LETTERS
LETTERS to the Editor lesser evils! President Clinton has conducted five military adventures in four years: in Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and now Iraq again. Heaven knows what would come in a...
...Yes, Clinton, odious as he is, is better on some issues than Dole...
...But if we again help oust a moderate Democrat because he's not perfect, we risk installing a bigger pack of clowns...
...If the Republicans were in power, in both Congress and the White House, would we have seen the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Brady Bill, voluntary national service, the California desert national-park expansion, the increase in the minimum wage, and the set-aside of more than one million acres in Utah for an invaluable wilderness area...
...The fact that all presidents since Truman have assumed such absolute power, launching military actions and causing deaths, is no justification...
...Dole's giant tax cut would plunge the country back into deep voodoo doodoo...
...Alan Port Athens, Illinois I n his eye-opening piece "The i Clinton Courts" (September issue), John Nichols helps demolish the Clintonites' plea for progressives to support Clinton for the sake of the federal courts...
...Voters have a decision now...
...The window of opportunity has never been so wide...
...Is a President the world's leader, and may he kill those he dislikes...
...Although the Cold War is over, the situation is, in a way, even more dangerous now...
...First, the organization I founded was Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, not Women Against Nuclear Danger...
...I think I'll stick with the Promise Keepers...
...If elected, will you start a war or military action...
...The press should ask the Presidential candidates: "Under our Constitution, what branch of government initiates war...
...Judith Inskeep White Plains...
...If I am judged by the color of my skin, and judge others likewise, without a signpost such as the Promise Keepers to direct me towards racial harmony, then right on, dude, where do I sign up for the KKK or the Black Panthers or the Asian Boys...
...If Clinton wins, his vetoes may blunt the impact of the Gingrich crowd...
...I would like to address several issues the review brings up...
...The U.S...
...If that is tyranny...
...Do It for the Courts" appears to be a subspecies of "Vote the Lesser Evil," a familiar argument to which many (myself included) succumbed in 1992...
...Fenwick Anderson New Haven, Connecticut For as long as I can remember, The Progressive has been a forceful advocate for progressive principles and a critic of the political establishment...
...All letters may be edited for clarify and conciseness...
...Robert P. Cook Cerntos, California The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...Whatever his abilities as a legislative strategist, he is otherwise inept, from his incomplete sentences to his inability to name a favorite performer after visiting the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland...
...Nor has he grasped this lesson from the undeclared Vietnam conflict he shunned: Tragedy ensues when one man alone decides matters of peace and war, life and death...
...To paraphrase Al Gore from 1992, it's time for Dole's generation to go into retirement...
...Elmer S. Newman Cleveland, Ohio Disarm Now (appreciate very much the Igenerous review of my book A Desperate Passion (Samuel H. Day Jr., September issue...
...From judicial appointments to welfare "reform" to telecommunications giveaways, Clinton's me-too Republicanism falls far short of mere imperfection...
...the arsenals of both Russia and America are slill huge, enough to "overkill" us all many times...
...Reed should know there is a candidate who favors equal access to the ballot and media for all candidates and parties...
...That may explain why he tried to avoid deep involvement in war while undoing the Haitian coup—to the consternation of Jesse Helms...
...The press should challenge him: "By what authority do you make war when the Constitution gives that responsibility to Congress alone...
...Thus, the big flip-flop of the Clinton Era could be my own: I now plan to vote for Ralph Nader, who, no doubt to his disadvantage, stands firm with ordinary people and won't budge an inch...
...maybe Boston University chancellor John Silber would be, too...
...who advocates the development of alternative energy sources (the only way to get us out of the arms-for-oil business with all its tragic consequences), recycling, and environmentally safe consumer materials...
...labs are gearing up for sub-critical testing to develop new generations of nuclear weapons...
...Helen Caldicott East Hampton, New York An Opening Iwas impressed by Suzanne Pharr's account of her conversation with the Promise Keeper ("A Match Made in Heaven," August issue...
...The strategy of defeating Perot by ignoring him or otherwise declaring him unelectable may not work now that we know we were fooled...
...Therefore, as Day correctly points out in his review, our work is incomplete...
...Clinton can't be trusted...
...Now in the October issue, Adolph Reed Jr...
...tells us there are only three options: Clinton, Nader, or abstain...
...Jay Shuck St...
...Although I can give only two cheers for President Clinton, for Dole the best I can give is a yawn...
...Commoner, Johnson, Fulani—you blew them all off...
