"Oogedy boogedy"? Cute

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted 12-08-08 to the Sun Paper in response to Kathleen Parker's commentary and Jim Maher's letter published in the Sun.

I entered the debate on the problems with the GOP, "Readers speak out: the religious right and the election," Nov. 29, reacting to Kathleen Parker’s commentary in which she blamed the dismal election results on the "religious" problem, "the evangelical, right‑wing, oogedy‑boogedy branch of the GOP". She revisited this notion in her Dec. 5th commentary,” Them Oogedy‑Boogedy Blues”, as she felt obliged to define this new word, “oogedy-boogedy” that her friend had coined.
My description that,“Ms. Parker’s attempt to blame the “great big problem, GOD”, for the Republican Party’s woes, is classic liberal sleight of hand.” caused Jim Maher to laugh “out loud”, and onto your editorial page, Dec 2nd, “Kathleen Parker certainly no liberal”. This response to my challenge of her "conservative columnist" label, generated some twenty comments on baltimoresun.com.
In reviewing Parker’s archives for the past few months, I see that Mr. Maher was partially correct. She is not a liberal, but she is not a conservative. Parker puts out about nine commentaries each month. Most, of them only flirt with conservative principles. They seem to be sarcastic, witty, personality and policy critiques, which stay well within the status quo. They do not challenge on true conservative principles.
In foreign policy, has Ms Parker spoken out against our presence in the Iraq War, or Condi Rice’s statement to the Council on Foreign Relations, that the U.S. is in the business of spreading democracy? Has she written anything against the Federal Reserve, or Congress’s dereliction of duty to coin money and regulate its value? I also failed to find an opinion attacking the unpatriotic Patriot Act.
Maher was partially right, “Kathleen Parker certainly no liberal”. She is a neo-conservative! McCain is what our media and the national neo‑conservatives arranged for us to pick from. When defending conservative principles against liberals or neo-conservatives, is there really a difference?
Michael Hargadon

Response to Kathleen Parker

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted 11-21-08 to the Sun Paper in response to Kathleen Parker's commentary published in the Washington Post and the Sun.

Letter to the Editor

As part of my recent run for Congress in Maryland’s 7^th district, I renewed my subscription to the Sun Paper, after fifteen years of doing without it. The layout is different, but the content doesn’t seem to have changed, with shallow liberal opinions like Kathleen Parker’s, “Religious base is killing the GOP”. Her conclusion, “either the Republican Party needs a new base- or the nation may need a new party.” completely misses the real problem. The national Republican Party is not republican.

The national Republican Party has been taken over by a pack of neo-conservative wanta-be-democrats. Ms. Parker’s attempt to blame the “great big problem, GOD”, for the Republican Party’s woes, is classic liberal slight of hand.

GOD didn’t give the liberty-starved grassroots of the Republican Party, the worst possible candidate to represent our true values of: Sound money, Humble foreign policy, Limited Federal Government, and Personal Liberty. McCain is what our media and the national neo-conservatives arranged for us to pick from, so that writers, like Ms. Parker can poke fun at sacramentals, and make sophomoric religious references in cheap columns.

McCain voted for the bailout, and said nothing while the FED increased the Credit $600 billion dollars in the same week. He laughed about 100 more years of undeclared war in Iraq. He and his neo-conservative buddies spent money, and bailed out special interests, as well as the Democrats. The unpatriotic Patriot Act is part of being at war with everybody. This is before he would give our country away to illegal immigrants, or use fetuses for research. John McCain is not a grass root Republican!

The true Republican party was in Minneapolis at the Rally for the Republic. We packed the Target Arena on our own dimes, listened to libertarian and conservative speakers including Congressman Ron Paul, and we shook the rafters with chants of “End the Fed!” We were as diverse there, as was my campaign committee, comprised of Christians, atheists, Muslims and Jews. We were, and are the Republican grassroots.

During my campaign we approached issues from a constitutional basis. I can see however, why some people may rise up in defense of their beliefs. Religion is hard to keep “in the privacy in one’s heart” when we encourage 6 year olds to see the joys of sodomy, or our president of “change”, defends the latest technique in leaving a born child in a utility room to die. I hoped Ms. Parker was going to enlighten me to the meaning of this infamous “change”. She penned this brilliant line, “The change Barack promised has already occurred, which is why he won.” What does that mean?

It is sad to see that there has been little substantive change in the Sun in 15 years.