Vince Avedon – 6/8/05

This page was last updated on June 13, 2005.

‘Thank God I’m a Democrat’; Vince Avedon; Beaver County Times; June 8, 2005.

Another humorous letter by Mr. Avedon. Rather than provide my usual point-by-point critique, I included my own letter to the editor at the bottom of this page.

“The rules for being a good Republican. You believe that:

· Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime unless you are a millionaire conservative radio jock which makes it an illness and needs our prayers for recovery.

· Those privileged from birth achieve success all on their own.

· The United States should get out of the Untied Nations and our priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iran, Cuba, and North Korea.

· Pollution is OK as long as it makes a profit.

· Prayer in schools is OK as long as you don’t pray to Allah or Buddha.

· ‘Standing tall for America’ means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India or China.

· Jesus shares your hatred of AIDS victims and Hillary.

· You hate the ACLU for representing convicted felons but they owed it to the country to bail out Oliver North and now they’re helping Rush.

· The best way to encourage military morale is to praise the troops overseas while cutting VA benefits at home.

· Group sex and drug use are sins that can only be purged by running for governor of California as a Republican.

· It is wise to keep condoms out of schools because we all know if teenagers don’t have condoms they won’t have sex.

· Waging war with no exit strategy was wrong in Vietnam but right in Iraq.

· Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when daddy Bush made war on him, a good guy when Cheney was doing business with him, and a bad guy when ‘W’ needed a ‘we can’t find bin Laden’ diversion.

Thank God I’m a Democrat.”

My letter below was entitled “Seeing himself more clearly” by the Times and was published on June 13, 2005.

My thanks go to Vince Avedon for his letter (‘Thank God I’m a Democrat’, June 8) listing his view of “rules for being a good Republican.”

That his list contained factual errors should not diminish Mr. Avedon’s contribution. After all, the ends justify the means, and what could be more important than getting the word out about the tens (hundreds?) of millions of evil Republicans infesting the country?

Given that today’s elected Republicans tend to be barely to the right of JFK-era Democrats, I can only imagine the beliefs Mr. Avedon attributes to conservatives (radical, far right wing extremist Neanderthals) like me.

Among other things, I thought I believed in civil rights, free markets, limited government (not no government), personal responsibility, rule of law, self-reliance, strong national defense, and the sovereignty of the United States.

Thanks to Mr. Avedon, I now know these aren’t my beliefs at all.

Mr. Avedon opened my eyes and now I see I’m a bigoted, greedy, hateful, pollution-loving hypocrite – on a good day.

Mr. Avedon performed a community service – perhaps even a national service – by listing his view of Republican rules, but conspicuous by their absence were his own economic, political, and social beliefs and rules.

I wonder why.