Regarding The Wicked Genius That Is Liberalism, by Dennis Campbell:

I have just read your recent article equating liberalism with Nazism.  You must be one sorry and sick individual. As an active citizen who has been a moderate Democrat with many liberal friends, who are Republican and Democrat, I must say that you should seek out professional help! Democrats, who were considered liberal or forward thinking in their time, always supported “progressive” issues that would concern liberals and moderate liberals of today. It was Wilson, FDR, Truman and Kennedy who always supported progressive and liberal legislation and was opposed by the conservatives and the Neanderthals of their day. Lyndon Johnson, who was not raised as a northern liberal, certainly supported and authored national legislation that was quite progressive and historically helpful for all Americans. It would seem to me or any other forward-thinking person, that if it were up to the Conservatives (formerly known as Luddites), no progress would have been made. Do not forget that it was radicals and liberals that opposed Great Britain in 1775-6 and it was Northern liberals that started the abolitionist movement.

But I assume you would have supported slavery in the South! I also assume that you would support Trent Lott's statement that former Senator and Governor Strom Thurmond, a hypocrite who a raped young black woman and fathered an illegitimate child, should have been elected president in 1948, and all of our racial problems would have been solved! But of course the conservatives have had their opportunity in the Reagan era and they currently control the Congress along with the White House. So where were and are the legislative efforts to roll back such “nazi-like or commie-like” institutions like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, labor laws, the Securities Acts and all of the other reforms of the New Freedom, New Deal, New Frontier and the Great Society? Truthfully they would be abject fools to state such opposition to mainstream American values. Of course you make the argument that abortion was a Nazi-sponsored activity. Well the Nazis did not have abortion; they had euthanasia, which is much different and not comparable. In fact, the Nazis backed accelerated birth programs and had plans for “birthing factories.” This was done for the purpose of creating vast numbers of young little Nazis to populate places like Poland and maybe New Mexico! I see no connection between that type of practice and abortion. Unfortunately the vast amount of orphaned children in our society stays un-adopted and unloved in this country. For anyone to restrict a woman from not giving birth to a deformed child or to force a woman to carry to term a child from a rapist or a consequence of incest is repulsive. I assume you just want more unwanted, unloved and uncared for children to be brought into our society. I assume that you also oppose liberal support for “birth-control.”  I assume that is your next issue! The bottom line is that liberals support Federal protection of individual rights because the states have failed!

Post New Deal Democrats concentrated no more power in the Federal government then the Nixon, Reagan and Bush Administrations. So, in fact, the so-called activist liberal judges and justices have only been “extending” the rights of individuals that most conservatives should applaud. It is ironic that the conservatives that trumpet individualism, reject when it comes to women, minorities and the poor. It is also ironic that the conservatives who worship at the alter of the “free market” and deregulation, constantly look to monopolize, price fix, inside trade and stultify competition. It is the “liberal” regulators that insure the “free market” not the “good old boy” regulators like Dick Grasso who rape the markets!.

With regard to your views on race and liberalism, your opinion is laughable at best. Whether it was “Jim Crow” southern conservatives or Northern “de facto” conservatives, blacks or African-Americans were only helped by liberalism of both parties. It was liberals that started and initiated abolitionism, the underground railroad, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, and eventually the Civil Rights movement. Even though it moved slowly, it would have never moved at all if it was up to the “Jim Crow” element or the modern GOP and its new conservative leadership.  

We fought a Civil War over “state's rights” along with the preservation of the Union. In other words the Civil War decided the primacy of the Federal government. Judges have always had to decide between the right of an individual over the rights of the state. This goes back to John Marshall. Why should the state control a woman's body? Your smear of liberalism with the heinous taint of Nazism is typical fascist tactics. I note that conservative radio talk show hosts like Rush Libaugh refer to women's advocacy groups as femi-nazis. I also note that conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who has been a regular on Fox News and other mass media outlets has written a book accusing liberals has accused liberals of being traitors. I am sure that there is an incredible amount of documentation regarding conservatives bashing liberals as communist, but Nazis!

Kennedy was a progressive Democrat, that supported the Democratic concept of “containment” of communism, as authored by Truman with his Marshall Plan and his creation of NATO and the Truman Doctrine. Kennedy cut taxes because he had inherited an economic malaise coming from the Eisenhower Administration's record of three recessions. Maybe you will remember the Congressional elections of 1958 where the GOP lost more Senate seats than any time in the 20th Century (15)and more house seats (50) since the Depression. Interestingly when JFK cut taxes the economy started to grow. But he did not cut taxes on top of huge Eisenhower deficits. In other words times were different. Kennedy was not the most liberal President in history. But he would have changed with the times,in the same way that his brothers started to understand the new requirements of society.

Your tactics of “divide and conquer” will never succeed and your marginalized views will always remain on the fringe. By the way I do not believe that you were a formal liberal. That’s maybe the strangest thing about you!

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Wow, quite a letter. Full of much error and misinformation, of course, and when I have the time I will formulate a response. I will say, though, that my reference to liberals and Nazis was in response to the unending accusation from the left that conservatives are Nazis, when the social and political aims of the Nazis (socialists, remember) were much similar to those of modern liberals (certainly unrecognizable to JFK if he were to return) than Republicans. Of course, you have already used “fascist” in your letter. I will write soon. Thanks for responding.
 
Regards
Dennis Campbell