June 14, 2003
TJ: the Genghis Khan of the Western World?
Dear Rudy, Let's Get Those Damned Liberals
By DR. GERRY LOWER
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Author's Note: In response to my comparison of how George Bush and Thomas
Jefferson address the issue of relative human worth (Counter Punch, June 9,
2003), I received several very kind responses from free-thinking Americans.
One reader, however, Rudy from rural Wisconsin
of all places, wrote to inform me that I am just another misguided liberal,
educated directly into ignorance, led astray by "Saint Thomas
Jefferson," the "Genghis Khan of the Western World." Now, of
course, Rudy's comments do not deserve a response, but what the hell? Our times
may have become entirely political, but they are certainly not correct.--GL
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Dear Rudy,
Thank you for your response to my editorial commentaries on relative human
worth in Bush World. Even though you found little of merit in the effort, I
figure a guy who reads Counter Punch can't be all bad. On the other hand,
perhaps you are only following the Biblical injunction to "know thine
enemies." I can't argue with that either, but I do think you error in
where you are looking for your enemies. Let me explain so that you need not
live in fear of honesty and common sense.
My ancestors came to America
from southern Germany
in the middle of the 18th century and several of the fathers and their sons
fought willingly in the American Revolution. As a result, my great grandfolks
carried first names like "Jefferson" and "Madison" instead
of "Jacob" and "Isaac." My family moved to southwestern Wisconsin
in the 1870s as second generation pioneers from the State of New
York. My grandfather started the first bank in my
hometown and, as a youngster, I received many pats on
the back from local farmers for being his grandson. Damn, that always felt
great. My grandfather had foreclosed on no one during the Depression, eating
the losses himself rather than ruining his friends. He was not alone in this
effort to keep people more highly placed than profits. I come from a family and
community steeped in progressive Republicanism (Bill Moyers, "This is Your
Story," June 4, 2003).
That entire almost-decent Republican era was dead and gone by the time the
dark-eyed California used-car
salesman ran for the Presidency. Dick clearly established a solid precedent for
the role of un-policed corruption in American political life, unless you
haven't noticed what a corrupt joke you Republicans have become since then.
Have you people ever voted for a human rights bill while I have been alive?
In 1927, my grandfather hauled his family over the dirt roads of South
Dakota to watch the dedication of the carving of Mount
Rushmore. My father's family and my family have visited Mount
Rushmore nearly every year since. Eight years ago, I moved my
family from rural Wisconsin to
within two miles of the Shrine of Democracy where I can say good morning to our
Deist Fathers every day. It helps with the loneliness that results from
admiring Jefferson in an America
devoted to Hamilton and the Tory god.
To be certain, good Sir, your knowledge of American history and the values of
nascent Christianity and nascent Democracy, as well as your grasp of
patriotism, isn't worth a spit, let alone 3,200 Iraqi civilians. But, that is
beside the point, and I do not want to discourage you for a moment. Rather, I
urge you onward in your efforts to disparage Jefferson
and his democracy and the liberal thought it springs from.
Do you realize that your religious self-assurance implies that you know
something Jefferson didn't know? It implies that you
know something Franklin and
Washington and Madison and Paine didn't know. Pretty impressive, I must admit.
I would have guessed, fool that I am, that men capable
of synthesizing a viable democratic political philosophy as an alternative to
European monarchical and papal rot might have touched upon most of the
important bases. There is nothing wrong with nascent America
values, Rudy. It is just that people like you have ignored them and more
recently replaced them with fundamentalist American neo-rot.
In assigning your allegiances and delineating your enemies, do you realize the
absurd proportions of your religious ego trip here should you turn out to be
wrong? Do you realize that your self-assured style of ill-informed, fabricated
Republican commentary has offended virtually every educated nation on earth? Do
you realize that George Bush has already destroyed any semblance of American
and Christian morality by thinking pretty much as you do? Or is it you who
thinks like him? Do either of you ever think for yourselves?
Do you realize that old American allies in Europe are
already talking about cutting your water off (George Monbiot, "How to Stop
America," New Statesman, June 9,
2003)? Do you realize that the European Union could bankrupt America
in a week should these good people tire of Bush's self-righteous American
imperialism? Surely you must agree with Bush that money, especially oil money,
is what makes the world go round.
Do you realize that this sorry American outcome at the hands of the world is
inevitable, virtually guaranteed, with America
under the dominion of religious fanatics who worship mammon and believe
themselves infallible and entirely above the law, human reason and the people?
You know, Rudy, people like yourself.
Do you realize that with America's
fall from "grace" as the world's self-appointed judge, jury and
executioner, when vengence-based religion and crony capitalism are discredited
in the eyes of the world, the doors will once again be open to the values of
nascent Christianity and Science and Democracy, the values upon which American
democracy was founded?
Do you realize that I can beat George Bush over the head with Jesus and
Jefferson all that I want, and you can disparage our Fathers all that you want,
and the outcome for America will be precisely the same regardless? Nothing that
you or I say will change that outcome. We can only hope to change how we think
about picking up the pieces that Bush leaves us to work with.
For your efforts, Rudy, I am therefore most thankful, because the sooner you
blindly self-righteous folks discredit yourselves along with vengeance-based
religion and crony capitalism, the sooner we can all get back to the Democracy
our enlightened Deist Fathers intended. By doing the work of Bush's god, you
are doing the work of Jefferson's God as well, the one
in the head and heart of every person, the one who works only through the free
will and the good will of the people.
The "second coming" is when you religious people stop talking about
Christ and start thinking like Him, instead of thinking like the depotic Roman
Emperor, Constantine. Men like Jefferson and Franklin
and Priestly and Paine were pretty accomplished at this over two centuries ago.
Had they not been, you would not be here, Rudy.
Their peace be with you and yours, as I remain,
Sincerely if not respectfully yours,
Dr. Gerry Lower