Mailbag

Mike writes:

I have to admit I’m somewhat pleased with your latest oped “WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH MANHATTAN?”. It’s not as blatently left as most of your articles and is even almost centrist! I have a few problems, however, I’d like to address. My main disagreement is with the first paragraph: “Frank blames the phenomenon of trailer park Republicanism–people whose votes support right-wingers who export their jobs overseas, raise their taxes and starve their kids’ schools–on the GOP’s astute use of “cultural wedge issues like guns, abortion, and the sneers of Hollywood whose hallucinatory appeal would ordinarily be far overshadowed by material concerns.” The problem that middle America has with the left and progressive left is that it’s not necessarily that they are for the right so much that they are absolutely against the left. The left has too many controversial issues that Americans WILL NOT ACCEPT. Abortion, homosexuality, higher taxes to name a few. Those are issues Americans are vehemently against. No smart American is for shipping jobs overseas and turning our back on the American worker. Those things I believe in (my father has been with the AFLCIO for over 40 years in the airline industry). The issues you cite, guns and Hollywood people, are inflammatory to middle America, but nothing sets them on fire like abortion and homosexuality. Until the Democrats grasp that idea and get rid of the gays and murderers and moves to a centrist area, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO LOSE POWER. Ted, it’s not rocket science.

Now to what I agree with you about: “All Americans, not just social conservatives, are “values” voters.” The problem is that the values of the few will not trump the values of the many.

I congratulate you on less Bush bashing and focusing more on the issues.

Mike is one of my regular correspondents, and a smart cookie. I don’t agree with him about everything, but I find most of what he has to say interesting. He touches upon points I discuss in WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL!–namely, that Democrats can fight (and should fight!) for gay rights and abortion rights without demanding approval for what many Americans view as unacceptable behavior. The party should not, as Mike implies, become more centrist as much as it should ACT more centrist. There’s a difference.

Diego Garcia

Does anyone know the answer to Carl’s question?

This might be something for you to look into: the US government ‘secret’ base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean is only about 12 feet above sea level. There are [were?] a couple of thousand military personnel stationed there. What was the effect of the tsunami on this island? Did anything / anyone survive? Can the government even admit what was there?

Send info to chet@rall.com.

Food for Thought

Absidec writes:

…who promised to take away their Bush tax cut?

The answer is partly seen by looking to the two strongest supporters of the Democrats: The least educated, and the most educated…in other words, those who only have a High School degrees (or less) and those who have a Masters degree or more. Ordinary holders of Bachelors degrees tend to be Republicans (the bulk of professional workers: Engineers, Accountants, Middle-Managers, etc). Subsequently, a “U shaped” economic curve is the most ideal for Democrats:

http://www.vdare.com/sailer/041121_ca.htm

…that is, an economic graph with a very small middle class. Why do wealthy Democrats enjoy being taxed? Is it pure, good-hearted altruism, as they say? (Put another way: Was George Soros a brutal man while gaining money, only to turn soft when endorsing tax-friendly John Kerry?) No.

The new Feudalism:

http://home.ddc.net/ygg/ms/ms-54.htm

Sorry for the radicalism.

I don’t think this distribution curve is correct, but once again I find this stuff worth mulling over.

The Militarization of Charity

Tom writes:

Even though I am miles apart from you philosophically and politically I always read your strip if for no other reason that I like your drawing style and that they make no bones about where you stand and are unapologetically liberal in your views.

However (there’s always a however isn’t there?), the latest strip about use of the military befuddles me. Have you not seen the helicopters and personnel being used to reach isolated areas to deliver aid to tsunami victims? There are times when a force that has the ability to move where it wants and at will is exactly what is needed. Scanning the Internet all the pictures that I have seen indicate that there is very little opposition by the recipients of supplies that it is being delivered by the U. S. military. That is of course if you don’t count the helicopter that was shot at by tribesmen with bows and arrows but I think that has less to do with philosophical/political issues rather than being freaked out by the choppers themselves.

I understand that to use reductio ad absurdum arguments one must go to extremes but even that approach has to have valid underpinnings to make a point valid.

Reductio ad absurdum arguments are the basis of editorial cartooning. Nonetheless, that cartoon–the “War on Tsunamism”–does ask aloud a valid point about using the military to deliver relief supplies. First and foremost, every nation affected does have helicopters and its own military. They’re mainly lacking petrol to fly them–something they could buy if they got the cash from, say, us. Moreover, it’s taking naval vessels as long as a month to arrive in the disaster zone. Could it be that there’s some motivation beyond efficiency for militarizing American charity?

Godzilla Politics

FOR Jeff writes:

War Against Abstraction. Excellent! One thing about Godzilla and other monster movies – the military was always ineffective. It took a monster to fight a monster. Maybe that was little Georgie’s real lesson.

The Alternative Universe Where No One Picks on Muslims

taberott@yahoo.com writes:

This is NOT a threat, but I sincerely hope that you die a tortured, painful and embarassing death, you shit sack!

How about some insulting cartoons aimed at Muslins this year? That should do the trick! We could raffle off the opportunity to write your obit, and raise a fortune. I will keep my fingers crossed! Fuck you!

Santa must have denied him an iPod too.