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Wednesday, November 1, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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“Fall Back” Saturday Night
Daylight Savings Time
ends at 2 a.m.
Sunday, Nov. 5
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writerʼs name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
Diversity is defined by the Merriam-
Webster dictionary as “the condition of hav-
ing or being composed of differing elements:
Especially the inclusion of different types of
people,”
I find it interesting that Jennifer Hills’ let-
ter in the October 11 issue has come under
such criticism (I think there may have even
been an offer to duel). She mentioned want-
ing to buy a gun to protect herself and her
family rather than relying on someone else
to do it — sounds like a reasonable thing to
me, not to mention it is a Constitutional right.
She also expressed some mistrust in her neigh-
bors’ ability or willingness to take care of her
in the event of an emergency — again, nothing
unreasonable about that as we can see from
historical examples that this can be true in the
event of disastrous circumstances.
There are numerous people who lend aid
and care for their neighbors, but there are also
those who take advantage of the opportunity to
commit evil. I see nothing alarming about her
desire to look out for herself and her family.
Some people tend to get nasty when they face
the incredible stress and pressure of a disaster.
And of course this brings me to the nasty
business itself and the real reason that people
are upset… those darn signs that everyone is
in such an uproar over. For those who don’t
know, the “In Our America” signs were cre-
ated by a group called “Nasty Women get
[expletive] done.” Their mission, as quoted
from their website, is to “actively resist the
xenophobia, racism, misogyny, ableism,
anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic,
anti-Earth platform and policies of the new
See LETTERS on page 21
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N
Jonah
Goldberg
William F. Buckley, the
founder of National Review
(where I work), once con-
fessed in private, “I wish to
hell I could attack them with-
out pleasing people I can’t
stand to please.”
By them he meant the
members of the conspiracy-
mongering, anti-Communist,
anti-United Nations, anti-
civil rights John Birch Soci-
ety. The people Bill couldn’t
stand to please, of course,
were liberals.
And yet Buckley did
eventually go after the Birch-
ers, at first trying as best he
could to denounce their
leader, Robert Welch, with-
out alienating the rank and
file. Eventually, this needle
became impossible to thread,
specifically when Welch
began insisting that President
Eisenhower was a dedicated,
conscious agent of the Com-
munist conspiracy.
Buckley and Arizona
Sen. Barry Goldwater, along
with conservative intel-
lectuals such as William
Baroody of the American
Enterprise Institute (where
I am a fellow) and Rus-
sell Kirk, convened a meet-
ing at the Breakers Hotel in
Florida to address the prob-
lem. Buckley would lead
the effort of anathematiz-
ing Welch, beginning with
a six-page editorial exco-
riating him. Goldwater
would follow up with a let-
ter to National Review call-
ing for Welch’s resignation.
This approach was risky.
Many Bircher members
were not crackpots. Some
were prominent business-
men who had supported both
Buckley’s magazine and the
movement behind the Gold-
water candidacy.
In A Man and His Presi-
dents: The Political Odyssey
of William F. Buckley Jr.,
Alvin Felzenberg recounts
one occasion when a major
supporter of NR leaned on
Buckley to stop criticizing
Welch and form a common
front against the left. When
he reminded Buckley of
the financial support he’d
given the magazine, Buckley
responded that the National
Review was not for sale.
Buckley denounced the
Birchers in part because
they were undermining the
very cause they claimed to
be fighting for. By making
anti-Communism seem par-
anoid and extremist rather
than prudent and necessary,
the Birchers were making it
easy for liberals to demonize
and dismiss conservatism
wholesale.
Similar patterns have been
emerging on the right. In
many ways, we’re witness-
ing a perfect example of his-
tory repeating itself as farce.
Whereas during the Cold
War, the claim was made
that the East Coast Republi-
can establishment was insuf-
ficiently committed to the
fight against Communism,
the new hotness is that the
GOP establishment is insuffi-
ciently committed to fighting
... the GOP establishment.
Republican Roy Moore is
the new Welch (or at least one
of several new Welches). He
threatens to provide conser-
vatisms critics with precisely
the caricature they crave.
He is a twice-disgraced
former judge who believes
9/11 was divine retribution
for our sins and an anti-Mus-
lim bigot who can’t quite
bring himself to rule out the
death penalty for homosexu-
als. But he won the Alabama
Senate primary anyway,
largely on the grounds that
he was the most anti-estab-
lishment candidate.
If Moore is the new
Welch, Buckley and Gold-
water’s heirs have rejected
the mantle of opposition, at
least in this case. Last week,
Sens. Mike Lee and Rand
Paul endorsed Moore, citing
his devotion to the Constitu-
tion and (in Lee’s words) his
reputation of integrity.
As for conservatives out-
side the Senate, reactions
have varied. Some have been
outspoken in denouncing
Moore. Others have gone all
in.
Part of the problem is
structural. Despite all of
the paranoid screeds one
hears daily, the establish-
ment, however defined, is
weaker than at any time in
memory. The balkanized and
democratized media land-
scape of the Internet makes
the kind of intellectual
gatekeeping Buckley once
mastered nearly impossible,
particularly at a time when
gatekeeping of any kind is
viewed as rigging the system.
Buckley’s reluctance to
please people he couldn’t
stand has gone from an
understandable sentiment
to an ideological command-
ment for many on the right.
Rather than learn from our
successes, conservatives
seem determined to make a
virtue of our mistakes.
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Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.