I trust that earnest correspondent Cathy feels that I’ve tried to respond to her Aug. 6 letter to me — the one I didn’t actually read until the 14th — and I hope to hear from her if she has any further points to make, or any other objections to register. I sincerely thank her for her time and interest.
Now I’ll map out my response to Anonymous, who’s getting a break from my policy of not responding to those who don’t use their names in criticizing me because he nonetheless levels some interesting and pointed criticisms at me, and I wouldn’t want him to think he’s heaping coals of shame on my head if I don’t answer him. Please, though, remember that I write everything I write under my own name; further, I post a photo, personal information, and 57 different ways to contact me in this blog precisely because of the accountability I owe readers and the integrity I owe my God. So, anon, please use your name — even just your first name. (Of course I won’t know if you’re Rick or Chuck or Vladimir or whomever; still, you should muster up enough courage to use your real name. It’s not that scary, I promise).
Here’s a rough outline of what I’ll be addressing from his comments, which I posted yesterday in their entirety. First, I’ll deal with my charge that the Tea Party’s agenda is dangerous to the country, its methods dangerous to this democracy, and its embrace of simple, even non-sensical, “solutions” dangerous to those who follow it. Then I’ll discuss why I think presidential advisor David Axelrod and Senator John Kerry were right in calling the recent Standard & Poor downgrade of the nation’s credit rating “a Tea Party downgrade.” I’ll wrap up with a defense of the liberal notion that government, properly run and properly reined in, can and should do enormous good for the people — with an acknowledgement that it very often has failed in that mandate. And while I’d like to hear from him again, I plan to move on to other subjects, coming back to the Tea Party only when events make it necessary.
Because at some point I have to fold some laundry and sweep these floors — subjects about which neither the Obama administration nor the Tea Party nor Congress care much about. Pity. I wish they knew where the bag of gray work socks went . . .