Today's conservatives could use some class

The utter disrespect and contempt shown for President Barack Obama by self-proclaimed "conservatives" and "patriots," even to the point of forbidding children to listen to him encouraging good study habits and staying in school, is shockingly disgraceful. In my 61 years, I have never witnessed anything like it. Although these same folks thoroughly loathed President Bill Clinton, even accusing him of murder, they at least did not stoop to stalking him at public appearances with loaded guns, as some of them have done to President Obama.

Therefore, I can only conclude that the much vaunted "rage" of the tea-bag crowd toward the president has little to do with "socialism," "death panels" or birth certificates, and almost everything to do with the color of his skin, and that the aforementioned absurdities have been concocted by these bigots to conceal this ugly truth, perhaps even from themselves. Is it merely coincidence that many of these malcontents are calling for secession from the United States, just like their slave-holding Confederate forebears?

In the election of 1960, the iconic film actor John Wayne, a lifelong conservative Republican, strongly supported the candidacy of Richard Nixon over that of John F. Kennedy. After Mr. Kennedy's victory, Mr. Wayne was asked by the press what he thought about it, and this is what he said: "I did not vote for the man, but he is my president now, and I hope he does a good job."

There is much that today's "conservatives" can learn from John Wayne, both about what it means to have class as well as what it means to be a patriot.

 

MICHAEL PASTORKOVICH
Oakland