Conservative tactics are backfiring

To the Editor:

After the 2000 election, I and many Democrats and Independents were devastated that George Bush won despite Al Gore receiving 300,000 more popular votes and the apparent hijacking of the presidency by the Supreme Court.

As time passed and on the urging of Gore, we fell in step with the other half of the country with the assurance of Bush that he was a "uniter, not a divider."

Years later we saw Bush for what he truly was and became disenchanted, if not hostile to his presidency, but only after he abused the Constitution and his trust with the American people. We felt he deserved our support partly on his assurance that he was a "centrist" and a moderate.

Barack Obama, in office for four months, has accomplished more than most presidents in their entire first term, and has increased his acceptance by the American people to 65 percent.

Meanwhile, many in the Republican Party, mostly the right wing, have engaged in a childish campaign of slanderous words, lies, deceit and outrageous charges, verging on the edge of unpatriotic, including direct interference with his efforts to conduct foreign policy. They have abused the concept of fair play and indulged themselves in a xenophobic concept that democratic elections are for suckers.

It is no surprise that some conservatives are shocked and surprised that those tactics, so successful in 2000 and 2004, no longer work, inasmuch as the American public has concluded that conservatives' interest and that of the public are on a diverging never intersecting track.

Obama is "Teflon coated" to their insulting attacks, and he just continues to sail along at the high approval rate.

Conservatives must confront the dilemma that more of the same will not succeed and they may soon make themselves irrelevant, if they are not so already. They may well find that the only reference to themselves in history is that they endured "self-annihilation" in the early 21st century after becoming increasingly shrill and offensive.

Our children will recall that an attempt was made to preserve the species by putting them in a protective environment with the result that they soon turned on each other, devouring themselves, with the end result being that they were consigned to the "slag heap" of history, along with the Edsel, hula hoop and black-and-white TV.

What else can you say about a group whose proclaimed leaders are Limbaugh, Cheney and Gingrich?

Richard Johnson

Wacouta

Tags: richard johnson, opinion, letters