact that neither mainstream political camp represents America anymore, and that "liberals" and "conservatives" are nearly identical. To find real "revolutionaries," Horowitz better start looking harder. -- Ben McGreevy Everett, Wash. Conservatives, from the beginning of the conservative movement, have railed against Marxism, labor unions, the liberal establishment in universities, government agencies and welfare recipients. David Horowitz, in July 1998, rails against Marxism, labor unions, the liberal establishment in universities, government agencies and welfare recipients. Tell me which political doctrine is truly bankrupt of ideas? I beg to differ that the left is as staid and insipid as David Horowitz would like it to be. The modern Democratic Party has embraced the New and Fair Deals of the '40s to the anti-communism stands of Kennedy and Johnson in the '60s, back to progressive liberalism in the '70s and '80s, and now back to "the end of big government" in the '90s. Where are conservatives? According to Horowitz, they are intent on closing the government, but liberals are getting in their way. The conservative movement is running out of gas because conservative ideals are not revolutionary, forward-thinking or new. They are just more of the same. -- Michael Harmanos Washington As a Libertarian I'd agree with a lot of what David Horowitz says about misguided "liberal" stands, although I prefer to de-polarize it by simply referring to it as "do-gooderism." However, it's also obvious (to me) that the Republicans' stand is generally to deregulate business while increasing regulation of the individual via their war on drug users, their abortion stance and their kowtowing to the (extreme) religious right. You can't have it both ways. If you're for personal freedom and getting the government out of our faces, then you can't force a woman to have an unwanted child or try to tell us that we can drink until we're dead but you'll seize my yacht if you find a joint in it. What was that about the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness? -- Bob Lewis
_______________VETS DECLARE "WAR" ON CNN BY FRANCIS PISANI (07/24/98)
	This article missed the point entirely. There are a lot of veterans in America -- Vietnam Vets are just a part of a much larger whole. I have been a private citizen since 1968. I served proudly in Vietnam, and the principles for which I fought are timeless: freedom, liberty, justice. When these words are mentioned the media immediately shouts, "right wing," or "militia," or some other extremist catch phrase. The media has done a great disservice to the veterans for so long that they believe their own tripe. What they fail to understand is that those vets who came back from Vietnam didn't roll over and die. They entered the mainstream of American life and carried their honor, dignity and character into every facet of their lives. The power of that truth is just now beginning to be felt. We raised our children with those values, and I assure you it is not a surprise to me nor to many of those veterans that the world the media thought they had so neatly made is beginning to crumble. One very good reason for that is our children are growing up and they carry those same values. They, like their parents, see right through the media and their pompous "Stars." I assure you there are a lot of people out there who are tired of the pablum we are being fed over the so-called Major News sources. Richard Kaplan, Peter Arnett, et al., are indicative of the arrogance the industry has displayed for 30 years in their attitude toward veterans. They come up way short, as an industry, in the honor, dignity and integrity departments -- traits that were commonplace among America's warriors and exemplified by the courageous men of "Operation Tailwind." This "Valley of Death" episode has also served to point up their lack of courage, the simple courage that is so necessary to defend and protect integrity. Richard Kaplan and Peter Arnett must go for those reasons. They are a disgrace and offense to American citizens, left or right. -- Mik Sharp Kailua-Kona, Hawaii SALON | July 30, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| MULATTO MILLENNIUM BY DANZY SENNA

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