Jimmy Carter, Our Heart's Desire

Editor

I am very glad that Brady Klopfer included the H. L. Mencken quote: “On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” I knew there had to be some explanation for Jimmy Carter. I wonder what explanation Mencken had for Bill Clinton?

To give credit where credit is due, it was the majority of eligible voters (led by Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president), that first voted in the reforms which ended slavery, and later brought universal suffrage. Only forty years ago Republicans overcame the opposition of Southern Democrats to pass landmark civil rights legislation. Yes, the minorities that opposed these reforms were wrong, the majorities were right.

Now, as then, Republicans are the primary force for reform, against reactionary Democrat policies. In the United States, President Bush is providing bold leadership to finally reform Social Security, public education, immigration and Medicare, reforms which should have been done but weren’t during the long period dominated by the “do nothing” Democrats.

President Bush also has a vision for a world free of the tyranny of religious extremists and terrorists. In Afghanistan, women vote, attend school, can work outside their homes, and no longer need suffer the pain and humiliation of genital mutilation. Afghanis are free to worship or not worship as they please. In Iraq, the majority Shiites and minority Kurds were freed from Sunni oppression and will soon control their own destinies. Twice in January, in historical firsts, Arabs will freely elect their own leaders.

“If people are not liberals at 20, they have no hearts. If they are still liberals at 30, they have no brains.” The election results show we have a brainy majority.