...But unless the United States behaves in a morally responsible fashion and pledges to abolish its nuclear arsenal, the global nuclear situation will be irretrievable...
...and whose personal integrity is unquestioned...
...If so, by what authority...
...If that is fear, let it reign in abundance...
...Heaven knows what would come in a second term...
...Paul, Minnesota The statement in your Comment section (October issue), "the differences between the two parties are little more than cosmetic," is just plain wrong...
...Lovinger San Francisco, California Despite Bill Clinton's personal failings and policy mistakes, I would argue that there's a good dollar's worth of differences between him and his Republican challenger...
...Clinton is plainly ignorant of the law he pledged to uphold and the fact that the power to initiate war "is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature" (James Madison), not in the war-eager executive...
...the nuclear nations steadfastly refuse to disarm despite the commitment they made when they resigned the Non-Proliferation Treaty last year, and India recently called their bluff when she refused to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty unless the other nuclear nations pledged to abolish their stockpiles within a specified time...
...But whenever Presidential candidates have run on the principles you advocate, you have greeted them with indifference or hostility...
...To reelect Clinton is to ratify illegal acts of war and intervention...
...Some of Clinton's accomplishments are well known: notably, gun-control measures, support for abortion rights, appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, signing the family-leave and motor-voter measures George Bush stymied, and his recent initiatives against tobacco...
...Can a President condemn dictators when he dictates war...
...And Dole is, in some areas, probably preferable to Newt Gingrich...
...Let's also remember that Clinton, unlike Bob Dole, opposed the Vietnam war and, as President, has taken steps toward normal relations with Vietnam...
...P.W...
...We can't go home and pretend the world is safe...
...Exit polls prove that if Americans had voted our first preference in 1992, we would have elected Ross Perot...
...Yet each of these choices would be so contrary to decency and common sense that I couldn't imagine choosing at all...
...Vor York A Closing My letter to you concerns Nancy Novosad's article ("God Squad," August issue...
...and that the "commander in chief" is nothing more than the "first general and admiral" (Alexander Hamilton), with no authority to commence a state of war...
...is presently decommissioning many of Russia's nuclear weapons...
...Like the merciful God we serve, the Promise Keepers are committed to the youth of America, to the families of America, to racial harmony in America, and to building America through our families, our churches, and our communities...
...Unlike George Bush, who fought down to the wire for dim bulbs like Clarence Thomas, Bipartisan Bill caves even before he nominates...
...Most nations now have nuclear reactors that manufacture plutonium, the fuel of nuclear weapons...
...Finally, would you rather have Bob Dole or Bill Clinton making appointments to the Supreme Court and the several federal courts...
...But the more substantial issue occurs in the last part of the review where Day says that toward the end of my book I did not make enough of the present nuclear danger...
...If it is wrong for men to father their children and raise their families with care, under the benevolent guidance of a loving Creator, rather than merely breed generations of unhappy, dysfunctional, angry children, then you have prudently pointed out the fallacy of the Promise Keepers' doctrine...
...If the present recalcitrant attitude continues, within ten years, I predict, scores of nations will have joined the nuclear club...
...I will have more of it...
...With Dole so far behind in the polls, an upset win would doubtless further embolden the extremists who control Congress...
...It's also true that Sam Nunn would be preferable to Dole...
...The situation is urgent...
...who has demonstrated by his courageous campaign against NAFTA that he places the future of America and its workers above the short-term profits of the corporate state...
...who would summarily end corporate welfare...
...I spend 99 percent of my time with people who think prettv much the \va\ I do...
...who would really separate our political process and tax code from corruption...
...It doesn't increase my understanding much...
...A smashing landslide might produce coattails large enough to eliminate some of the worst freshmen in the House and perhaps reverse their retrograde revolution entirely...
...Now I'm thinking how valuable it could have been for us both if I had tried for more than that...
...Clinton is not a man who can take "maybe" for an answer...
...I did once engage an opponent of gun control in a brief, restrained, and somewhat superficial conversation...
...multiple wrongs don't make a right...
...In this instance he is absolutely correct...
...If it is wrong to seek positive answers to societal issues by having grown men take responsibility for their individual actions, then you have rightly judged the Promise Keepers...
...Yes, I respect Ralph Nader, and to someone who proudly voted for Barry Commoner and the Citizens' Party in 1980, a Nader vote is a tempting thought...
...History has already passed the torch of leadership to us baby boomers...
...The problem with the lesser-evil argument is that it doesn't know when to quit...
Vol. 60 • November 1996 • No. 11
