Admonitions of Sol Alinsky

Prayer for progressives

Dear editor:

A compliment to Judy Gallagher for her letter to the editor recently. Judy punctured the thin gruel of character assassination practiced by our coterie of progressive writers, with grace and elegant style. Evidently there is a dearth of critical thinking about the problems of society among the ranks of those who consider themselves progressives.

When faced with someone like Rep. Tom Cotton, who actually has a point of view based in the logic of Natural Law and the Constitution, who is capable of defining problems in their essence and comes up with solutions that provide for government’s needs without impoverishing the taxpayer, progressives resort to name calling.

A congressman who understands that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” (First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) does not prohibit God from public institutions or the public square. In fact, the Founder’s sought God’s assistance and blessings throughout the public sphere as well as in private deliberations. Then, as now, it should be noted that “prohibiting the exercise thereof …” does not limit the “… free exercise thereof …” to our homes, churches or other private property and does not proscribe the “… free exercise thereof …” of religion from public property and institutions.

I pray that God will enlighten the minds of progressives so that they can exceed, in their comprehension of the English language, the limiting admonitions of Sol Alinsky, whose goal is to obfuscate rather than educate.

I pray God will help progressives move beyond process, spin, obfuscation, politics of personal destruction and lies to a genuine discussion of principles and the rationale behind the principles.

I pray God will guide progressives back to the process of amending the Constitution according to Article V of the Constitution rather than by majority rule in the Legislature, fiat in the executive and penumbras and emanations in the judiciary.

Lastly, I pray God will change Progressives’ modus operandi from the growth of government to the growth of the private economy based on a free market and property rights.

Tom Cotton can bring enlightenment to the Progressives, if only they would engage Tom with an open mind; they will be pleasantly surprised at how much they have in common. Most of the differences will be reduced to means rather than ends.

John “Jock” MacGregor
Hot Springs