Thursday, November 7, 2013

Alas, Republicans do have a conscience !

Thomas B. Young III 's Nov. 5 letter - " Do Republicans have a conscience ? " - reminded me of  the fiery liberal spirit  showed  way back in the tumultuous year 1968 by Democratic  presidential candidate, Senator Robert F. Kennedy -soon to be assassinated.   Kennedy's political conscience was shaped by  traditional Catholic social philosophy and the existential humanism of the famous French writer, Albert Camus.
        I  agree with Mr. Young about the need for a progressive income tax. In general, we need a national debate on the roots of wealth in America.  The capitalist profit system is ruining and corrupting the very soul of the country. A scientific understanding of mass social misery is precluded by the fatuous assumption that PRIVATE PROPERTY in all its insidious forms is sacrosanct. Many of the intellectual elite are already convinced that Karl Marx was right about the  irrationality of the " free market " and the polarization of social classes.
           By the way, Republicans do have a conscience. Recall   Barry Goldwater's classic- " Conscience of a Conservative ". A  conscience  which can live  with this relentless   war on the poor and working class. Today even  the middle class is frightfully insecure. Robert Kennedy had a favorite word for all this injustice : unacceptable.